Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Monday February 24, 2020.
THE DAILY SIGNAL
Feb 24, 2020
Good morning from Washington, where the left is taking another swing at President Trump over Moscow’s interference in U.S. elections. Fred Lucas has details. In California, the state forces all taxpayers to pay for abortions. This is plain wrong, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy writes. Plus: Rep. Ted Budd on marriage as an antidote to poverty; the first daughter’s campaign to lift women around the world; and a warning about the folly sex change from someone who knows. On this date in 1868, the House of Representatives adopts 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine for removing his secretary of war.
Democrats are raising a ruckus about a news report that Russia plans to meddle in the 2020 presidential campaign to help reelect President Donald Trump.
Author and educator Booker T. Washington played a critical role in the promotion of education and free market enterprise among black Americans at the turn of the century.
Americans who graduate high school, start working, get married, and have children—in that order—are significantly less likely to fall into poverty than others.
The initiative aims to advance women’s empowerment and reach 50 million women in developing countries by 2025 by helping them start small businesses, attend vocational schools, and access loans.
I speak out because I consulted the “gender experts” when I had gender confusion, and they told me sex change was the only way to get relief, writes Walt Heyer.
The gun debate in Virginia took another turn after a Republican state senator said he was told that his attempt to pass an amendment to giving the state’s sheriff departments a 3 percent raise failed because of opposition by some sheriffs to Gov. Ralph Northam’s anti-gun agenda. Read more
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, has signed a book deal. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt confirmed that it acquired the rights to Yovanovitch’s… Read more
California Public Employees Retirement System officials failed to answer a congressman’s questions about its chief investment officer’s links to a Chinese program the FBI says is a spy tool. Read more
Global automakers are among the first to feel the impact of the coronavirus crisis, as the outbreak stalls production at Chinese plants, rattling the industry’s global supply chain. Read more
War bonds were once sold by the United States government to finance operations during World War II. Today, China has “virus bonds.” Chinese companies have issued numerous short-term, cheap bonds to finance “virus control”… Read more
White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said he’s seen no evidence of Russia interfering in the 2020 election to help President Donald Trump, according to an interview aired on ABC on Feb. 23. Read more
Shen Yun takes you on an extraordinary journey through China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired civilization. Exquisite beauty from the heavens, profound wisdom from dynasties past, timeless legends and ethnic traditions all spring to life through classical Chinese dance, enchanting live orchestral music, authentic costumes, and patented interactive backdrops. It is an immersive experience that will uplift your spirit and transport you to a magical world. It’s 5,000 years of civilization reborn!
Is ‘Made in USA’ Making a Comeback?
By James GorrieAmerican companies are starting to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Although it’s by no means a stampede back home, the rate of return, or the “reshoring” of U.S. firms, is increasing. Read more
Democrats, Media Continue to Be Russia’s Best Allies
By Roger L. SimonSince the election—or perhaps even before—of President Donald Trump, the Democratic Party, assisted or led by, as the case may be, the mainstream media have been Russia’s best domestic allies. Read more
PayPal to Cooperate With Bitcoin
By Valentin Schmid
(September 24, 2014)No, you won’t be able to select “pay with bitcoin,” when you pay for your next eBay item with PayPal. However, the announcement of electronic payment provider PayPal to let merchants handle Bitcoin through its Payments… Read more
Throughout all the twists and turns of the ever-growing Spygate scandal over the past four years, what has stood out the most has been the key roles played by four mysterious figures: Professor Joseph Mifsud, Professor Stefan Halper, FBI Special Agent Joseph Pientka and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
A 26-point lead over second place Joe Biden late into the count (NY Times). And Biden’s lead over Sanders in South Carolina, 20 points when the year began, is now down to about three (RCP). From the Wall Street Journal: Mr. Sanders will now go into the Palmetto State against the same divided field. All of the candidates except for Messrs. Sanders and Bloomberg (and the fading billionaire Tom Steyer ) lack the money to compete with more than token TV ads in the Super Tuesday states that follow three days after South Carolina. Mr. Bloomberg won’t be on the ballot until Super Tuesday (WSJ).
2.
Democrats in Panic Over Prospect of Sanders Win
South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, seen above, the House majority whip and the top-ranking black Democrat in Congress worries “I think it would be a real burden for us in these states or congressional districts that we have to do well in” (ABC News). Rich Lowry explains how Sanders is the U.S. version of socialists elsewhere who have brought their party down (Politico). From another story: His big win, after his capture of the popular vote in Iowa and New Hampshire, increases fears among some Democrats that a Sanders nomination could cost them both the White House and Congress. And the results could further split the sharply divided party about the best way forward. More moderate candidates were already fighting about who should step aside to allow one person to try to consolidate the vote against him (USA Today). Former Obama National Finance Committee Member Don Peebles says he will not support Sanders if he lands the nomination (Fox News). From John Fund: I am inclined to welcome a matchup between Sanders and Trump, not because I’m enamored of either of them but because the campaign would be fought over an important issue: Should America move rapidly toward socialism? That’s an important debate to have, and in between the name-calling, perhaps the country would render a useful and definitive answer (National Review). From Larry Elder: .@SenSanders is Thelma. The only question is who will be his Louise (Twitter). While Sanders feigns being a man bringing people together (Twitter) David French looks at his startlingly divisive view on abortion (French Press).
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3.
Sanders Defends Castro’s Communist Regime
In a bizarre, telling moment, he told Anderson Cooper over the weekend on 60 Minutes “We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?” (Fox News). The full interview (CBS News). From Ana Navarro-Cardenas: Castro regime’s been in power in Cuba for +60 yrs w/o free elections. They’ve killed, jailed, tortured thousands. They confiscated assets, expelled priests & nuns… And let’s be clear, Cubans weren’t exactly communicating by grunts. Most knew how to read (Twitter). From Katie Pavlich: Bernie Sanders is a communist & saying he’s a “Democratic socialist” gives him a pass 1) Wants govt to take over entire industries 2) Thinks bread lines full of ppl begging are signs of a good economy 3) Honeymooned in USSR 4) Lamented that communist USSR was better than USA (Twitter). From Donna Shalala: I’m hoping that in the future, Senator Sanders will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro (Twitter). The Miami Herald has jumped on this (Miami Herald). Sanders also called a pro-Israel group bigoted (The Hill).
4.
CNN: US Intelligence Community Overstated Assessment of 2020 Russian Interference
According to the story, the assessment omitted an “important nuance during a briefing with lawmakers earlier this month, three national security officials told CNN. The official, Shelby Pierson, told lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election with the goal of helping President Donald Trump get reelected.”
Fears of a pandemic are growing (NY Times). Italy had their first death and has 10 towns in lockdown (NY Post). Italy cancelled the Venice carnival due to the outbreak (NY Post). From another story: In South Korea, Singapore and Iran, clusters of infections are leading to a jump in cases of the new viral illness outside China. But it’s not the numbers that are worrying experts: It’s that increasingly they can’t trace where the clusters started (Washington Times). The New York Times posted a video showing Chinese citizens speaking out about the government’s effort to hide how bad the outbreak is (NY Times). From Senator Tom Cotton: “I have very low confidence in the state of Chinese politics because their government is still lying to the world about this deadly matter” (Washington Examiner).
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6.
U.S. Carbon Emissions are Dropping
From the story: Increased natural gas consumption helped bring down U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to a recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Chances are you haven’t heard. That’s because the mainstream media and environmentalists insist on condemning the Trump administration for championing fossil fuels even though the United States is doing a better job at reducing emissions than many other countries that signed the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
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A top-of-Sunburn birthday shoutout to our friend Matt Farrar of Strategic Digital Services. Matt and his partner, Joe Clements, were recently — and deservedly — featured in Florida Trend. As good as things are going for Matt (he and wife, Anna, are expecting their first child), this year’s birthday may be a little tough on him because he lost his beloved grandfather last year on this day. So … if you know Matt, be sure to drop him a line (Matt@StrategicDigitalServices.net) and wish him a happy birthday.
Happy Birthday to good guy Matt Farrar.
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Bloggedy blog blog — “Why can’t Farm Share, one of the genuine good guys, get a win in the budget?” via Peter Schorsch — Farm Share, a nonprofit genuine good-guy organization whose sole mission is to collect food that would otherwise go to waste and get it into the hands of people who need it. Farm Share’s heroic work often takes the form of providing emergency provisions after natural disasters like Hurricanes Michael and Irma and even during the federal government shutdown. Farm Share has established itself as such an important partner with the state of Florida that investing in it seems like a no-brainer. Yet, it sustained a $1 million cut last year, and funding is even lower in this year’s preliminary budgets. Hopefully, budget negotiators will see the light and grow back the state’s investment in a high-impact program like this one.
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An investigation of the agency that funnels money to groups that help domestic violence victims. An effort to give judges flexibility to deviate from mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses. A proposal to merge the state’s two smallest universities with its largest. These are but three of the dozens of important earth-shattering issues debated during the 2020 Legislation Session.
Who cares?
The Legislative Session is also about the tangential and the trivial, but it’s tangential and trivial, which drives the state capital.
That’s why Florida Politics is excited to announce the return of TallyMadness — an online voting competition to determine who is the “best” lobbyist in Florida.
Just like college basketball fans who fill out their brackets as part of “March Madness,” political aficionados in the capital and beyond can vote on a series of bracketed matchups pitting Florida’s top lobbyists against each other.
But this year, we’re mixing things up. This year we want to crown the top ‘young’ lobbyist in #FlaPol.
Young is a relative term, so for our purposes, this year’s TallyMadness is limited to those 40 years old and younger. Sorry, Dean Cannon, we see those boyish good looks, but you’re just a few years too old for this year’s competition.
Right now, we are still accepting nominations for who should make the big dance. From there, a select committee will then seed the lobbyists. Voters will select the winner of each matchup, with first-round voting beginning this weekend and lasting through the final days of Session.
If you would like to nominate a lobbyist or would like to serve on the select committee, please email me at Peter@FloridaPolitics.com.
Let the TallyMadness begin.
Today’s Sunrise
With just three weeks to go before sine die of the 2020 Legislative Session: Good luck to all the legislative staffers who’ll be pulling all-nighters during these final weeks.
Also, on today’s Sunrise:
— A House committee is raking the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence over the coals, as it holds a public hearing about its spending practices.
— The contentious bill to merge New College and Florida Poly with the University of Florida goes before the House Appropriations Committee. University administrators are circling the wagons to try to protect their schools. We’ll hear from the Governor, the House Speaker and the Senate President on “merger mania.” Florida Polytechnic University President Dr. Randy Avent speaks about the bill, of which he is no fan.
— We’ll hear from Gov. Ron DeSantis on the battle over E-Verify — one of his priorities this year. Sen. Tom Lee, who sponsored the Senate version of the E-Verify bill, said the changes are so bad, the Governor should veto it, but DeSantis says it’s still a work in progress
— And the further adventures of Florida Man, who is offering a $1,000 reward for a certain Florida Woman.
—@RealDonaldTrump: Looks like Crazy Bernie [Sanders] is doing well in the Great State of Nevada. [Joe] Biden & the rest look weak, & no way Mini Mike [Bloomberg] can restart his campaign after the worst debate performance in the history of Presidential Debates. Congratulations Bernie, & don’t let them take it away from you!
—@MarcoRubio: No reason to believe the #coronavirus is “contained” in #China. The numbers they are releasing are fake. Their primary goal isn’t addressing the virus, it’s their global image. We have no idea what the true numbers are, but they are, without a doubt, higher than what they admit to.
—@PreetBahara: Are you worried more about coronavirus or the general election?
—@Gangrey: So many reporters “on the ground” in Nevada. I want to hear from a reporter in a tree or on a trampoline.
—@MattGaetz: The @JoeBiden Nevada speech was pitiful. Democrats, welcome your new Socialist Overlord — @BernieSanders. See ya on the field in the General Election, Bernie.
—@DavidJollyFL: There’s a long way to go in this primary, and I get the varying Dem and pundit opinions re Bernie’s electability, but half the nation just elected a President who openly invited interference from Russia, bragged of sexual assaults, and promised increasing deficits and debt. I’m pretty certain this time around the other half of the nation could come around to supporting a candidate who’s perceived liability is that he’s openly pledging economic policies that raise taxes to expand health care, education and wages. Think about the November contrast
—@DonnaShalala: I’m hoping that in the future, Senator Sanders will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro.
—@FredGuttenburg: .@TomSteyer, you gave this your best shot. It was not enough. While I like you, I like our democracy more. NOW, it is time for you to reevaluate your campaign and exit. You do not have a path, and Bernie must be stopped.
—@MurphyMike: How many times does Elizabeth Warren have to come in 5th before she understands that she is not what D primary voters are looking for?
Tweet, tweet:
—@MrEvanRoss: Dear @BarackObama, It’s time to speak up. I rallied behind you and knocked on doors when I was a teenager because you gave me something to believe in. We need you to help save our party from impending doom. Time is running out. Don’t let @BernieSanders destroy what you built.
Tweet, tweet:
—@JeffreyBrandes: Sometimes, it feels like we live in Bizarro World. For example, the overregulation of e-cigarettes vs. traditional cigarettes. Those who advocate policies that would help maintain existing levels of cigarette smoking are somehow viewed as the “righteous.”
—@ChipLaMarca: Florida’s bottom-five legal climate costs the average family $4,442 each year in lawsuit abuse, according to the @FlChamber. Think about how much more productive your families and our state could be if we could eliminate these wasteful and corrupt practices.
Days until
Suits for Session — 1; 10th Democratic presidential debate in Charleston — 1; The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom covering technology, launches — 1; South Carolina Primaries — 5; Super Tuesday — 8; Super Tuesday II — 15; Last day of 2020 Session (maybe) — 18; 11th Democratic Debate in Phoenix — 20; Florida’s presidential primary — 22; Super Tuesday III — 22; “No Time to Die” premiers — 42; Florida TaxWatch Spring Board Meeting begins — 51; TaxWatch Principal Leadership Awards — 52; Florida Chamber Summit on Prosperity and Economic Opportunity — 81; “Top Gun: Maverick” premiers — 123; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins — 140; Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” premiers — 144; 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo start — 151; Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races — 176; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte — 182; First Presidential Debate in Indiana — 218; First Vice Presidential debate at the University of Utah — 226; Second Presidential Debate scheduled at the University of Michigan — 234; Third presidential debate at Belmont — 241; 2020 General Election — 253.
Top story
“Bernie Sanders decisively wins Nevada caucuses” via Matt Viser of The Washington Post — Sanders’ advantage in Nevada was overwhelming, with substantial leads in nearly every demographic group. Sanders expanded the electorate by attracting relatively large numbers of first-time caucusgoers, providing momentum as the race shifts into a critical stretch. He prevailed among those with college degrees and those without; those living in union and nonunion households; and in every age group except those over 65. He won more than half of Hispanic caucusgoers — almost four times as much support as his nearest rival, former Vice President Biden — and even narrowly prevailed among those who identified as moderate or conservative. Despite attacks on his health proposal by the powerful Culinary Union, he won in caucus sites filled with union members.
Bernie Sanders is gaining momentum.
“Sanders eviscerates conventional wisdom about why he can’t win” via Ryan Lizza of POLITICO — Sanders wasn’t supposed to be able to break through with black and brown voters, but the group was racially and ethnically diverse. (Sanders won 27% of African Americans and 53% of Hispanics across the state.) The Sanders movement is supposed to be limited to those crazy college kids. But there were plenty of older Sanders backers at the Bellagio chanting “Bernie.” But the Sanders victory still exploded a lot of myths. He was said to have a ceiling of 30% or so. Remarkably, against a much larger field of candidates, Sanders is poised to come close to the same level of support as he did in 2016 in a one-on-one race against Hillary Clinton, to whom he lost 47%-53%.
“How Sanders dominated in Nevada” via Jennifer Medina and Astead Herndon of The New York Times — By harnessing such a broad cross-section of voters, Sanders offered a preview of the path that he hopes to take to the Democratic presidential nomination: uniting an array of voting blocs in racially diverse states in the West and the South and in economically strapped parts of the Midwest and the Southwest, all behind the message of social and economic justice that he has preached for years. His advisers argue that he has a singular ability to energize voters who have felt secondary in the Democratic Party, like Latinos and younger people, and that Nevada proved as much — and could set the stage for strong performances in the Super Tuesday contests on March 3.
Takeaways from Nevada
With Sanders cruising to victory in the Nevada caucuses, here are a few takeaways from the Silver State:
— Sanders presidential bid gets rocket fuel: Sanders’ convincing win means there is no longer an asterisk next to his status as the front-runner in the race. He proved his strength with a broad coalition that included Latino voters, union members, and African Americans. Now Sanders claims three victories in a row heading into South Carolina next Saturday, and more important, Super Tuesday on March 3, when about one-third of the delegates needed for the nomination are at stake.
Casino workers hold up presidential preference cards for Bernie Sanders during a presidential caucus at the Bellagio. Image via AP.
— Pete Buttigieg issues warning about Sanders: In language uncharacteristically blunt, Buttigieg issued a warning to Democrats about the perils of nominating Sanders, whom he characterized as inflexible and whose ideas are not in the American mainstream. “Sen. Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans,” Buttigieg told supporters. He held himself out as the only viable alternative. “We can prioritize either ideological purity or inclusive victory,” Buttigieg said. Despite his forceful argument, there’s a serious risk to Buttigieg in the upcoming calendar. He will have to win over black voters in South Carolina, then pivot to a multistate primary with comparatively limited resources. Buttigieg put out a plea for $13 million from donors before Super Tuesday.
— Joe Biden has his back against a firewall: Biden was hoping Nevada would turn things around for him after a disastrous showing in Iowa and then New Hampshire. He argued that he’d do better in a more diverse state. But Biden again lost badly even as he told supporters at a union hall, “We’re alive and coming back, and we’re gonna win.” If Biden doesn’t win South Carolina, the rationale for his candidacy will much harder to maintain. In Las Vegas, he tried out a new rallying cry: “I ain’t a socialist. I ain’t a plutocrat. I’m a Democrat. And I’m proud of it.” Party loyalty may be all Biden has left.
— No bounce for Amy Klobuchar: The Minnesota Senator produced one of the few surprises of the race when she surged to a third-place finish in New Hampshire, announced that she had raised more than $12 million, and vowed to prove her doubters wrong. Her momentum proved short-lived. She finished well behind the leading candidates, and in the process, prompted questions about her viability. But in a speech to supporters in her home state of Minnesota, she was defiant and said she would continue. She even tried to make a virtue of the fact that Donald Trump mentioned her name at a rally. “By the way, for the first time ever, he mentioned me at a rally,” she said. “You know, I’ve arrived now. You know they must be worried.” Probably not.
— Not a great return on investment: Steyer bet heavily in Nevada, more than $12 million on advertising, and lost big, finishing sixth. Steyer has made strong appeals to minority voters, but in Nevada, failed decisively. But Steyer’s impact on the race could come next week in South Carolina, where he has spent even more money. Polls show that he has made significant inroads among African American voters. That would not be good news for Biden, who is counting on those votes to resuscitate his campaign.
Strong as ever
With three weeks to go in his second Legislative Session, DeSantis remains as popular as ever.
A new University of North Florida poll found 64% either strongly or somewhat approve of DeSantis, with only 21% disapproving.
Ron DeSantis is as popular as ever.
DeSantis, of course, outperformed the average among members of his own party — there’s no buyer’s remorse for 85% of Republicans. The Governor also continues to impress with his approval rating among Democrats. As it stands, he’s above water by double digits, 46%-35%.
“Similar to previous polls that we have conducted, the governor’s job approval ratings are quite high,” said Michael Binder, director of the UNF Public Opinion Research Lab. “The governor’s focus on issues that draw support from both parties, such as increased teacher pay and the environment, has garnered support from Democrats and Independents, while not alienated his Republican base.”
The high approval rating comes despite several so-called controversial policies he’s expected to sign this Legislative Session, including E-Verify if the Legislature can get a bill to his desk — though UNF found those proposals were rather popular, with three-quarters of respondents in favor of requiring public and private employers use the federal system to check their employees’ immigration status.
The same poll also bodes well for Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat. In fact, the only problem she’s facing is name-ID. UNF said 55% of those polled weren’t aware of her.
Of the 45% who were, 36% are fans, while only 9% found her lacking. Who wouldn’t take 4-to-1, given the opportunity?
Dateline: Tally
“DeSantis signs law enforcement parking exemption over HOAs” via Florida Politics — The bill (SB 476), sponsored by Clearwater Republican Ed Hooper will prohibit condominium, homeowners and cooperative associations from creating bylaws preventing law enforcement officers from parking their official vehicles in community areas where they would normally have a right to park. It applies to homeowners, tenants, or guests of the homeowner. “This common-sense legislation that prevents HOA’s and Condo Assoc. from stopping a law enforcement officer from parking their official vehicle in their driveway will make every neighborhood a little bit safer, and it cost the community zero,” Hooper said. “Common sense rules again and kudos to Gov. DeSantis and my colleagues in the Senate and House for unanimously approving SB 476.”
Assignment editors — DeSantis will participate in Florida A&M University’s Center for Access and Student Success preview, 9:30 a.m., Florida A&M University, Center for Access and Student Success, 1735 Wahnish Way, Tallahassee.
“Health care is bargaining chip — but for what?” via Christine Sexton of the News Service of Florida — House Speaker José Oliva has a health care wish list with about 13 different issues, and the Senate is beginning to move versions of them, indicating that negotiations between the House and Senate to end the 2020 Session are underway, and health care remains a bargaining chip. The question is: What does Oliva — who has made shaking up the health care industry status quo his priority — give Senate President Bill Galvano in return? The Senate’s first-round health care offer, released this week, includes pared-back versions, for now, of scope-of-practice expansions. In addition to the scope-of-practice bills, other issues Oliva said “without a doubt would have an immediate impact” include access to patient medical records and what he called “hospital conglomeration.”
Bill Galvano and José Oliva have health care as a bargaining chip. But for what?
“’So shady and disgusting’: Florida’s nonprofit pay scandal is worse than you think” via Samantha Gross and Mary Ellen Klas of the Tampa Bay Times — For the eight years she was in an abusive marriage, Lisa LeBel had no idea there was a shelter in Ocala to help people like her. When LeBel eventually left her relationship and got a job on staff with the Ocala Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Center, it was a massive part of her healing. But after two years, she saw a side of domestic violence centers in Florida that was “so shady and disgusting that I had to leave,” said LeBel of Dunnellon. LeBel enjoyed performing duties others wouldn’t do, like taking victims to court dates and often escorting them to prenatal doctors’ appointments and counseling sessions. But she only got paid for it if she lied.
“Blame for Florida’s nonprofit pay scandal points to state officials as hearings start” via Mary Ellen Klas of the Tampa Bay Times — In an extraordinary meeting, 10 current and former members of the board of directors of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence and two top executives will have the opportunity to explain their actions to legislators as they attempt to avoid criminal charges stemming from allegations of financial abuse. But their unique involvement in the excessive compensation package awarded to the coalition’s former CEO, Tiffany Carr, has created a conflict of interest that could spell criminal or civil charges. After some of the officials give depositions, the House Committee on Public Integrity and Ethics will question Sandy Barnett, chief operating officer of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Patricia Duarte, chief financial officer, during a five-hour hearing.
Legislation
First on #FlaPol — “Univ. of Florida gets Florida Poly and New College under latest version of controversial legislation” via Sarah Mueller of Florida Politics — In a sudden shift, the chair of the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee is now proposing that the state’s smallest universities be absorbed into the flagship University of Florida. Rep. Randy Fine filed a proposed committee substitute to HB 7078 that substantially changes the controversial plan that has rankled the higher education system. The new legislation gives Florida Polytechnic University and New College to the University of Florida and removes the provisions regarding EASE and ABLE. That means those programs giving students non-need-based scholarships to go to private colleges will not be cut. Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida had estimated 63% of the 43,000 students receiving EASE grants would lose their scholarships.
Randy Fine put a big wrinkle in his proposal for merging two of the state’s smallest universities.
“Florida Republicans quietly stir up more election mischief” via Steve Bousquet of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — An elections bill moving through the Senate has received almost no attention, which is the way lawmakers like it. Senate Bill 1372 makes some housekeeping changes that election supervisors want. But then it goes beyond what they requested by allowing political parties to assign poll watchers to monitor voting at the polls, no matter where they live in Florida. Current law restricts poll watchers to the county where they vote. This is an obvious attempt to make it easier to recruit a lot more poll watchers who can legally challenge any voter’s eligibility to cast a ballot.
“House could scrutinize E-Verify plan this week” via the News Service of Florida — House Speaker Oliva told reporters the proposal might be heard in committee next week: “We want to see what comes over from the Senate, but it is possible next week to see some movement on that.” A Senate committee approved a bill (SB 664) that would require all public and private employers to use E-Verify, a federal program that checks the legal eligibility of new workers. The bill includes language that would give employers the option to use a “substantially equivalent” system in place of E-Verify, a provision that Sen.Lee, the sponsor of the measure, said it “guts the bill.” The Governor told reporters he remains confident the Republican-dominated Legislature will send him an E-Verify bill, as requested.
“Inmate early release bill to be heard during closing weeks of Session” via Blaise Gainey of WFSU — One measure running out of time would allow nonviolent prisoners to be released sooner. It would increase the amount of time off for good behavior. Gain time bill sponsors are trying to rally support. Sponsor Rep. Dianne Hart says the legislation would help reduce the prison population by making thousands of people eligible for an earlier release. “Currently, there are over 94,000 inmates behind bars in the state of Florida. 44% of those are considered nonviolent offenders,” Hart said. Offenders with a nonviolent felony could earn up to 35% off their sentence. Currently, they can only earn up to 15%. Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch said last year the high population of inmates has made conditions worse.
“Senate moves on compensation in wrongful incarceration” via the News Service of Florida — The Senate is slated to take up a proposal that would provide $2.15 million to a man who spent 43 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in a murder and attempted murder in 1976 in Jacksonville. The Senate has included the measure (SB 28) on a list of bills to consider during a Wednesday floor session. The proposal, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Audrey Gibson, would provide $50,000 for each year that Clifford Williams spent in prison. A House version of the bill (HB 6507), sponsored by Rep. Kimberly Daniels, has sailed through two committees and awaits a hearing in the Judiciary Committee.
Clifford Williams, a former Florida death row inmate, is closer to compensation for 42 years of imprisonment.
“Lawmakers could give a second chance to more juvenile offenders” via Florida Politics — Bills that would provide more Florida kids with a second chance is primed for a floor vote in both chambers. SB 700, by Republican Sen. Keith Perry, and HB 615 by Democratic Rep. Clovis Watson, would change the way the state expunges juvenile records, allowing more kids to enter adulthood without a record that could disqualify them from specific jobs, college scholarships or even military service. Supporters of the proposal say the current system stops juvenile offenders from leaving their pasts behind. According to the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, a prime supporter of the bills, the change would make 21,773 Florida minors eligible for juvenile diversion expunction right away.
“On two bills, Senate Democrats have a chance to be relevant — for a change” via the Orlando Sentinel editorial board — Two bills moving through the Senate will show whether Democrats are willing to use that power, or whether these supposed watchdogs will yet again roll over for a few budget table scraps from Republican leaders. One bill would impose term limits on school boards throughout the state. In this instance, the bill might have some redeeming quality if it allowed voters in each county to decide for themselves whether they want their school board to be term-limited. Nope. In our nanny state, where legislators always know best, they’ve decided individual counties should have no say in the matter. In the 40-member Senate, Republicans have 23 members — one shy of the 24 vote Supermajority required.
Today in Capitol
The House Public Integrity & Ethics Committee meets for a public forum on the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 p.m., Room 404, House Office Building.
Happening today — The Florida Aquarium celebrates its 25th anniversary in The Capitol, 10:30 a.m., 2nd-floor Rotunda. You can meet the Aquarium’s penguins from 10:45 to 11:15 a.m. and from 1:30 to 2 p.m.
Sunshine State primary
Voters are voting — According to the Florida Division of Elections, as of Saturday afternoon, Supervisors of Elections have a total of 988,594 Republican vote-by-mail ballots; 389,054 have returned, 591,862 are outstanding, and 7,678 are unsent. As for Democrats, supervisors have a total of 1,084,486 vote-by-mail ballots; 224,406 have returned, 848,898 are outstanding, and 11,182 are unsent. Those classified as “other,” 245,029 vote-by-mail ballots, 8,644 have returned, 38,433 are outstanding, and 197,952 are unsent.
“Florida tells mail voters to put personal information on outside of ballot envelopes, where it can be seen — or taken — by anyone” via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Floridians voting by mail in 2020 elections are being asked to put their email addresses and home and mobile phone numbers, along with their signatures, on the outside of the ballot envelopes they mail back to the elections office — allowing the information to be seen and harvested by anyone who comes in contact with the envelope. The request for contact information was added by the Legislature and Governor last year as part of a wide-ranging law that changed several aspects of the way Florida elections are run.
“The Republican Party is sending ‘deceptive’ census forms nationwide, including in Florida” via Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times — Just as the 2020 U.S. Census count is about to begin, the Republican National Committee is sending people across the country a letter it confusingly labeled as a “2020 Congressional District Census.” Like the census, the piece of mail includes a survey. But unlike the official decennial questionnaire, which the federal government will soon send out to millions of Americans, this one is asking for donations to the GOP and a loyalty pledge to with the thank you, Trump. And it’s “Commissioned by the Republican Party,” according to the form, not the U.S. Department of Commerce. The mailer also appeared in Florida this month. “You’ve been selected to represent voters in Florida’s 2nd Congressional District,” it says.
The RNC is sending fundraising material that looks like census forms.
“Orange County sent incorrect voter registration data the state of Florida” via Daniel Rivero of WLRN — The Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office is blaming a widely used elections software company for a false report to the state that nearly a quarter-million registered voters had been removed from the county’s voting rolls. That incorrect number made it into a monthly data report by the Florida Division of Elections. The report lists 257,698 “active” voters that were removed from the voting rolls across the state in January. Out of that total number, 239,147 of the removed voters were from Orange County alone. The published data would have meant that Orange County removed more than 150 times the total number of voters as compared to the county with the second-most voters removed.
“Will debate curb Mike Bloomberg’s Florida momentum?” via Zac Anderson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune — Bloomberg has been on the rise nationally, polling well enough to make his first debate appearance last week. The billionaire former mayor of New York is spending big, forgoing the early states to focus on Florida and other primary contests that are later in the calendar and have larger delegate prizes. But Bloomberg’s shock and awe strategy of saturating the airwaves and social media channels with advertising may have limits. Bloomberg hasn’t interacted much with voters on the ground or with his fellow candidates, and it showed in his debate performance, which was widely panned. Bloomberg’s strategy has allowed him to avoid answering a lot of tough questions about his record, a vetting that other candidates already have experienced.
“Bloomberg is ahead in Florida’s brick-and-mortar race, but does it matter?” via Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times — Bloomberg has 14 offices across the state, from Tallahassee to Little Havana and in both St. Petersburg and Tampa, with plans to open six more in the coming days. … The only other candidate with any real footprint here is Elizabeth Warren. The Massachusetts senator was the first to open a field office in the state and she now has two: in Orlando and Miami. … Until the focus shifts to Florida, the presidential campaigns will rely on other ingredients that are harder to measure — but are much more important — than square footage. Sanders, for example, has been recruiting passionate volunteers since his last campaign for president. They have assembled in living rooms and bars, calling voters and making their presence felt at progressive and community events all over the state since 2016.
New ads
Buttigieg — “Progress”:
More 2020
“Sanders defends Fidel Castro’s socialist Cuba: ‘Unfair to simply say everything is bad’” via Fox News — Speaking to CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, pointed to social welfare programs introduced under Castro’s regime that he described as redeeming, despite the communist dictator’s often repressive human-rights violations against Cubans. “We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?” Sanders told Anderson Cooper.
“Biden claims comeback despite distant second finish to Sanders” via Marc Caputo of POLITICO — After dismal fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden sounded a victorious note when he took the stage at a union hall here and declared a comeback — even though fewer than a 10% of the precincts were in and showed him in a distant second to Sanders. “I know we don’t know the final results yet, but I feel really good,” Biden said. “You put me in a position. You know, the press is ready to declare people dead quickly, but we’re alive, and we’re coming back, and we’re going to win.” At one point, a member of the crowd yelled that the 77-year-old was “the comeback kid!”
“Jim Clyburn poised to endorse Biden in big boost before South Carolina primary” via Natasha Korecki, Heather Caygle, Marc Caputo and Laura Barrón-López of POLITICO — The planned endorsement is expected three days ahead of the state’s Saturday primary, giving Biden an important boost in a state that will likely determine the fate of his candidacy. Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, has long been close with Biden and has been open about his affinity for the former vice president during the Democratic primary. Several panicked Democrats, including one with direct knowledge of the planned endorsement, said they see it as a last-ditch effort to blunt Sanders’ momentum before he runs away with the nomination.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn is endorsing Joe Biden in South Carolina.
“Warren, Biden and Buttigieg dangerously close to going broke” via Maggie Severns of POLITICO — They’re up against well-funded machines threatening to dominate the Democratic race: Sanders, whose recent rise in the polls has come during a major spending streak fueled by his online donors, and billionaire Bloomberg, whose fortune has vaulted him into the middle of the campaign to take on Trump. While Sanders started February with nearly $17 million in the bank, according to campaign finance disclosures filed Thursday night, his next closest rival (nonbillionaire class) was Biden, at $7.1 million. Warren was closest to the red, with just $2.3 million left in her account, while Buttigieg ($6.6 million) and Klobuchar ($2.9 million) were in between.
“Biden adds a claim to his biography: An arrest in South Africa” via Katie Glueck and Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times — “This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid,” Biden said at a campaign event in South Carolina last week. “I had the great honor of meeting him. I had the great honor of being arrested with our U.N. ambassador on the streets of Soweto, trying to get to see him on Robbens Island.” But if Biden, then a United States Senator from Delaware, was in fact, arrested while trying to visit Mandela, he did not mention it in his 2007 memoir when writing about a 1970s trip to South Africa, and he has not spoken of it prominently on the 2020 campaign trail.
“The Democratic establishment is broken” via Edward-Isaac Dovere of The Atlantic — Many experienced Democrats worry not just that the party won’t unite and that Sanders will lose to Trump, but that having a democratic socialist at the top of the ticket will squash their hopes of winning new Senate seats, and perhaps even cost them a few existing ones in states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Some worry that they’ll even lose the House majority. A cynical, but perhaps realistic, argument has been embedded in Sanders’s campaign from the start: He’s the most electable because he’ll get all the people who would vote against Trump no matter who the Democratic nominee is. But he’s also the only one who will be able to activate an entirely different faction of voters.
Many Democrats worry the Party will not unite behind Bernie Sanders.
“Down-ballot Republicans watch with glee as Sanders gains steam” via Alex Isenstadt of POLITICO — Republicans up and down the ballot are already casting their Democratic rivals as socialist puppets who would remake the economy in Sanders’ collectivist vision. The play is straightforward: Trump has repelled college-educated suburban voters since he took office; Republicans want to win them back by arguing the alternative is worse. And in the wake of Sanders’ New Hampshire primary win, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which focuses on state legislative races, has been running digital ads asking whether down-ballot Democrats in more than a half-dozen states are “feeling burned yet” — a take on the Sanders mantra, “Feel the Bern.”
“Priorities USA lining up anti-Donald Trump TV time in I-4 corridor” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Priorities USA, the largest Democratic PAC in the U.S., announced it would spend up to $12.5 million in Florida on TV and millions of dollars more in digital advertising this year, starting as early as late March, seeking to define Trump and counter any advertising by the President’s reelection campaign. To date, the only presidential campaign commercials appearing on local TV in Florida have been those of Bloomberg. That is likely to change in the coming weeks as Democratic candidates turn attention to Florida and its March 17 primary. The organization signed contracts in the past couple of weeks to reserve airtime between late March and mid-July on stations in Orlando, Tampa Bay, Sarasota, and Fort Myers.
Meanwhile … “Trump in Palm Beach: for 2020 fundraising, Mar-a-Lago is a money machine” via Christine Stapleton of the Palm Beach Post — “Fundraising is no longer the same since he took over as president,” said Teresa Dailey, a Palm Beach-based GOP fundraiser. “He’s got his own venue, he’s an icon, everybody wants to be there. It’s not like it used to be where you have to work for it.” Since October 2017, Trump has attended at least 48 intimate gatherings with the Republican Party’s elite donors. Ten of those fundraisers were at Mar-a-Lago. The next event is scheduled for March 25 when first lady Melania Trump — rarely seen during the 2016 campaign — will host her first fundraiser at the Southern White House. Already, events at Mar-a-Lago have raised tens of millions of dollars for Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Statewide
“State asks for hold on Amendment 4 voter restoration ruling” via the News Service of Florida — DeSantis asked an appeals court to continue preventing felons from voting while the state appeals a federal judge’s finding that a law requiring indigent felons to pay “legal, financial obligations” to be eligible to vote is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s October ruling that the state cannot deny the right to vote to felons who are “genuinely unable to pay” court-ordered financial obligations. DeSantis wants the full appeals court to review the case in what is known as an “en banc” hearing. The Florida law “unconstitutionally punishes a class of felons based only on their wealth,” the three-judge panel wrote.
Assignment editors — Attorney General Ashley Moody joins Congressman Vern Buchanan for a media availability in advance of a meeting of the Statewide Task Force on Opioid Abuse, 12:30 p.m., Manatee Memorial Hospital, 206 Second St. East, Bradenton.
“Florida residents say they’re caught in bureaucratic red tape 16 months after Hurricane Michael” via James Call of the Tallahassee Democrat — After whipping the region with 155 mph winds, residents were burdened with the cleanup of more than 10 million cubic yards of fallen trees and building debris. That’s enough to fill eight Empire State buildings. They continue to turn their eyes to Washington and Tallahassee, where plans and policies still are being developed on how to spend roughly $1 billion in recovery money. Folks like Roy Baker in Marianna, David Warriner in Port St. Joe, and Deborah Mobley in Bonifay will follow state budget negotiations that will decide the fate of more than $415 million earmarked for disaster relief over the next few weeks.
“500 days: Mexico Beach, county ‘growing back and not backing up’” via Jacqueline Bostick of the Panama City News-Herald — Saturday marked the 500th-day of Hurricane Michael. After millions of cubic yards of debris have been pushed away, the crests of progress are the wave of development becomes more visible for the Mexico Beach shoreline. “There’s been a lot of progress in some places, and then there’s other places it feels it just hasn’t moved a heck of a lot,” said Mexico Beach City Manager Mario Gisbert. The opening up of the canal, marina, boat ramp, and beach access points are “great morale boosters,” he said. However, many property owners are still fighting with insurance companies, causing a stall in development — “and those things make it tough to say things are great.” “Things are better,” he said, emphasizing the last word.
Hurricane Michael +500 days, Mexico Beach is coming back slowly. Image via Panama City News-Herald.
“Court victory is hollow for top advocate of Amendment 4. He explains why” via Lawrence Mower of the Tampa Bay Times — Desmond Meade, the man who led the historic 2018 initiative, wasn’t celebrating. A few hours after the ruling was announced, Meade took to Facebook Live and sighed. “It might surprise you,” he told his audience, “but it kind of made me sad.” For Meade, the hype and partisanship over Amendment 4 have been a “roller coaster” for felons. He fears they will become exhausted by each development in the case and give up trying to register. Overall, he said, the original “apolitical” intentions behind his measure have been lost. It’s also become yet another wedge issue pitting Republicans against Democrats in a critical election year.
“Florida voucher critics: spend money on public schools instead” via Kate Santich and Annie Martin of the Orlando Sentinel — “We’re already in the bottom echelon of the 50 states for per-pupil funding and teacher salaries,” said Rev. Rachel Gunter Shapard of Jacksonville, co-founder of Pastors for Florida Children. “We oppose the diverting of any of taxpayer funds, and we oppose the unfair treatment of students for whatever reason — whether it’s around sexual orientation or physical abilities or learning challenges.” Supporters of the vouchers have argued that low-income black and Latino children are most often the recipients of the program, and some have labeled opponents as racist. Many opponents contend there’s a greater issue looming — the large and expanding private-school voucher system in Florida that they say violates the intended separation of church and state.
“At Hillsborough gun show, people wonder: what loophole do lawmakers want to close?” via Zachary Sampson of the Tampa Bay Times — The legislation would make anyone conducting a private sale at a gun show — one citizen to another — go to a licensed dealer’s booth to perform an official background check first. In Hillsborough County, an ordinance requires background checks for private sales, and Khaled Akkawi, the owner of the Shoot Straight gun store chain, said he decided several years ago to encourage them at his shows. The law proposed by Lee would allow most private sales to take place if a gun owner looks at the buyer’s ID and has them fill out a form, with questions about whether they’re a felon or a fugitive, to be signed and witnessed by a notary public.
“Renew Financial has completed $100M+ in Florida resiliency projects” via Florida Politics — Renew Financial provides financing for a variety of resilience and storm-hardening upgrades through the property assessed clean energy program, or PACE. Unlike traditional bank loans, PACE financing allows consumers to pay back the cost of the upgrades through assessments on their property tax bill. With the prospect of climate change and powerful storms continuing to grow, homeowners across the Sunshine State are increasingly turning to PACE to make critical safety improvements to their properties. Renew Financial said the most popular resilience-related projects they fund include wind-resilient roofs, roof-to-wall reinforcements, and hurricane impact windows and doors. In addition to bolstering the structure, such upgrades reduce home insurance premiums, and collectively avoid tens of millions in potential property damage.
Booze poll
A new poll commissioned by the Center for Alcohol Policy on alcohol regulation found that Floridians overwhelmingly support state regulation of alcohol, with 91% in agreement that it is very important to keep the alcohol industry regulated. This support is roughly 5% higher than a national poll on the same topic.
While most issues find a partisan divide, it is not true regarding alcohol: 91% of Republicans, 90% of Democrats and 91% of Independents all agree that the alcohol industry should remain regulated. In Florida, nearly 9 in 10 voters (88%) are satisfied with existing alcohol regulations. Only 8% believe the rules are too restricted. A vast majority (68%) believe regulations are “just about right” or “too lenient” (12%). This level of support and satisfaction tops the national data.
Also, the survey found that Florida voters want alcohol regulations to prioritize safety. Americans say lawmakers should prioritize “protecting the health and public safety” over “creating jobs and improving the economy” or “offering more choices and lower prices.” This support for protecting health and public safety also crosses party lines.
D.C. matters
“Trump administration plans to raise seasonal-worker cap” via Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal — The Department of Homeland Security plans to announce the additional seasonal-worker visas next week, an administration official said. They will become available in two waves: the first 20,000 will be immediately available, while employers can apply for the remainder for jobs beginning June 1. It wasn’t clear whether the White House has fully signed off on the numbers, and an administration official cautioned they could change. The additional visas are being made available ahead of the summer, when demand for short-term work is typically highest.
“New White House personnel chief tells Cabinet liaisons to target Never Trumpers” via Jonathan Swan and Alayna Treene of Axios — Johnny McEntee called in White House liaisons from cabinet agencies for an introductory meeting in which he asked them to identify political appointees across the U.S. government who are believed to be anti-Trump, three sources familiar with the meeting tell Axios. McEntee, a 29-year-old former body man to Trump who was fired in 2018 by then-Chief of Staff John Kelly but recently rehired — and promoted to head the presidential personnel office — foreshadowed sweeping personnel changes across government. Several administration officials were already targeted in a post-impeachment blitz. Trump has also promoted or brought back several people he considers core loyalists — including McEntee, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell.
Johnny McEntee has his marching orders, to weed out never-Trumpers.
“Rick Wilson compares Trump’s presidency to a ‘coke party’” via Sarah Mueller of Florida Politics — Wilson pitches “Running Against the Devil” as a road map to defeating Trump in November. He argues that, as a conservative, Trump is a proximate threat to the country, despite aspects of his presidency that appeal to Republicans. “It’s kind of like that big coke party,” he said. “Friday night, it sounds great, and you’re having a ball, and Saturday there’s a dead hooker in the trunk of the car.” Wilson says Trump is beatable, but Democrats are doing more to get him reelected than not. He says Democrats are racing headlong into nominating independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, which he predicts will be reelection insurance for Trump.
“Rick Scott blasts another D.C. lobbying firm for representing Nicolás Maduro government in U.S.” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Scott is hammering Amsterdam & Partners LLP after the law firm took over a contract to represent a member of the Maduro government. The law firm Foley & Lardner originally handled that contract. The contract tasked the firm to work on behalf of Venezuelan Attorney General Reinaldo Muñoz Pedroza, who was appointed Attorney General by Maduro, though the United States no longer recognizes Maduro’s government as legitimate. Maduro dispatched Muñoz Pedroza in the past to intervene in U.S. court cases to recover disputed funds for the Maduro government. After outcry — including from Scott himself — Foley & Lardner dropped the contract.
“Matt Gaetz says creation of ‘cyber coast’ in sight, but local schools need to improve” via Jim Little of the Pensacola News Journal — Gaetz said he expects hundreds of cybersecurity jobs to come to Northwest Florida this year and the only thing standing in the way of creating a “cyber coast” is the local school system. The Republican Congressman who represents Northwest Florida spoke to a crowd of more than 150 people at what was officially billed as a meeting of the Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce at Hub Stacey’s in Innerarity Point. Gaetz said that military connection is key to future economic development in the Pensacola region, Gaetz said that the cybersecurity field is only going to grow and he wants to increase federal investment in workforce development in cybersecurity.
“From security grants to rare diseases, Ted Deutch to hit several topics during district events” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Deutch is set to present an award to Spanish River teacher Mary Fisher and her biotech class. The class won a $10,000 Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Award for their work on a prototype to measure and detect sepsis symptoms. At 9 a.m., the Representative is hosting a workshop on the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. That program is set up under the Department of Homeland Security to cover security costs for nonprofits, which may be at risk of a terror attack. At noon on Tuesday, Deutch will visit with a pair of his constituents, David and Stacey Ogman, who set up the Jordan Avi Ogman Foundation on behalf of their young child. Saturday, Feb. 29 is Rare Disease Day.
Ted Deutch has a large agenda for next week.
“Low-income immigrants are at greater risk of deportation” via Monique Madan of the Miami Herald — Starting Monday, low-income immigrants who are on public benefits — or will one day need them — will be denied a visa or green card, despite having entered the U.S. legally. The Trump administration’s new “public charge rule” — which favors wealthier immigrants seeking permanent status and puts the poor at a disadvantage, analysts and scholars say — will keep people who need food stamps, housing vouchers, Supplemental Social Security Income and Medicaid from getting their green cards because they’d be considered a financial burden to the U.S. Starting Feb, 24, a family of four would have to make twice as more money —$60,000 — to be in the clear, compared to the government’s previous income threshold of about $32,000.
Coronavirus
“White House fears coronavirus could shape Trump’s fortunes” via Dan Diamond and Adam Cancryn of POLITICO — Though Trump in public has downplayed the virus, privately he has voiced his own anxieties, rebuking public health leaders over last week’s decision to fly home 14 Americans who tested positive for the virus while aboard a cruise ship off Japan. Trump was worried that transporting the Americans to the United States without adequate precautions could create new risks, the individuals said. There has been tension within the Trump administration over the response so far. Four officials acknowledged that the process has hit bumps, with high-pressure debates over resources and planning occasionally reopening fault lines between the White House and HHS that first emerged over Trump’s broader health agenda.
Donald Trump’s fortunes could hinge on coronavirus.
“White House to ask Congress for emergency coronavirus funding” via Dan Diamond of POLITICO — The White House will soon ask Congress for emergency funds to fight the coronavirus outbreak, after weeks of hesitation by the administration to press for additional funding, said four individuals with knowledge of the pending request. However, the amount could be significantly lower than some public health officials have argued is necessary — potentially as little as $1 billion, said two individuals, which could be rapidly exhausted by the development of potential vaccines, widespread lab tests, and numerous other investments. The pending request is still preliminary, and the sum could change. A congressional aide said that lawmakers had been told to expect the request in the coming days.
“Marco Rubio backs permanent federal funding to deal with public health emergencies like coronavirus” via Kevin Derby of Florida Daily — Last week, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy brought out the “Public Health Emergency Response and Accountability Act” and Rubio threw his support behind it. Other co-sponsors include U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz, Dick Durbin, Tina Smith and Angus King. Rubio weighed in on the bill: “When public health emergencies like the coronavirus occur, the United States should be prepared to respond quickly and effectively. This legislation would ensure that the United States is equipped with the necessary funding to protect our citizens when future public health emergencies occur.”
“Charlie Crist calls for Florida Surgeon General to release information on coronavirus” via Florida Politics — The Department of Health said there are no reported cases of coronavirus in Florida. Tampa General Hospital revealed last week it is monitoring patients with flu-like symptoms. “We have fully engaged our health community, hospitals, medical providers and County Health Departments to respond. We are also working lockstep with the Centers for Disease Control and Surveillance (CDC). There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Florida,” responded Surgeon General Scott Rivkees. But Crist believes the global health emergency is more important than the state statute that allows the DOH to work in secret. In a letter sent from Crist’s office to Rivkees, he believes Floridians are being kept from the truth and wants the state’s DOH to be transparent.
“Coronavirus threatens shortages of about 150 drugs” via Caitlin Owens of Axios — About 150 prescription drugs — including antibiotics, generics and some branded drugs without alternatives — are at risk of shortage if the coronavirus outbreak in China worsens, according to two sources familiar with a list of at-risk drugs compiled by the Food and Drug Administration. China is a huge supplier of the ingredients used to make drugs sold in the U.S. If the virus decreases China’s production capability, Americans who rely on the drugs made from these ingredients could be in trouble. The FDA said in a statement that it’s “keenly aware that the outbreak could impact the medical product supply chain,” and has devoted additional resources toward identifying potential vulnerabilities to U.S. medical products stemming specifically from the outbreak.
“As coronavirus menace unfolds, CEOs watch and wait” via the Miami Herald — “For the school I am involved with … it appears fortuitous that a partnership we considered in China did not materialize.” — Andy Ansin, vice president, Sunbeam Properties. “We are fortunate that our international services haven’t been affected nor the locations we tend to travel to our areas of concern.” — Michael Balaban, president, CEO, Jewish Federation of Broward County. “The virus has not impacted our business. While several of our South and Central American clients export seafood and produce to China, we have not seen a decrease in their export activities to date.” — Carlos R. Fernandez-Guzman, president, CEO, Pacific National Bank (PNB).
Mother Nature
“Florida fishermen fret as shark fin sale ban moves forward” via Danielle Ivanov of Fresh Take Florida — In the U.S., shark finning has been outlawed since the Shark Finning Prohibition Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on Dec. 21, 2000. Many states since then have also banned the import, export and sale of fins, which is different from finning but nonetheless controversial. Two bills — HB 401 and SB 680 — are currently moving through the Florida Legislature to ban all fin sales. Fueling finning is the demand for shark fin soup, a traditional luxury Chinese dish primarily served in Asian countries but also in restaurants across the U.S. Robert Hueter, director of the Sarasota-based Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research, said the anti-finning bills may be well-intended but would have negative consequences.
“Mining near area rivers a divisive issue” via Sarah Nelson of the Gainesville Sun — A phosphate mine that would spread over 11,000 acres in Bradford and Union counties has been haunting and dividing North Central Florida environmentalists, politicians and residents for the past three years. Four families are behind the push, orchestrating the project that activists say is the biggest threat to the region’s landscape. That polarization is most clear at Bradford County Commission meetings, where residents say local elected officials have ignored their pleas to reject the plan. “You’ve got people promoting this mine in the community, greenwashing it to tell us how great it’s going to be,” Mycol Stevens said. “They all make it sound so happy.”
“Poop, screams and divebombing birds: How one city plans to deal with a peacock problem” via Kate Elizabeth Queram of RouteFifty.com — The city of Miami will begin trapping and relocating peacocks from one neighborhood after residents complained of slippery piles of poop, divebombing birds and screeching and squawking at all hours of the night. “They are a pest. They are noisy. They do poop. The poop is significant. And they are getting very aggressive over time,” Pat Tzakis, a resident of Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood, told the City Commission at a meeting. The peacocks have been a staple in Coconut Grove for years, residents said. But the population has burgeoned over time, bringing with it large pyramids of slimy poop, aggressive males (particularly during mating season) and birds that swoop down, unprovoked, with their talons outstretched.
Peacocks are becoming a nuisance in Coconut Grove.
“As Florida, Georgia battle over water, Panhandle oystermen struggle to survive” via Reuters — Florida accuses its northern neighbor — and particularly the fast-growing city of Atlanta — of drawing too much water from the rivers that feed the bay, causing its salinity to rise and driving down the oyster population. Georgia rejects that claim, saying it has made great strides in water conservation. It says that what has really hurt the oyster population is a surge of over-harvesting since the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The oystermen have reason to be worried: U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Kelly, who was named a “special master” by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case, has recommended that the court side with Georgia. But the court can ignore his recommendation, if Florida’s arguments sway it.
The trail
“Political ads are flooding Hulu, Roku and other streaming services, revealing loopholes in federal election laws” via Tony Romm of The Washington Post — Campaign finance experts say they are especially concerned about video-streaming services at a moment when more Americans are shifting their viewing habits from cable to the Web. Politicians have followed people online, and over the past year, their ads have appeared on popular platforms such as Roku, the maker of hardware and software that powers Internet-connected TVs, and lesser-known options like Tubi, which offers ad-supported movie streaming. But nothing requires these fast-growing digital providers to disclose whom these ads targeted and who viewed them. The absence of federal transparency rules stands in stark contrast with traditional TV broadcasters, such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, which for decades have been required to maintain limited public files about political ads.
Save the date:
DCCC gloats after CD 26 candidates are left off GOP group’s ‘Contenders’ list — Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee released the candidates who qualified for the second round of its “Young Guns” program. But curiously left off that list were Carlos Giménez and Irina Vilariño, a pair of Republicans seeking to challenge Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Florida’s 26th Congressional District. Both had made the initial “Young Guns” list. That prompted a barb from the NRCC’s counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Washington Republicans either don’t see any of the GOP candidates as running real campaigns or else they already know that voters will resoundingly reject their toxic agenda of taking away health care and opposing lowering prescription drug costs at the ballot box this November,” said DCCC spokesperson Sarah Guggenheimer.
“Citing God and bathrooms, GOP House candidates oppose LGBTQ civil rights” via Mark Harper of the Daytona Beach News-Journal — Webster Barnaby, Erika Benfield and Zenaida Denizac are all candidates to replace term-limited David Santiago in House District 27. Barnaby, a former Deltona City Commissioner, wants to stop a bill that would ban discrimination against LGBTQ students at private schools that accept tax dollars: “They’re going to stop private institutions from allowing people to come into the school unless you accept the LGBTQ agenda. I’m totally against this because, to me, this violates my constitutional right to free speech as an American citizen.” Barnaby and Denizac came out in favor of abolishing the West Volusia Hospital Authority, a step the Legislature has in its power.
“Ruth’s List Florida rescinds Patricia Williams endorsement after controversial abortion vote” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — The move comes after Williams was one of five Democrats to vote in favor of a bill requiring minors to gain parental consent before undergoing an abortion. The legislation (SB 404) does have some exceptions. But it was a largely polarizing bill, with only a few Republicans and Democrats in the House bucking their respective parties during the Thursday vote. Many Democrats had harshly criticized the measure as a burden to children who may not have a healthy relationship with their parents.
Local
“Broward County, you’ll have to stop recycling paper. Here’s why.” via Lisa Huriash of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Saying Broward has not recycled properly, Waste Management is ending “mixed-paper” recycling completely. That includes newspapers, mail, magazines, glossy inserts, pamphlets, catalogs, print and office paper, and school paper. But environmental groups point the finger back at Waste Management with a message: Figure it out before giving up on recycling completely. Already, 14 Broward cities whose contracts require a six-month notification were put on notice that they’ll have to chuck their paper products in the trash beginning Aug. 1, although some cities may implement the change sooner. Mixed paper “has no viable market” to be resold as recyclables, according to the notice.
Broward County is putting an end to recycling.
“State law, charter conflict stall residential developments in Orange County” via Stephen Hudak and Amanda Rabines of the Orlando Sentinel — As many as 20 proposed residential developments in Orange County are on hold because of crowded schools and a conflict between the county charter and new state law. The impasse is not easily fixed as it could require either new state legislation, an Orange County charter change or a court fight. The conflict, unique to Orange County, arose in July after DeSantis signed House Bill 7103 into law. The complex legislation contained a slew of provisions affecting local governments, including a requirement changing how the Orange County school district must credit developers who pay school-impact fees, donate land or make other contributions to add classrooms in areas where schools are at or close to capacity.
“Three JEA bidders sue to keep secret the dollar amounts of their offers” via David Bauerlein of the Florida Times-Union — NextEra Energy and two other firms that bid for JEA are taking legal action to block the utility from releasing information about how many billions of dollars each company offered for JEA. The lawsuit will shift the decision to the courtroom on whether the public can learn the full range of offers that were on the table when the JEA board voted in December to kill the sales negotiations. NextEra Energy, which is the parent company of Florida Power & Light, joined forces with Duke Energy and American Water Works Company in the suit. Three other bidders that were still in the running when the sales process ended have not objected to JEA releasing the dollar amounts of their responses.
“Ethics loophole allowed Mayor, city officials to take lobbyist-paid trip” via Christopher Hong of the Florida Times-Union — A loophole in Florida’s ethics law allowed a group of Jacksonville officials, including Mayor Lenny Curry, to travel to Atlanta with a pair of local lobbyists and pay just a fraction of the trip’s actual cost. Curry, along with his chief administrator Brian Hughes, City Council President Scott Wilson, and JEA’s now-fired CEO Aaron Zahn, flew on a chartered airplane stocked with pizza and beer on Oct. 4 to watch an Atlanta Braves playoff game. The trip likely cost between $8,000 and $11,000. Curry, Wilson and Hughes each paid Conventus $400 for the entire trip, which they have said was enough to comply with Florida’s ethics law prohibiting them from receiving gifts worth more than $100 from lobbyists.
“This Miami Beach leader was denied a free ticket. He flexed his power, complaint says” via Martin Vassolo of the Miami Herald — Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Góngora wanted a free ticket to see a band at the Fillmore Miami Beach and present the group with its own “day” in city history books. When he was told he would have to pay, Góngora let the theater know who holds the purse strings, Fillmore general manager Trenton Banks said in a late-night email to the city. The commissioner “brought up our contract negotiations to my marketing manager” and said that he “has a vote on our contract extension,” Banks wrote in a Jan. 15 email to Michele Burger, chief of staff for Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber. Tickets for the New Order concert were about $85, and Góngora said he paid his own way.
More local
What Florence Snyder is reading — “Nubia Barahona: Woman guilty in torture death of adopted daughter” via Kurt Anderson of The Associated Press — Carmen Barahona, 69, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges in the death of Nubia Barahona. The girl’s body was found Feb. 14, 2011, soaked with chemicals in the back of her father’s truck along Interstate 95 in Palm Beach County. The father, Jorge Barahona, 52, faces the death penalty if convicted in the girl’s death. Her twin brother, Victor, was also doused with chemicals but recovered and later told investigators about severe abuse in their Miami-area home. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement that sentencing for Carmen Barahona would be deferred until she testifies against her husband as the agreement requires.
Nubia Barahona, in an undated image released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
What Anthony Sabatini should be reading — “Lake County unveils Groveland Four memorial, hopes to shed racist reputation” via Stephen Hudak of the Orlando Sentinel — Descendants of the Groveland Four graciously accepted a long-overdue memorial dedicated Friday as an apology for the miscarriage of justice heaped on the four young black men wrongfully accused of raping a 17-year-old white girl in 1949. The 4-foot-tall granite memorial on the front lawn of the county’s historic courthouse includes a bronzed photograph of the four: Walter Irvin, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd and Ernest Thomas. Others at the ceremony questioned the county’s resolve to shed its racist image, citing the Lake County Historical Society’s decision to ignore opposition from black citizens and forge ahead with its plans to move a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith into its museum in the historic courthouse.
“Jacksonville veteran’s trial over right to fly flag begins” via Andrew Pantazi of the Florida Times-Union — The fight started in the summer of 2011 when Larry Murphree, a former U.S. Air Force air traffic controller, began defying his homeowners association’s rules by flying a 12-inch by 17-inch flag in a flowerpot by his front door. He began incurring a $100-a-day fine, which reached $1,000. In 2012, he filed a federal lawsuit against The Tides Condominium at Sweetwater, which Murphree and the association settled. In 2013, the association again began charging Murphree a $100-a-day fine, this time because of a new rule about flowerpots. The condo association allowed flags to be displayed, the rules said, but not in flowerpots. In response, Murphree again filed a federal lawsuit.
Top opinion
“Florida’s voting-rights fight could tip the 2020 election” via The New York Times editorial board — Someday, and possibly sooner than they think, Republican lawmakers will be forced to confront the reality that they cannot sustain a major American political party in the 21st century on a strict diet of voter suppression, discouragement, and disenfranchisement. That reckoning came a big step closer when a federal appeals court in Florida dealt a major setback to one of the more galling GOP anti-voter measures of recent years — a modern-day poll tax in Florida aimed at keeping hundreds of thousands of people with criminal records away from the ballot box. Because Florida is the biggest battleground state in the country, the resolution of the case could well determine who becomes the next President.
Opinions
“Here is Democrats’ last chance to get this right” via Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post — Do not get me wrong: Many NeverTrump voters (including this one) will vote for anyone with a “D” to defeat Trump, who is a threat to constitutional government, mentally unfit and unabashed. However, expecting independent voters in places such as Wisconsin and Michigan to line up behind Sanders seems wholly unrealistic at this point. Suburban moderates who helped lift Democrats to victory in 2018 might choose to stay home. (In the seemingly unlikely event of a Sanders victory, one need not fear that President Sanders would actually enact measures that most of his party opposes, not to mention all Republicans. But for those who dread more conflict and gridlock, a Sanders presidency would be a painful period.)
“I’ll be voting in the Democratic primary for the first time in 40 years” via Mac Stipanovich for the Tampa Bay Times — I do know we must spare no effort in trying to exorcise the demon that has possessed the soul of the GOP. You were voting for fiscal discipline, cultural conservatism, an engaged, forward-leaning foreign policy, free trade, personal accountability, a commitment to the rule of law and the idea of America as a Shining City on the Hill to which the world looks for leadership and where the dreams, energy and genes of immigrants beckoned by that shining light are welcome. And Trump seized the moment. In doing so, he did not so much transform the GOP as unmask it. It is no longer Morning in America.
“DeSantis’ climate czar is leaving, but Florida’s seas are still rising” via the Tampa Bay Times editorial board — After less than six months, Florida’s first chief resilience officer, Julia Nesheiwat, is moving on to a new post with the Trump administration. While she may be leaving, the risks that climate change poses to Florida are only accelerating, and DeSantis should move quickly to fill this leadership void. Nesheiwat said she provided an interim report to DeSantis in January, which the governor’s office has yet to release in response to a request from the Times. That delay is inexcusable, especially for a governor who raised expectations he would make a priority of this pressing public safety issue.
“Clean-energy plan crucial for Legislature to address climate crisis” via Jonathan Scott Weber for the Orlando Sentinel — The first and most urgent step to solve the climate crisis requires finding just and equitable ways to transition Florida to clean, renewable, and fossil-fuel-free energy. Without an enforceable and well-funded plan to reduce Florida’s reliance on dirty fossil fuels, we are only treating the symptoms of climate change and not the cause. Unfortunately, despite all we know about the climate crisis, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies in the Florida Legislature will not even consider a carbon-reduction plan. But that doesn’t mean no one is trying. Last week Rep. Anna Eskamani offered an amendment on the House floor to put Florida on the path to be 100% carbon-neutral by 2050.
“No E-Verify for Florida without immigration reform” via the Sun-Sentinel editorial board — Republicans have controlled state government since 1999 in large part because of contributions from business groups, such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce. And Big Business opposes E-Verify, for reasons both practical and cynical. Employers claim the system takes too long and is unreliable — there’s debate about that — and they want to keep hiring cheap, undocumented workers. Business lobbyists have been pecking at Lee’s bill from the start. Previously, the legislation had exempted agriculture, which by most estimates, employs more illegal workers than any other industry in Florida. The construction and hospitality industries — also among the state’s largest — sought exemptions, too. Contrary to what DeSantis might imply, illegal immigrants have not overwhelmed Florida.
“Sara Clements: How Florida is addressing reading deficiencies through parent choice” via Florida Politics — In 2018, Sunshine State lawmakers created Reading Scholarship Accounts, a first-of-its-kind scholarship program for public third- through fifth-grade students struggling in reading. Rather than a scholarship to attend private school, the state provides parents an account — currently worth $500 — to spend on tutoring, summer and after-school literacy programs, instructional materials, and curriculum. The idea is to let parents control these extra dollars to supplement their child’s education in the way they see fit. Much-needed help for students struggling with reading AND a boost of funding for schools, in a time when “choice” often feels like a loss for public education? I call that a win-win.
“Lawrence Vernaglia: Legislature signals instability with hasty school mergers, compromising private investments systemwide” via Florida Politics — One important aspect of this proposal hasn’t been sufficiently addressed — the role of the many private foundations, donors, and direct-support organizations that support these schools and their students. In the case of New College, $50 million has been donated and is at work supporting college activities — but only if they are done at New College. My family is one such donor. We do not support transferring those funds to the control of another university. We support an independent New College of Florida. A smoke-and-mirrors merger will shake the confidence of donors and foundations seeking to support charitable investment activities at ALL of Florida’s state universities.
Earnings
“Larry Overton & Associates landed up to $2.89M in pay last year” via Florida Politics — The firm had a total of 81 contracts in 2019. Among those were 38 clients that hired the firm for legislative lobbying work which amounted to $1.86 million in revenues. There were also 43 clients who contracted with Overton for executive lobbying services. Those contracts added up to $1.03 million in lobbying fees paid to the firm last year. Lobbying firms report their pay in ranges covering $10,000 increments. If all of Larry J. Overton & Associates’ clients paid top dollar, they would have earned $2.89 million last year. Median estimates show the firm earned $1.88 million — 1.36 million in the Legislature and $515,000 in the executive.
“The P5 Group scores up to $1.69M in 2019” via Florida Politics — The lobbying organization brought in 21 legislative clients last year. That accounted for $910,000 in revenue from those clients that P5 provided in lobbying services. Meanwhile, P5 earned $780,000 in executive lobbying fees from 19 clients in 2019. Lobbying firms report their pay in ranges covering $10,000 increments to the Florida Lobbyist Registration and Compensation database. If all the firm’s clients maxed out their contracts, they would have earned $1.69 million. Using the middle number of each range shows P5 earned an estimated $1 million — $555,000 in the Legislature and $455,000 in the executive.
Movements
New and renewed lobbying registrations:
Paul Broadie: Santa Fe College
Rachel Cone, James McFaddin, PaulMitchell, Monte Stevens, The Southern Group: Autism Speaks
Jodi Davidson, Colodny Fass: Feeding South Florida
Brian Vahey: American Waterways Operators
Instagram of the day
Aloe
“’Friends’ reunion special set for HBO Max” via Frank Pallotta of CNN — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer are starring in a reunion special for WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service, the company announced. The service launches in May. The stars of the hit NBC sitcom, which ran for 10 seasons, will return for the special to celebrate the show from the series’ original soundstage on the Warner Bros. lot. The special, which had been long-rumored and anticipated by fans, will be available at launch.
“Transformers animé series for Netflix rolls out in first trailer” via Nick Romano of Entertainment Weekly — The streaming studio dropped the first trailer for Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, a three-part animé series from the folks at Rooster Teeth, which previously brought its unique animation stylings to RWBY and gen:LOCK. The footage offers a glimpse at Chapter 1, subtitled Siege. The six, 22-minute-long episodes begins in the final hours of the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons that have torn apart the Transformers’ home planet of Cybertron. Future Trilogy installments will include Chapter 2, subtitled Earthrise. A name for Chapter 3 has not been revealed, but more information will be announced in the future.
“Singer Pharrell is making music on Miami’s restaurant scene” via Kelli Kennedy of The Associated Press — The singer hosted a soul food brunch Saturday along with his dad Pharaoh, a self-taught chef, known for his sweet and spicy Nono Sauce, as part of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Growing up, family meals were the heart of the Williams home, a place to “hear what’s exciting At your parent’s job.” “Cooking is a reflection of your parents, the energy, the love. Food is a connector, and it’s a meeting place,” Pharrell told The Associated Press during an interview. Happy to leave behind his fast-food days, Pharrell opened Swan restaurant and its swanky upstairs Moroccan-themed Bar Bevy in 2018 with South Beach night life guru and LIV club owner David Grutman.
What Stephanie Cardozo is reading — “As spring training starts, what makes Bradenton’s love affair with the Pirates special?” via Marc Young of the Bradenton Herald — “It’s not just a contract with the city of Bradenton, it’s a relationship,” said Jeff Podobnik, vice president of Florida operations. “It’s a partnership. It’s truly a partnership. It’s almost like a family environment we have with the city of Bradenton because we are not going anywhere. We are a part of this community.” Podobnik said between the Pirates and the Marauders organizations, as well as Pirate City, “Our staff lives here, works here at Lecom Park.” That close connection to the Pittsburgh area is pretty noticeable when you see the Pirates in town. It’s no secret Pittsburgh fans not only love Bradenton, but make life choices when it comes to their relationship to both cities.
Aegis Tech nabs Pioneer 250 recognition — CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Aegis Business Technology to its 2020 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the Pioneer 250 category. This list identifies North American providers that deliver operational efficiencies, IT system improvements, and a higher rate of return on investments. This annual list is divided into three categories: the MSP Pioneer 250 who are focused primarily on the SMB market. “It is an honor to be one of these CRN Pioneers, and we are beyond grateful for this recognition,” says Aegis CEO Blake Dowling. The MSP500 list will be featured in the February 2020 issue of CRN and online here.
Happy birthday
Best wishes to Reynolds Arrington, Kevin Besserer of the Florida Realtors, Jessica Ellerman, Beth Houghton, my man Matt Farrar of Strategic Digital Services, Susan Goldstein, and former Rep. Carl Zimmermann. Belated wishes to our bestie, Amanda Taylor Houston.
POLITICO Playbook: Playbookers suggest running mates for Bernie as D.C. Dems panic
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
WE ASKED readers Sunday to send in some suggestions for a running mate for Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.), the strong frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. We’ve kept these anonymous — some people asked, others didn’t, but we wanted to be consistent. Here are some good ones, and some obvious ones: Sen. CORY BOOKER (D-N.J.) … Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) … Speaker NANCY PELOSI … STACEY ABRAMS …Sen. KAMALA HARRIS (D-Calif.) …
… REP.AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-Mass.): “He wants someone who ostensibly has progressive bona fides. She is a member of the Squad – but endorsed Warren, so there’s unity capacity. She is a woman, African American, and a massive star in the party. Can also be an olive branch to the House freshmen class, many of whom will be nervous about Bernie effect on their district – but she has such strong relationships in the class.” …
… REP.VAL DEMINGS (D-Fla.): “Humble beginnings, law enforcement, around 63, local office, leadership in Impeachment, AfAm female, Florida(!), beautiful family. More relatable IMO than Harris or Abrams. Downside: Palin risks of her being in over her head at Sanders age.” …
… SEN.TAMMYBALDWIN (D-Wis.): “He will need to pick someone from the Midwest to help shore up the rising red tide in the area. With Wisconsin looking to be a likely tipping point state in the 2020 election, she seems like a smart pick.” …
… SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio) … ANDREW GILLUM … Sen. TIM KAINE (D-Va.) …
… AND ONE THAT WON’T HAPPEN: “Simple, former President Barack Obama.”
Good Monday morning.
THE BERNIE FREAKOUT BEGINS — “Sanders sends Democratic establishment into panic mode,” by Natasha Korecki and David Siders: “Moderate Democrats watched in horror as Bernie Sanders soared to a landslide victory in Nevada.
“It wasn’t the win that was surprising — it was the walloping Sanders gave his opponents, his ability to dominate among Latino voters, and the momentum he gained moving into South Carolina and Super Tuesday. The performance sent already worried Democrats into a full-blown panic.
“‘In 30-plus years of politics, I’ve never seen this level of doom. I’ve never had a day with so many people texting, emailing, calling me with so much doom and gloom,’ said Matt Bennett of the center-left group Third Way after Sanders’ win in Nevada.” POLITICO
— WATCH: SANDERS talks to Anderson Cooper for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” including some praise of Cuba’s literacy programs under Fidel Castro that has Florida Democrats banging their heads against the proverbial wall.
SCOOP: “Clyburn poised to endorse Biden in big boost before S.C. primary,”by Natasha Korecki, Heather Caygle, Marc Caputo and Laura Barrón-López: “House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who wields enormous influence in his home state of South Carolina, is planning to endorse Joe Biden on Wednesday, multiple sources with knowledge of the Democrat’s plans told POLITICO.
“The planned endorsement is expected three days ahead of the state’s Saturday primary, giving Biden an important boost in a state that will likely determine the fate of his candidacy. Clyburn, the highest ranking African American in Congress, has long been close with Biden and has been open about his affinity for the former vice president during the Democratic primary.”
MARKETWATCH — “Stocks Slide as Virus Cases Accelerate Outside of Asia,” by WSJ’s Chong Koh Ping: “Global stocks fell as investors grappled with the potential economic fallout from mounting coronavirus infections in South Korea and other countries outside China. In South Korea, which reported its seventh death from the coronavirus, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index tumbled 3.9% on Monday. That was the Kospi’s biggest one-day fall since 2018, according to FactSet. U.S. S&P 500 futures dropped 1.6%, pointing to another likely decline for that index, which slid 1.1% on Friday.” WSJ
TRUMP’S INDIA VISIT — “Indians give Trump the spectacle he loves,” by Anita Kumar in Ahmedabad: “There were women in glitzy Indian garb dancing, Bollywood stars singing and an eclectic mix of music blaring in time to flashing lights. And when President Donald Trump finally appeared on stage at the world’s largest cricket stadium, the sun-soaked crowd burst into a deafening, rapturous applause. It was exactly the scene the TV star-turned president loves. …
“Standing alongside Modi, Trump on Monday inaugurated the brand-new Motera Stadium, lined with 110,000 orange, yellow and blue seats — all filled. Trump is ostensibly in India to help mitigate a long-standing trade dispute while tightening U.S.-Indian relations, but Monday’s mega-rally was also designed to appeal to Indian-American voters as Trump heads into his reelection campaign. …
“It was a political-style rally like no other. Even Trump’s popular MAGA rallies couldn’t compare to the size and scope of the ‘Namaste Trump’ rally.” POLITICO
— AND/BUT … pooler JÉRÔME CARTILLIER: “Towards the end of the speeches, there were many empty seats, especially in the upper part of the stadium, in the sections facing the sun.” Pic, via Bloomberg’s Justin Sink
THE PRESIDENT’S MONDAY — The president and first lady Melania Trump will arrive at the Taj Mahal at 4:50 p.m. local time. They will tour the Taj Mahal and depart en route to Agra Air Base at 6:20 p.m. They will travel to New Delhi and arrive at Palam Air Force Base at 7:50 p.m., then spend the night in New Delhi.
NEW: CPAC starts Wednesday. TRUMP will address the group Friday at 3 p.m. Other notables speaking to the conservative conference: VP Mike Pence, Kellyanne Conway, Larry Kudlow, Ivanka Trump and Russ Voight. Check out the full schedule
INSIDE THE MESS AT DOJ — “D.C. Prosecutors’ Tensions With Justice Dept. Began Long Before Stone Sentencing,” by NYT’s Katie Benner and Adam Goldman: “In the days before they filed the sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s friend Roger J. Stone Jr. that helped plunge the Justice Department into turmoil, the prosecutors on the case felt under siege.
“A new boss, Timothy Shea, had just arrived and had told them on his first day that he wanted a more lenient recommendation for Mr. Stone, and he pushed back hard when they objected, according to two people briefed on the dispute. They grew suspicious that Mr. Shea was helping his longtime friend and boss, Attorney General William P. Barr, soften the sentencing request to please the president.
“In an attempt to ease the strain, David Metcalf, Mr. Shea’s chief of staff, clasped his hand on the shoulder of one of the prosecutors, Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, as they passed in a hallway. But the gesture prompted a terse and sharp verbal exchange, according to three people briefed on the encounter. As word of the spat spread through the office, unfounded rumors swirled that the altercation had been physical.” NYT
FISA ON THE BRINK — “Tapping Trump’s Anger About 2016 Surveillance, White House Seeks Overhaul of Spying Law,” by WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia and Dustin Volz: “Senior White House officials are discussing an overhaul of the government’s surveillance program for people in the U.S. suspected of posing a national-security risk, spurred in part by President Trump’s grievances about an investigation of a 2016 campaign adviser, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The effort seeks to take advantage of the looming expiration of some spying powers next month, including portions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a Watergate-era law that Mr. Trump believes was improperly used to target his campaign, these people said.” WSJ
MORE ON THE CORONAVIRUS — “World Economy Shudders as Coronavirus Threatens Global Supply Chains,” by WSJ’s Chuin-Wei Yap and Jon Emont in Hong Kong: “A month after the epidemic forced factories into limbo past their usual Lunar New Year break—a handful are reopening—officials and economists are warning that an extended Chinese shutdown could cripple global manufacturing and cost the world up to $1 trillion in lost output.” WSJ
“China also reported 409 new cases on Monday, raising the mainland’s total to 77,150 after a zigzag pattern of increases in recent days. The 150 new deaths from the COVID-19 illness raised China’s total to 2,592 and showed a spike after hovering around 100 for four days. All but one death were in Hubei province, where the outbreak emerged in December.”
BIBI ISN’T SWEATING BERNIE … NETANYAHU’S JERUSALEM POST INTERVIEW: “‘Once the Trump plan is put forward, the goalposts will have been moved, and it will be very difficult for any administration to move them back … We will move forward this plan once the mapping process is done, and it won’t take long, as long as I am re-elected. … I’m sure the next administration, whatever it will be, will have to consider the fact that there’s a new plan.’” JPost
TRANSITIONS — Michael Friel will be VP of communications at the Alliance Defending Freedom. He previously was acting assistant commissioner for public affairs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. … Daniel Kaniewski is now managing director for public sector solutions at Marsh & McLennan Companies. He previously was deputy FEMA administrator for resilience and the agency’s second ranking official. …
… Adam Hechavarria is joining Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid as a principal. He most recently was legislative director to Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.). … Enxhi Myslymi is now associate director for media relations at the Milken Institute. She previously was a director of strategic comms at U.S. News & World Report.
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Jacqueline Alemany, WaPo reporter and “Power Up” anchor. What she’s reading: “I’ve been on a Clayton Christensen kick since he sadly passed away last month. I’m currently in the middle of ‘How Will You Measure Your Life?,’ which needs no recommending but I highly recommend anyway for anyone feeling introspective or looking to enhance their decision-making process. I’m also rereading ‘The Making of the President 1960’ by Theodore White. I love reading classic political journalism when I’m out on the trail for a bit of inspiration. Oh! And I’m a few chapters in to Charlotte Alter’s book, ‘The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.’ The kids are gonna save us, people.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Knight Craft is 58 … NYT’s Sabrina Tavernise … Cliff May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies … Mark Salter is 65 … Kevin Lewis … Paula Zahn is 64 … Blake Waggoner is 34 … Nilda Pedrosa … Juliet K. Choi … Secretary of the Senate Julie Adams … Josh Gardner, president of CMGroup, is 4-0 … former acting Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift … Karen Olick, managing director at SKDKnickerbocker (h/t Jon Haber) … Kevin Dando … CAP’s Kate Kelly … POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien and Evan Sanderson … Paula Stannard … McLaurine (Klingler) Pinover … Liza Rebold … Jacqueline Hackett… Jennifer Kerns … Roger D. Klein …
… former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of No Labels, is 78 (h/t Margaret Kimbrell) … Christina Cameron, media affairs adviser for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (h/t boyfriend Brian Walsh) … former Rep. Chris Chocola (R-Ind.) is 58 … Rebecca Bernbach Graves … Emily Feldman … Will Gattenby … Lindsay Hamilton, senior director of national media strategy at Climate Nexus … Yuval Noah Harari is 44 … Edelman’s Henry Krause … JPMorgan Chase’s Allison Branca and Karen Persichilli Keogh … Howard Bragman is 64 … Mary Chastain … Bruce Andrews, VP for global public policy at SoftBank … Abram Olmstead is 35 … Sam Novey … Andrew Giacini … Kavontae Smalls
With his emphatic victory in the Nevada caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders has edged closer to a takeover of the party, prompting a season of open hostility.
Election 2020 ● By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker ● Read more »
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez’s bid is one of many that illustrate friction between Democratic candidates who represent diverse communities and white candidates who may appeal more to moderates.
The worldwide organization he founded for people with disabilities has completed an investigation into his inappropriate relationships, less than a year after his death.
Around 20,000 are expected to attend a service today at Staples Center, which became known as the “House that Kobe Built” during his career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
On Saturday, Bernie Sanders won the Nevada Democratic caucus. As of Sunday night, Sanders led with 47% of the vote; Joe Biden was second with 21% and Pete Buttigieg third with 14%. New York Times
From the Left
The left sees Sanders as the clear frontrunner and urges the party to come together.
“Sanders’ Nevada victory definitively disproved one of the most enduring myths about his campaign: that it could attract left-leaning young white people, but was incapable of drawing in a diverse coalition. In fact, voters of color were a primary source of Sanders’ strength in Nevada; he received the majority of Latino votes. Entrance polls showed Sanders winning ‘men and women, whites and Latinos, voters 17-29, 30-44 and 45-65, those with college degrees and those without, liberal Democrats (by a lot) and moderate/conservatives (narrowly), union and non-union households.’ The poisonous concept of the white ‘Bernie Bro’ as the ‘typical’ Sanders supporter should be dead.” Nathan Robinson, The Guardian“The New Deal was made possible with a new electorate. And just as the mass entry into politics of first- and second-generation Eastern European immigrants brought Roosevelt (and the CIO) to power, Latinos — who are solidly behind Sanders — could very well be the force that helps bring social democracy to America. Bernie’s staunch anti-establishment outsider appeal and his platform focused on workers’ issues is winning non-partisans, new voters, young voters, and working-class immigrants. That’s not just a savvy coalition for winning the Nevada caucuses, it’s how Bernie Sanders becomes president. Face it, establishment Democrats — it’s his party now.” Dustin Guastella and Connor Kilpatrick, Jacobin Magazine“What Bloomberg and his apologists fail to understand is that challenging political power brokers has significant appeal among grassroots Democrats and independents. Notably, in Nevada, of the 17 percent of caucus-goers who identified as independents, Sanders won 50 percent. The next-closest contender, Buttigieg, was at 13 percent, and no one else was in double digits… an antiestablishment message is electable.” John Nichols, The Nation“[Mainstream Democrats] worry at times that Sanders would simply prove too extreme to get things done as president. And, indeed, on occasion his campaign lapses into rhetoric that suggests an unreasonable aversion to compromise. But it’s worth remembering that Sanders is a 30-year veteran of the US Congress…“Sanders has sometimes staked out lonely, courageous stands (against the Iraq War or the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred same-sex couples from enjoying the same federal benefits as married couples)… But he’s never pulled a Freedom Caucus-type stunt… He voted for President Barack Obama’s Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill in 2009, and again for the Affordable Care Act in 2010. He voted for the Dodd-Frank bill and every other contentious piece of Obama-era legislation… there’s no reason to be worried that Sanders is a deluded radical who doesn’t understand how the government works.” Matthew Yglesias, VoxYet “Unity is nowhere in sight. Sanders’s Friday tweet — ‘I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us’ — showed he’s in no mood to pull this fractured party together. This breach of party solidarity alarmed down-ticket Democrats hoping to keep control of the House and win the Senate — and must have delighted Trump, whose Saturday night tweet announced how he’ll exploit the opposition’s fractiousness, no matter what’s next. He congratulated ‘Crazy Bernie’ on his Nevada victory, adding, ‘Don’t let them take it away from you!’” E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post“His campaign really should be having an internal debate at this point about what can possibly be gained by railing against the elites of a party that he looks to be on the verge of conquering and which made a number of changes to its nominating system after 2016 at his express request. Remember: They might be the establishment in a few months.” David Faris, The Week“Clinton promised a ‘third way,’ distinct from traditional Democratic or Republican policies. Bush ran on compassionate conservatism. Obama said that red and blue America shared more in common than pundits claimed. Even Trump, radical as he is, flouted Republican orthodoxy by sounding like a populist Democrat on Social Security, Medicare and trade… Can you think of one way that Bernie Sanders is signaling respect to voters outside of his base?… turning every compromise into an existential moral failing is not a smart way to practice politics. It comforts the persuaded while alienating the persuadable.” David Leonhardt, New York Times
From the Right
The right sees Sanders as the clear frontrunner and predicts negative consequences if the Democratic establishment denies him the nomination.
“Democrats are now one step closer to having an avowed socialist at the top of their ticket. At a time when unemployment is at a 50-year low, they’ll be running against a capitalist system that is responsible for spreading more freedom, ending more hunger, and lifting more people out of poverty than any other system in world history. If the time is ripe for Sanders’s socialist revolution, most American voters don’t know it yet… people in the United States currently have record-high confidence in their personal finances…
“So great are the blessings of capitalism that it enabled Sanders to join the ranks of the top 1% by having established himself as the country’s most famous socialist. Yet now, he wants to become president so he can tear that system down.” Editorial Board, Washington Examiner
“Democrats are waking to the prospect of a nominee who wants to eliminate private health insurance, raise taxes on the middle class, ban fracking and put government in charge of energy production, make college a taxpayer entitlement, offer free health care to illegal immigrants, raise spending by $50 trillion, and tag every down-ballot Democrat with the socialist label…
“The other candidates have contributed to this predicament by failing to challenge Mr. Sanders and his socialist agenda. They dispute his Medicare for All math, and his electability in November, but ever so gently. They all offer some version of Bernie Lite, and none speak up for the private economy… Mr. Buttigieg finally put the boot and some edge against Mr. Sanders into his remarks on Saturday night in Nevada, but the question is whether it’s too late.” Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“As of now, the same kind of nightmare that gripped the Republican establishment during Trump’s 2016 primary sweep is haunting Democrats. They are no closer to finding a single challenger to take away Sanders’ front-runner status than Republicans were to blocking Trump from getting the GOP nomination four years ago… As of now, none of the moderates in the Democratic race has a compelling reason to drop out, because at this point none stands out from the pack as a strong challenger to Sanders…
“If Sanders keeps picking up delegates in a large Democratic field and goes into the party’s national convention with a plurality of votes, the Democratic establishment risks a massive backlash from his followers if he is denied the nomination because the party’s superdelegates coalesce around one of his competitors.” John Fund, Fox News
“While there’s doubt about whether Sanders goes into the Democratic National Convention with the majority needed to become the nominee on the first ballot, it’s becoming increasingly hard to see how anybody goes into the convention with more delegates than he does…
“Nominating a socialist as their standard-bearer no doubt carries significant political risk for Democrats up- and down-ballot in November. But even if there’s somebody else who is in theory a safer bet, in practice, we’ve reached the point at which Democrats may be taking an even greater risk by handing somebody else the nomination and alienating Sanders supporters.” Philip Klein, Washington Examiner
Some argue that “The establishment can live with the consequences of a second Trump term… In 2022 Democrats will be better off in the midterms with Trump in office than with a member of their own party in his place. Midterms tend to be reactions against the president’s party, and six-year midterms tend to be especially bad for them. Democrats’ chances of winning the Senate and holding the House would be solid (assuming neither chamber changes hands sooner). This would set Democrats up for 2024 with control of both the House and the Senate… If an establishment Democrat can win the nomination that year, he or she should be the favorite in November…
“A Sanders defeat come November is a defeat for the left, and a Trump victory followed by Republican overreach — which is what the center-left predicts with night absolute certainty — would soon set the stage for defeat of the right. And all of this follows exactly what the center-left’s self-understanding is meant to be predicated upon: the belief that extreme views can’t win (Sanders) or will fail when turned into policy (Trump). So what’s the Democratic establishment so afraid of?” Daniel McCarthy, Spectator USA
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Bernie Blowout in Nevada
Socialist and Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders easily won Nevada on Saturday. In the words of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, “It’s over.” (Side note: This prompted the hashtag #FireChrisMatthews ).
“The 78-year-old candidates’ decisive victory, called by Fox News just moments after voting closed in the Western state, showcases Sanders’ broad support among minority voters with just over a week remaining until Super Tuesday March 3, when 15 states and territories as well as Democrats abroad will cast their ballots in the Democratic primary.With 10 percent of precincts reporting, Biden is in second place, followed by Pete Buttigieg in third, and Elizabeth Warren in fourth.
Biden has depended on the upcoming South Carolina contest to reignite life into his sinking campaign. Sanders, however, has been closing the gap with Biden, who remains the front-runner by an increasingly narrow margin. According to Real Clear Politics’ latest aggregate of polls, Biden is at nearly 25 percent support while Sanders follows close behind with nearly 21 percent.
Sanders’ big win in Nevada, putting the senator a major step closer to sealing up the Democratic nomination, is illustrative of how far left the party has moved since rejecting the self-described socialist just four years ago.”
President Trump quickly congratulated Sanders in his best Trumpian way, tweeting, “Looks like Crazy Bernie is doing well in the Great State of Nevada. Biden & the rest look weak, & no way Mini Mike can restart his campaign after the worst debate performance in the history of Presidential Debates. Congratulations Bernie, & don’t let them take it away from you!”
The establishment side of the Democratic party, which seems to include media outlets, are sounding the electability alarm before Super Tuesday on March 3. From NBC News:
In 1972, Sanders told junior high school students in Vermont that U.S. policy in Vietnam was “almost as bad as what Hitler did,” according to The Rutland Daily Herald.
On his Nicaragua visit in 1985 Sanders sat down with leader Daniel Ortega, whom he later called “a very impressive guy.” At the time, human rights activists had documented serious abuses by Ortega’s government.
On a trip to the Soviet Union in 1988, Sanders criticized American foreign policy to such an extent that one of the Republicans on the trip rose to rebut him and then stormed out of the room, he told NBC News.
In 1989, Sanders visited communist Cuba and lauded the country’s “free health care, free education, free housing,” while dismissing the government’s holding of political prisoners by saying Cuba was not a “perfect society,” according to The Free Press of Burlington.
Ric Grenell Begins Overhaul of Intelligence Agency
The New York Times is worried about something all administrations do:
“[Richard Grenell] wasted no time this week starting to shape his team of advisers, ousting his office’s No. 2 official — a longtime intelligence officer — and bringing in an expert on Trump conspiracy theories to help lead the agency, according to officials.”
Interestingly, the media that normally loves historic firsts have been pretty quiet regarding this appointment by President Trump. From the New York Post:
“President Trump made history this week after appointing Richard Grenell to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence. The new job, a cabinet-level position, makes Grenell the highest serving openly gay man to hold federal office in United States history…“He is a faithful patriot and an extraordinary student of our national security apparatus and foreign policy. He has led at the UN, the foreign service and for several presidential campaigns. He is unabashed and completely qualified for the DNI. Acting or nominated,” Billy White, a former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan who has known Grenell for three decades, told The Post.
“I know I speak for so many in the LGBT community who love and support this courageous appointment by President Trump,” added White, who is gay.
President Obama never appointed an openly gay cabinet member, a source of bitterness for LGBT activists at the time.
“There’s a tremendous sense of disappointment,” Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign told The Washington Post in 2013, speaking of LGBT representation in the Obama White House.”
What I’m Reading This Week
As I get ready for major change in my life… I am escaping to fiction. This week I’m starting It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. From the description:
“Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up – she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan – her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.”
ICYMI: February Favorites
If you’re on a low-buy in 2020, you’ll appreciate this month’s favorites. They include the only eyeshadow brush you’ll need, a beauty box with items you might actually repurchase without the long-term commitment, and must-haves for a cold office. Check them out here.
A Case of the Mondays
Policeman takes selfies with us K-9 partner (Bored Panda)
Deployed dad sends smelly t-shirt home for his dog, freakout ensues (JustSomething)
Tiny rabbit obsessed with his chunky girlfriend (The Dodo)
One of my shelter dogs has an incredible weekend after her adoption… from the shelter to a five-star hotel! (Twitter)
Despite protests, Palm Beach Atlantic University awarded First Lady Melania Trump its Woman of Distinction Award. According to the president of the College Democrats, a “vast majority” of the students and faculty were unhappy that she was chosen to speak and receive the award. The vice president of the College Republicans called the decision to have her speak “a donor-oriented decision rather than a moral one.”
Looks like both Republicans and Democrats need spring break to learn to relax.
After the President and First Lady’s appearance at the Daytona 500, the intrepid John Binder in his Fashion Notes gave us all the details on the stunning black and white dress:
“Melania Trump was girlishly black and white in a two-tone ensemble featuring a plunging v-neck flared skirt tea-length dress by Christian Dior with little white frilly bows checked across. Mrs. Trump cinched her waist with a white scalloped leather corset belt by Azzedine Alaïa.The belt retails for $1,370 at Bergdorf Goodman. Loyal Fashion Notes readers will recall that Mrs. Trump wore the same belt in a beige leather shade when she visited the Great Wall of China in 2017.
Mrs. Trump paired the Dior dress and Alaïa belt with sporty Saint Laurent black sunglasses and stark white patent leather Christian Louboutin stilettoes — heels you could see from a mile away.”
The First Lady is still rocking her favorite sunglasses and I’m still loving the $12 dupes I found on Amazon
Mondays with Melania is a weekly feature that highlights what the First Lady is doing and wearing.
Note: By using some of the links above, Bright may be compensated through the Amazon Affiliate program and Magic Links. However, none of this content is sponsored and all opinions are our own.
Texas Republican Kay Granger finds herself in a race reminiscent of the tea party primary challenges from the last decade. But her opponent could have one problem: The GOP isn’t the tea party. It’s Donald Trump’s party now. Read More…
On paper and in theory, Republicans’ chances of winning back the House look pretty good. But a district-by-district analysis reveals much longer odds, even if the Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders for president. Read More…
The FBI would no longer be able to purge incomplete gun background checks from its systems if legislation by Rep. Jimmy Panetta becomes law. The California Democrat introduced the bill Friday in response to a CQ Roll Call report that revealed the bureau purges hundreds of thousands of background checks each year. Read More…
Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developments in finance and financial technology.
President Donald Trump’s Western swing last week will provide plenty of material for campaign ads and fundraising blasts for down-ballot races. Rallies in Phoenix and Colorado Springs left no doubt that Republican Sens. Martha McSally of Arizona and Cory Gardner of Colorado will be tied to the president this fall. Read More…
OPINION — The news reports are right about one thing: These are divisive times. So when 403 members of Congress rally around an issue as sensitive as health care for seniors, it means something important. Medicare Advantage is not a Republican or Democratic idea, but an American value that unites us all. Read More…
OPINION — The issue of balance billing is getting fresh attention on Capitol Hill and with good reason: Patients should never receive a bill they didn’t expect or cannot afford. But proposed legislation in the House would empower insurers to reduce patient access to vital emergency air medical transport. Read More…
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In case there were any doubts as to how limousine liberals feel about people who vote for President Trump, MSNBC’s Joy Reid made it clear yesterday that they look down upon them. During the network’s live coverage of the Nevada Caucuses, Reid offered an analysis of why she felt Donald Trump won the 2016 election. Unsurprisingly, she s … Read more
Feb 24, 2020 01:00 am
Bernie is simply cherry picking the policies of Denmark, such as generous welfare benefits, that he finds attractive, ignoring the numerous programs that are far more aligned with Donald Trump than the modern Democrat Party. Read More…
Feb 24, 2020 01:00 am
Money can buy many things, and socialism may be appealing to those who “have nothing to lose but their chains,” but not to a vast self-reliant middle class. Read More…
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee rebuked Sen. Bernie Sanders after the 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful announced his plans to skip the organization’s annual policy conference.
As Bernie Sanders cements his place as the 2020 front-runner, more centrist candidates who are seen as splitting the moderate vote are facing pressure from pundits to drop out and coalesce around a strong alternative that can halt him from taking a delegate lead.
Tensions between Democratic Party loyalists and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are reaching a boiling point as the democratic socialist cemented his front-runner status for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
No one has played into the Kremlin’s hands more than Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, according to a key Republican congressman.
A former adviser to President Bill Clinton speculated that Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton are plotting a way for her to become the 2020 Democratic nominee even though she’s not in the race.
Marianne Williamson has a new preferred Democratic presidential candidate in the quest to challenge the “dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred” coming from President Trump: Bernie Sanders.
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By Shane Vander Hart on Feb 22, 2020 07:00 pm
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is projected to be the winner of the Nevada Democratic Caucus, the third state to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee. Read in browser »
By Shane Vander Hart on Feb 22, 2020 02:37 pm
State Senator Zach Whiting: “My goal in all of this is to level the playing field between the rights of the defendant and the rights of crime victims.” Read in browser »
Launched in 2006, Caffeinated Thoughts reports news and shares commentary about culture, current events, faith and state and national politics from a Christian and conservative point of view.
There used to be a social stigma against believing and behaving as if one is entitled to tell perfect strangers how to speak, what to do, or how to live. Sadly, that stigma is all but gone today. More people than ever are willing to use the force of government …
President Donald Trump on Saturday accused Rep. Adam Schiff of leaking details of a briefing that intelligence community officials provided Congress earlier this month regarding Russian meddling in the 2020 election. “Just another Shifty Schiff leak. Isn’t there a law about this stuff?” Trump wrote on Twitter in reference to …
President Donald Trump speaks at a “Namaste Trump” rally in Ahmedabad, India, Monday. Namaste is an Indian greeting offered with honor to people deserving of respect. The president is scheduled to speak at 2:45 a.m. EST. Live Stream of the Namaste Trump Rally in India – 02-24-2020 Content created by Conservative …
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will visit Gandhi Ashram then participate in a Namaste Trump rally in Ahmedabad, India. In the afternoon, the first couple will visit the Taj Mahal, then travel to New Delhi where they will stay overnight. Keep up with Trump on Our President’s …
💰 Breaking: With the coronavirus spreading outside China, world markets fell and U.S. stocks looked set for their worst day in six months. (Reuters, Bloomberg)
1 big thing: Bernie’s path to the presidency
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks yesterday during a rally at Houston University. Photo: Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images
Lots of Democrats are in full panic that Bernie Sanders will win the nomination and get clobbered in the general election — and bring the party down, too. But the evidence, particularly the polling, doesn’t back those doomsday warnings, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei writes.
Why it matters: Virtually every national and swing state poll shows Sanders tied with or beating President Trump. And, unlike every rival, he has a huge base of fervent, unshakable supporters he can only grow.
Just the facts, please: A Quinnipiac Poll last week showed Sanders beating Trump in Michigan and Pennsylvania. A CBS News/YouGov poll showed Sanders beating Trump nationally.
A Texas Lyceum poll shows Sanders doing better against Trump in Texas than any Democrat, losing by just three points.
He’s socially savvier: Sanders has much larger followings on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms than his rivals — and has consistently shown new media sophistication others lack.
Loyalty matters: The guy’s base writes checks regularly, for years now, making him the best-funded non-billionaire in the Democratic game. His supporters also show up — on social, at rallies, in elections. Ask Trump if this matters.
Socialism hasn’t killed him: It’s not like Sanders hides his big government socialism — he has screamed it to the nation for a half-decade. Maybe voters don’t care, just like 45% don’t care about Trump’s outlandishness.
Peter Hamby, who works for Snapchat and writes for Vanity Fair, argues “bed-wetting” Democrats might have it all wrong:
“Instead of asking if Sanders is unelectable, ask another question: What if Sanders is actually the MOST electable Democrat? In the age of Trump, hyper-partisanship, institutional distrust, and social media, Sanders could be examined as a candidate almost custom-built to go head-to-head with Trump this year.”
He’s a Trump-like celebrity: “Running for president has always been about winning the attention war, and the competition for attention has never been more difficult than it is in 2020,” Hamby writes. Sanders has way more old-school and new-age celebrity than the rest of his rivals combined.
The bottom line: The truth is we are all clueless about what voters want or will accept. That includes everyone on Twitter, inside the Democratic establishment — and me!
2. These swing voters don’t like Trump’s environmental rollbacks
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Swing voters in four battleground states decisively oppose President Trump’s sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations — but it’s unlikely to sway their votes, Axios’ Amy Harder reports in her “Harder Line” column.
Why it matters: Voters in states like these — Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Michigan — play pivotal in roles choosing a president. So we should listen.
These voters’ comments show they have real concerns over the environment and the effects of climate change — but that they don’t like any of the 2020 Democrats enough to abandon Trump.
Focus groups in the four states were conducted by the nonpartisan research firms Engagious and Focus Pointe Global. These are small handfuls of voters, and don’t offer a statistically significant sample like a poll.
The responses nonetheless provide a richer snapshot inside the minds of voters in key counties.
Most of the voters voted for Barack Obama in 2012, then Donald Trump in 2016.
The big picture: The Florida voters’ positions are squarely in line with national polling.
A WashPost-ABC poll from last summer found voters measured Trump most negatively on climate change, while an AP poll from September found two-thirds of voters disapproved of his handling of the problem.
The intrigue: The Florida voters readily acknowledged sea level rise and increased flooding in their state, though it wasn’t a topic they brought up unprompted. They don’t prioritize this over other worries, despite living where global warming’s impact is most explicit.
The White House and its allies have assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust — and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them, Axios’ Jonathan Swan scooped in his Sunday night newsletter, Sneak Peek.
While Trump’s distrust has only intensified since his impeachment and acquittal, he has long been on the hunt for “bad people” inside the White House and U.S. government, and fresh “pro-Trump” options. Outside advisers have been happy to oblige.
Why it matters: Since Trump’s Senate acquittal, aides say the president has crossed a psychological line regarding what he calls the “Deep State.”
He feels his government — from Justice to State to Defense to Homeland Security — is filled with “snakes.” He wants them fired and replaced ASAP.
Photo (clockwise from upper left): T. Narayan/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP, T. Narayan/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Amit Dave/AP
Hundreds of thousands lined streets in India today as President Trump began a two-day visit with the ideologically aligned Prime Minister Narendra Modi — starting with a massive rally, then a sunset visit to the Taj Mahal, AP reports.
After a “Howdy Modi” rally drew 50,000 people in Houston last year, Modi returned the favor with a “Namaste Trump” (“Greetings, Trump”) rally — photo below — that packed more than 100,000 people into the world’s largest cricket stadium, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.
As the startup boom deflates, many hot young companies are facing a reckoning — layoffs, shutdowns, uncertainty — after a decade of prosperity, the N.Y. Times’ Erin Griffith writes from San Francisco (subscription):
Why it matters: “It’s a humbling shift for an industry that long saw itself as an engine of job creation and innovation.”
“[T]he layoffs have started coming in droves”:
“Last month, the robot pizza start-up Zume and the car-sharing company Getaround slashed more than 500 jobs.”
“Then the DNA testing company 23andMe, the logistics start-up Flexport, the Firefox maker Mozilla and the question-and-answer website Quora.”
6. What I’m reading … Rahm: Why mayors matter
Cover: Knopf
Rahm Emanuel — former Chicago mayor, now an ABC News contributor — draws on his own experiments, plus conversations with other innovative mayors, for “The Nation City: Why Mayors Are Now Running the World,” out tomorrow:
Just when the federal government is distant, the local government is intimate. Just when the federal government is dysfunctional, the local government is impactful. Just when the federal government is indifferent, the local government is immediate.
Local governments are politically stable when our national governments are anything but.
Fun fact … Three former mayors are still in the presidential race: Bernie Sanders (Burlington, Vt.), and, of course, Mike Bloomberg and Pete Buttigieg.
7. Stat of the day: One-third of Venezuelans are hungry
Dugleidi Salcedo complains to a neighbor about the high price of food as she prepares arepas for her three sons in the Petare slum in Caracas, Venezuela. Photo: Rodrigo Abd/AP
One in three people in Venezuela struggles to put enough food on the table to meet minimum nutrition requirements as the nation’s severe economic contraction persists, according to the UN World Food Program, via AP.
The survey found that 74% of families have adopted “food-related coping strategies,” such as reducing the variety and quality of food they eat.
60% of households reported cutting portion sizes in meals, 33% said they had accepted food as payment for work and 20% reported selling family assets to cover basic needs.
8. “Person 1”: Awkward question on census form
It’s a question spouses, domestic partners and roommates are going to be forced to confront in the next few weeks as they fill out their 2020 Census forms, AP’s Mike Schneider writes: Who gets to be the primary person in the household?
Everyone else who lives in the home has to be identified on the form by how they are related to so-called “Person 1.”
Until 40 years ago, Person 1 was called “head of household” or “head of family.”
The Democrats’ descent into leftist madness continued unabated over the weekend, with Bernie Sanders scoring a depressingly resounding victory in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday.
While it is truly disturbing that one of the two major political parties in America has just hit the gas while driving off of the socialist cliff, it’s also delightful political theater for the moment. Put another way: it’s all fun and games until someone gets an eye redistributed.
Bernie’s star turn has the entire Democratic establishment gulping handfuls of Xanax as they ponder a general election filled with ads that repeat the word “socialist” every third word or so, all funded by a decidedly capitalist campaign war chest.
Despite their protestations to the contrary, the members of the mainstream media are an integral part of the Democratic establishment. Many of them are acting out in an effort to prevent even more people from feeling the Bern.
A truly epic family feud has broken out over MSNBC, where Chris “Tingles” Matthews has become an ardent anti-Bernie voice. MSNBC isn’t just a left-leaning network, it’s decidedly progressive. That its most veteran host finds Sanders to be too far left is quite telling.
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews has made it repeatedly clear that he thinks Bernie Sanders is headed to certain defeat should he win the Democratic Party nomination. He’s right, of course, and while the Bernie Bros. already aren’t happy with him, he once again triggered Bernie’s fans on Saturday night. When Bernie pulled off a stunning victory in the Nevada caucuses, Matthews declared it was “too late” to stop him, and compared Sanders’ victory to Hitler’s invasion of France.
“I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940 and the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over,'” Matthews explained. “And Churchill says, ‘How can that be? You’ve got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It’s over.'”
To no one’s surprise, Matthews was excoriated by the Bernie Bros for his transgression. The Left-on-Left hate is rather glorious to behold. I’m thinking of cutting out some of the streaming services I subscribe to while all of this is playing out. If you had told me a year ago that I would have the opportunity to watch anyone at MSNBC running a counter-offensive against the Democratic front-runner I would have said that you were crazier than Bernie’s economic plans. But here we are.
Watching an opponent destroy itself from within is always a lot of fun. Some Democrats, no doubt, believe that they are about to ride a populist wave to victory that isn’t unlike Trump’s win in 2016. That possibility can’t be ruled out, of course.
The difference this time is in ideology. Trump may have been a populist wild card in 2016, but he didn’t represent a far-right fringe, no matter what the MSM may have said.
As I said earlier, the Dems are heading off a cliff.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. Happy Monday! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the daily co-creators, so find us @asimendinger and @alweaver22 on Twitter and recommend the Morning Report to your friends. CLICK HERE to subscribe!
Good morning! Five more days until the South Carolina primary … eight more days until Super Tuesday … 252 days until Election Day!
Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is on the cusp of leading the Democratic Party after a decisive win in Nevada’s primary and momentum that carries him into South Carolina on Saturday and toward the delegate-rich states that vote next week.
Sanders’s frontrunner status has put some Democrats on edge that the liberal revolutionary will harm the party’s chances to seize the White House and hurt down-ballot moderate Democrats who helped put their party in charge of the House in the last election.
The biggest problem facing establishment Democrats is eerily similar to what happened to Republicans in 2016 as they plotted to take down President Trump: a splintered field with no signs of anyone dropping out in the near future, making it tough for the party to coalesce behind anyone in order to stop Sanders.
“Someone needs to pull an Andrew Yang and be like, ‘I’ve done the math. I’m not going to win,’” said Yang, who pulled the plug on his campaign after New Hampshire, on Saturday night. However, the remaining campaigns are offering reasons for sticking in the race — namely, that they have the financial wherewithal or a viable path to the nomination.
The post-Nevada landscape, however, has left Democrats fretting about a potential Sanders nomination and a potential path to block his nomination. One House Democrat complained to the Morning Report that some candidates in the field need to drop out, starting with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Tom Steyer, arguing that neither has a path to the nomination and each pulls votes from rivals who have better chances to topple Sanders. Neither Klobuchar nor Steyer pulled 5 percent support in Nevada, according to the most recent results.
The lawmaker added that reactions to Sanders’s momentum are mixed among front-line Democrats who could be most at risk of losing their seats in districts Trump carried in 2016.
“A few are concerned, but think they will be able to weather it. And a few are absolutely freaking out,” the lawmaker told The Hill.
The New York Times: Sanders looks to knock out Biden as pressure builds on Democrats.
CBS News: In South Carolina, Biden’s lead narrows, with Sanders and Steyer on his heels.
New York magazine: No, you drop out: Why Bernie’s rivals are all stubbornly staying in the race.
The Washington Post: As Bernie Sanders’s momentum builds, down-ballot Democrats move to distance themselves.
Biden has long proclaimed that South Carolina is his primary to lose. However, Sanders’s ability to win support from African Americans and Hispanics voters put a dent in the former vice president’s claim that he’s the top choice in states that have diverse electorates.
However, Biden still leads in the Palmetto State and is expected to receive the endorsement of House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Wednesday (Politico). Clyburn, a powerful political force in South Carolina, told ABC’s “This Week” that he expects the Nevada results to have an impact in his state, which will also host the final Democratic debate on Tuesday night leading into Saturday’s primary and Super Tuesday (The Hill).
Also complicating matters is money. While Sanders (along with Steyer and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg) has the financial means to compete for the long haul, the same cannot be said of many in the race. By the end of January, none of the campaigns working for Biden, Warren, Buttigieg or Klobuchar had more than $10 million in the bank, although most of the four had strong fundraising surges this month. Nevertheless, financial challenges would make it tough for candidates to keep pace during or beyond the Super Tuesday blitz.
The New York Times: Five takeaways from the Nevada caucuses (the big one: Sanders takes control).
The Hill: Sunday shows – 2020 spotlight shifts to South Carolina.
Publicly, some Democrats are signaling they could support Sanders as the nominee. For instance, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told “Meet The Press” he has no qualms with Sanders’s stance on gun control, which has moved increasingly left in the past four years (The Hill).
Outside of the campaigns, high-profile Democratic pundits are loudly sounding an alarm. James Carville, who has been blasting Sanders for weeks, equated nominating him to “political suicide,” adding that those who believe Sanders can beat Trump are as “stupid” as deniers of climate change. Rahm Emanuel, who served as White House chief of staff to former President Obama, added that Sanders is “stoppable” but only if moderates coalesce around a singular candidate (The Hill).
Trump’s team, however, welcomes Sanders’s standing as the front-runner for the nomination. The president lauded the senator’s achievement in Nevada on Sunday before he departed for India, calling it a “great victory.” Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Pence, told “Fox News Sunday” that the White House would “look forward” to a general election match-up against the Vermont Independent.
“I think it would show a stark contrast between a president who’s had unemployment rates of 3.5 percent, helped create over 7 million jobs versus a candidate who I think continues to embrace socialism,” Short said. “I think that’s a stark contrast and record [for] people to choose from.”
LEADING THE DAY
WHITE HOUSE & ADMINISTRATION: In India, tens of thousands of people packed the route to greet Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they departed the airport in Ahmedabad early today. The crowds waved their phones and flags and roared with “Namaste Trump” (translated as “we bow to Trump”) at the world’s largest cricket stadium, which can hold 110,000 people.
“I thought it was fantastic,” Trump told reporters after the stadium event. “They worked really hard.”
It’s the president’s first official visit to India, and was stage-managed by Modi to engulf Trump in warm wishes from the most populous democracy in the world. Trump gave Modi the red-carpet treatment in the United States last year, and the two countries remain in a trade dispute that won’t be resolved during Trump’s quick trip (Reuters).
Asked about the trade impasse, Trump said he was in “no rush” to resolve the differences. “We are doing well with India, we are making deals.”
With the time change, Trump has already delivered Monday remarks at the packed Motera Stadium in Agra, toured the Taj Mahal at sunset with first lady Melania Trump and will spend the night in New Delhi, the capital.
Reporters traveling with the president described dozens of large billboards leading from the airport in Ahmedabad showing pictures of Trump and Modi. The signs conveyed the prime minister’s strategic message aimed at a president who is known to be impressed by crowd sizes and over-the-top pomp: “Stronger friendship for a brighter future”; “Two dynamic personalities, one momentous occasion”; “Two strong nations, one great friendship”; “Welcome to the land of Mahatma Gandhi.”
The Associated Press (with 11 images): India pours on the pageantry with colorful welcome for Trump.
Before departing Washington for India, Trump on Sunday expressed his frustration with a classified intelligence briefing for House lawmakers last week asserting that Russia is meddling in the 2020 U.S. election to try to help him win reelection.
There is no subject that rankles the president more than talk of Russia’s influence over his political prospects. The president is so persuaded that his political foes are embedded inside the intelligence community that he is in the midst of overhauling the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He believes House Democrats are repeatedly the recipients of intelligence they deploy as weapons against him.
White House senior officials on Sunday challenged reports that intelligence officials have information that the Kremlin is working in secret to help Trump, appearing on talk shows to express fury over leaks and to argue that the administration has been tough on Moscow and is working to prevent foreign meddling in this year’s elections.
Trump said Sanders may be Russia’s actual target, referring to a report by The Washington Post that the Vermont senator learned recently that Moscow is trying to benefit his front-runner campaign. The president called for an investigation into congressional leaks, citing without evidence his impeachment nemesis, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), as the likely culprit.
“I read where Russia is helping Bernie Sanders. Nobody said it to me at all. Nobody briefed me about that at all,” Trump told reporters. “They leaked it, Adam Schiff and his group. They leaked it to the papers and, as usual, they ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that information” (Reuters).
Schiff blasted Trump for making what he said were false claims (The Hill). Democrats in Congress are reeling about the controversy (The Hill), and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Republicans would “rather let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin win than stand up to President Trump.”
White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, interviewed on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” also suggested Sanders may be Russia’s favorite candidate. How O’Brien came to this conclusion is unclear, since he also said he had not requested a briefing from intelligence officials about what they told Congress.
“From what I understand about the report [to lawmakers], I get this second-hand, but from Republican congressmen that were in the committee, there was no intelligence behind it,” O’Brien said. “I haven’t seen any intelligence to support the reports that were leaked out of the House.”
Last week, Trump nudged his acting intelligence chief, Joseph Maguire, out of his job shortly after The New York Times disclosed there had been a briefing for lawmakers. Maguire was set to leave as acting by March 11. In his place, Trump installed former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as the acting director, leaning on a Trump family loyalist who has no experience in intelligence.
The president last week said he would soon nominate a candidate to oversee the nation’s 17 spy agencies in Grenell’s place, an appointment rollercoaster that sparked confusion and questions (The Hill). For hours last week, there was speculation that Trump might name the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee to the post, until Rep. Doug Collins, who is challenging a fellow Republican for a Senate seat in Georgia, said he was not interested in the intelligence vacancy (The Hill).
The president is now looking for a new ambassador to send to Berlin (Reuters).
Trump, with the help of friends and allies, has assembled detailed lists of potential hires and “snakes” to fire inside the government. Allies say he has the power to appoint people who will work to further his agenda. Critics say they worry about disruptive churn, flimsy qualifications and defiance of institutions and necessary checks on the executive branch (Axios).
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Trump’s persistent suspicions about the motives of intelligence professionals and fury about the Russia probe and the House impeachment inquiry, which he calls “hoaxes,” propel the White House to seek an overhaul with Congress of the nation’s spying laws, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The Washington Post editorial board: Congress must step up if Trump doesn’t want to hear about Russian election interference.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
CORONAVIRUS: COVID-19 outbreaks have worsened in South Korea, Italy, Lebanon and Iran, prompting a warning that the window to contain the spread, now in 28 countries, is closing quickly. World leaders are calling for an “all out” effort to halt the contagion, but without uniform tools or techniques to accomplish that.
The virus has killed 2,620 people and infected at least 79,441 worldwide, according to the latest information. The transmission beyond China poses increasing public health worries about a pandemic amid concerns about strained health care systems and global economic impacts that may prove long-lasting.
The New York Times op-ed by infectious disease expert Michael T. Osterholm and writer Mark Olshaker: Is it a pandemic yet? What’s next? “Every country’s top priority should be to protect its health care workers.”
Italian officials scrambled on Sunday to contain the first major outbreak of the coronavirus in Europe, locking down at least 10 towns near Milan, closing schools and canceling the Venice Carnival, as 215 cases have been reported (The New York Times).
Austria is so concerned about the spread of the virus in Europe that it dangled the possibility of closing its border if the viral emergency worsens (The Associated Press).
On Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping labeled the epidemic of COVID-19 as “grim and complex” and called for more infectious disease intervention along with economic action. He said the situation in China is at a “critical stage” and called on officials to “resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic” (The Associated Press).
Pakistan and Turkey closed their borders with Iran, which reported 43 cases of the virus and at least eight deaths over the weekend (The New York Times). A lawmaker in Iran this morning cited 50 deaths this month from the virus in the city of Qom, although health officials have only described 12 (The Associated Press).
The Trump administration is expected to ask Congress for emergency funding to combat the coronavirus. Lawmakers have been advised the request is coming, but an amount is under discussion (Politico).
***
CONGRESS: U.S. surveillance programs: Congress is gearing up for high-profile fights in the next month about whether to reauthorize a handful of controversial surveillance programs, including the expiring provisions of the 2015 USA Freedom Act, which succeeded the post-9/11 Patriot Act. Attorney General William Barr will lobby GOP senators in the Capitol on Tuesday, Jordain Carney reports (The Hill).
> Housing: Some members of Congress, urged on by advocacy groups, are gearing up to oppose the president’s budget proposals that would cut housing assistance at the Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as mandatory spending programs for housing. The administration’s proposal would require some low-income program participants to pay a higher percentage of their income toward rent while also calling for work requirements and other restrictions for certain housing assistance. Access to affordable, quality housing is a potent election year issue nationwide (The Hill).
> Lynching: The House is scheduled to vote on legislation this week that would classify lynching as a federal hate crime and send the bill to the president for his signature.
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act — introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) — is scheduled to come to the floor on Wednesday, roughly 120 years after the first House legislation to criminalize lynchings was defeated in committee, and nearly a century after the House passed its first bill.
“This legislation is long overdue, but it is never too late to do the right thing and address these gruesome, racially motivated acts of terror that have plagued our nation’s history,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement.
The Hill: This week: House to consider anti-vaping legislation; Senate to vote on abortion bill, nominations.
Politico: Pelosi’s ally, the underdog and the next-in-line: Dems battle to lead spending panel.
OPINION
Sanders isn’t Trump’s challenger so much as his sequel, by Terry Sullivan, opinion contributor, The Wall Street Journal. https://on.wsj.com/37NSaQR
The U.S.-India relationship is bigger than Trump and Modi, by William J. Burns, contributing writer, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/32lg84R
WHERE AND WHEN
The House returns to legislative work at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Senate will convene at 3 p.m. and consider the nomination of Robert Molloy to be a district judge for the Virgin Islands.
The president and the first lady are in India. With the time change, they’ve already visited the largest cricket stadium in the world, toured the Taj Mahal at sunset and flown to New Delhi to spend the night. They depart on Tuesday. Security for the visit is described in India as enormous (The Hindu).
The Council on Foreign Relations this evening hosts another in its discussion series titled “Election 2020 U.S. Foreign Policy.” The forum at Wayne State University in Detroit at 6 p.m. will be live streamed. Analyzing current global developments will be Stephen Hadley, national security adviser to former President George W. Bush; Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security secretary under former President Obama; and Penny Pritzker, a former Commerce secretary in the Obama Cabinet. Council president Richard Haass is a panelist.
You’re invited to The Hill’s upcoming newsmaker event:
➤ America’s Opioid Epidemic: Lessons Learned & A Way Forward, on Wednesday in Washington, explores access to treatment for opioid addiction and recovery issues with Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.). RSVP today!
Catch The Hill’s Campaign Report newsletter, with the latest from The Hill’s politics team. Sign up to receive evening updates, polling data and insights about the 2020 elections.
➔ Supreme Court: Justices this week will hear arguments on behalf of victims of the 1998 terrorist attacks in East Africa who seek to reinstate almost $5 billion in punitive damages against Sudan for its role in twin U.S. Embassy bombings that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans. Resolution of the case is a key requirement for Sudan’s removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism (The Hill).
➔ Pope Francis: Trump’s Middle East peace plan got a thumbs-down from Francis on Sunday in his first public remarks about the U.S. proposal announced at the White House last month. During remarks in Italy, he warned against “inequitable solutions” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying they would be only “a prelude to new crises” (Reuters).
➔ Taliban: Five things to know about the emerging pact to end offensive violence, a deal negotiated between the Trump administration and the Taliban in Afghanistan, to be signed on Feb. 29. If it holds, it could mark the historic withdrawal of U.S. forces (The Hill).
➔ NASCAR: Incredibly, race car driver Ryan Newman says he suffered a head injury but no injuries to internal organs or broken bones in a fiery crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500 last week. There is no word about his return to racing (The Associated Press).
THE CLOSER
✔ We’re adding more QUIZ WINNERS to the list we published on Friday. Readers Joel Brill and John Gannon mastered all four questions last week, but their responses languished in a spam folder until being rescued. Our apologies.
And finally … 👏🏒👏 Who among us could possibly transition from the Zamboni driver to victorious National Hockey League goalie in a single game? David Ayres, 42, became the oldest goalie in NHL history to win his regular-season debut through the most improbable of circumstances on Saturday in Toronto. The Carolina Hurricanes picked up a stunning 6-3 victory over the Maple Leafs, and Ayers was the star. Not long after the final buzzer, the Hurricanes were hawking T-shirts on Twitter sporting the stand-in goalie’s No. 90 (The Associated Press).
Here’s some video of Ayres’s appreciative teammates welcoming him into the locker room following the triumph. He called their reaction a shower before a shower.
The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@thehill.com and aweaver@thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE!
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The Morning Dispatch: Bernie Sanders Hits the Jackpot
Plus, an important update from the team.
The Dispatch Staff
14 min
Happy Monday! We’d like to thank you for reading The Morning Dispatch, whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or since last week. As of today, the full version of TMD and many of our other offerings are available to members only. You’ll continue to receive this “light” version of the newsletter and if you haven’t yet signed up for the The Dispatch Weekly, our free Saturday roundup of the best stuff we’ve produced over the week, we encourage you do to so. You can still sample some issues of the G-Fileand The French Pressand the articles at TheDispatch.com will remain free. We here at the Morning Dispatch want to extend our deepest gratitude to you all for giving us a chance these first few months and letting us into your daily routine. We’ve had so much fun building this—both the newsletter and the community—and we can’t wait to see where it all goes.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
Bernie Sanders won the Nevada caucuses handily on Saturday, receiving about 47 percent of county convention delegates. Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg placed second and third, respectively. Next up: South Carolina on Saturday.
President Trump heads to India today for a state visit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Under pressure from rival campaigns, Mike Bloomberg has announced he is willing to release several women from their NDAs involving sexual harassment suits they brought against his companies.
The Sanders campaign has been told by the U.S. government that Russia is again attempting to bolster his presidential campaign this year, according to a Washington Post report that was confirmed by Sanders.
Bernie Sanders Is Here to Stay
If it wasn’t clear before this weekend, it sure is now: The 2020 Democratic frontrunner is Bernie Sanders. On Saturday, he took home the first truly commanding victory of primary season at the Nevada caucuses, winning more than 40 percent of the vote, nearly double the 19.7 percent captured by Joe Biden. Pete Buttigieg, who had managed to go blow-for-blow with Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, finished with 17 percent.
Another small-state victory might not seem like it should be much of a headline for Sanders—after all, he won New Hampshire, and received the most total votes in Iowa, too. But there were a couple factors that put an exclamation point on this one.
It’s been about a month since Declan published his profile on Justin Amash, the congressman from south central Michigan who ceremoniously left the Republican party last July. When they spoke in mid-January, Amash was contemplating a third-party presidential bid, and certainly had not ruled one out. “Is there any better time to have a president who might be not from either party?” he asked with a smile.
For the second installment in Declan’s “talking to interesting conservatives in Congress” series, he profiled Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, up on the site today. Hurd is the lone black Republican in the House—at least until he retires next January. He will be gone from Congress soon, but don’t expect him to become forgotten. He has plans. Some of the piece’s key takeaways are condensed and edited below—but read the whole thing here.
Only 14 percent of black voters approved of the the president’s job performance in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last week, and just 7 percent said they’d be enthusiastic about or comfortable with a Trump second term. Depending on who emerges as his Democratic opponent, Trump could score between seven and 16 percent of the black vote, according to the survey.
Hurd didn’t try to sugarcoat this.
“The three largest growing groups of voters: communities of color, women with a college degree in the suburbs, and people under the age of 29. Those are three areas where our brand, the Republican brand, is not the greatest, right? … I would say that it’s not necessarily because of principles and theories, it’s because there’s this notion that we don’t care about them, right?”
“Unfortunately,” he said, “if you’re under the age of 40, in a lot of places, you have to whisper that you’re a Republican.”
In a win for advocates of the horseshoe theory of politics everywhere, David’s Sunday French Press takes a look at what he deems “the church’s real political correctness problem.” Have segments of the right succumbed to some of the very same excesses of campus liberalism? Check out David’s answer here.
The latest G-File asks “who would be worse, Bernie or Bloomberg?” The answer is not as simple as you might think on first blush. Allow Jonah to take you through the arguments here.
When asked about some of his supporters’ aggressive rhetoric and behavior in last week’s debate, Bernie Sanders condemned any hostile actions taken on his behalf. But he also insinuated that Russia may be behind the animosity—a claim that became harder to untangle after Friday’s Washington Post scoop. Declan talked to several disinformation experts and did his best to parse truth from fiction in this week’s Dispatch Fact Check. Give it a read here.
Danielle Pletka looks at reports that the U.S. intelligence community believes that Russia is trying to interfere in the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump, and she has a good question: Why Trump and not Bernie?
By Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman
Sabato’s Crystal Ball
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE
— Bernie Sanders’ good performance in Nevada puts him in a stronger position to become the Democratic nominee.
— Sanders is getting close to Joe Biden in South Carolina, and he appears positioned to perform well on Super Tuesday.
— Democratic rank-and-file voters do not seem worried about Sanders as the nominee. Many Democratic leaders feel differently. They are running out of time to make the voters heed their warnings.
Anti-Sanders Democrats running out of time
Last April, we noted that despite the ever-growing Democratic presidential field and delegate allocation rules that can string out a nomination fight, there was the possibility of a single candidate getting an early grip on the nomination because of the frontloaded calendar. By the end of St. Patrick’s Day, states awarding more than three-fifths of all the pledged delegates will have voted. We here at the Crystal Ball are big fans of the wisdom of the late Yogi Berra, and we used one of his gems at the time to sum it all up: “It gets late early out there.”
And with Bernie Sanders’ success so far, it may be getting late faster and earlier that we might have thought.
This is not necessarily because Sanders is somehow now guaranteed to amass a pledged delegate majority by the end of the nominating season, but rather because he may be able to start building a lead that, because of proportional allocation rules, no other single candidate can reasonably surpass during the nominating season. So even if he doesn’t get precisely to 50% +1, the magic number of 1,991 pledged delegates to win the nomination, he could be both close enough — and far enough ahead of whoever ends up in second — that he’d have the only real claim to the nomination.
Since New Hampshire, there have been many polls released both nationally and of the Super Tuesday states. While Sanders is not necessarily dominating, he seems to be competitive all over the diverse Super Tuesday map. In fact, Sanders now even appears to be within range of Joe Biden in South Carolina, where more than half of the electorate will be black. Biden probably is still favored to win the Palmetto State on Saturday, but the fact that Biden now appears to be in something of a dogfight with Sanders there is evidence enough of the former vice president’s precarious position.
A Sanders win in South Carolina — which now seems possible — would represent the culmination of an incredible February for Sanders in which the Democratic Party’s insurgent, Sanders, would replicate the path of the GOP’s insurgent, Donald Trump, four years ago: second-place in Iowa and then a sweep of Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Trump finished February clearly favored for the nomination; Sanders may be in such a position even now.
Three days after South Carolina is Super Tuesday, which awards more than a third of all the pledged delegates. If Sanders is within striking distance of Biden in South Carolina, it probably suggests that Sanders is competitive enough with African Americans in the six other Southern states that vote on Super Tuesday, all of which have substantial African-American populations, but only one of which (Alabama) will have a majority-black electorate.
Recent polling in some of these states, like North Carolina and Virginia, has shown Sanders very competitive with or even leading Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg. After getting demolished in the South in 2016, if Sanders can simply prevent anyone else from doing very well in the region, he can build a delegate lead elsewhere. Sanders also probably will run competitively in Amy Klobuchar’s home state (Minnesota) and Elizabeth Warren’s (Massachusetts). We’ll take a closer look at the Super Tuesday states before they weigh in eight days from now, but the overall point is that Sanders should be competitive in all or almost all of those states and very well could end up winning several.
Sanders’ excellent showing among Hispanics in Nevada demonstrated the Vermont senator’s strength among that group of voters after polls suggested such strength. Though our data is based on partial returns (only 60% of the vote was reported by early Sunday evening), the county and congressional district breakdown of the state illustrated this (Map 1).
Map 1: 2020 Nevada Democratic caucus by congressional district
These unofficial returns show Sanders close to earning 60% of county delegates in NV-1, which includes much of Las Vegas proper — by composition, NV-1 has the highest Hispanic percentage share of the state’s four districts.
Though Sanders ended up a clear winner in each of the districts, some secondary threads emerged. For example, NV-4 has the highest black population of the four districts and gave Biden a relatively strong second-place finish. The former vice president also had the endorsement of its congressman, Rep. Steven Horsford (D, NV-4) — with South Carolina voting next weekend, look for Biden to highlight his apparently pending endorsement from House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D, SC-6), a key figure in state politics.
Another pattern was Buttigieg’s strength in rural areas — he was the only candidate other than Sanders to carry multiple counties. His campaign targeted rural counties for their outsized share of delegates. It’s unclear how useful that strategy will be in states that employ primaries (most of them), though in the New Hampshire primary, his strength was fairly consistent throughout the state.
Still, given his strength with Hispanic voters, the real potential for Sanders comes in the two states that hold close to half of the Super Tuesday delegates: California and Texas.
Nevada may provide a preview of sorts of California and Texas, in that the two megastates voting on Super Tuesday each have larger Hispanic electorates than Nevada does. At this point it’d be a shock if Sanders lost California, and at least a little surprising if he lost Texas.
Remember, though, an important caveat about California, where Sanders has consistently been leading polls and where a slice of the vote has already been cast: The size of whatever victory Sanders might achieve there may not be clear on Election Night. The later-submitted and later-counted votes in California are often liberal; as we noted a few weeks ago, Sanders significantly gained in later-counted votes four years ago against Hillary Clinton — on election night, Clinton was clearing 60% in the Golden State, but Sanders ultimately held her to 53%-46% win after all the voters were counted. Everyone reporting on the California results in the early going next week should emphasize the incompleteness of the initial vote count.
In order to stop Sanders, his rivals need to aggressively make the case against him at the South Carolina debate Tuesday night. We just saw how this can work: The other candidates ganged up on Michael Bloomberg last week, and they prevented him from getting even a single delegate in Nevada.
Oh wait, actually, Bloomberg didn’t get any delegates in Nevada because he wasn’t even on the ballot there. One can see how the attention paid to Bloomberg — and perhaps his very candidacy — has helped draw eyes away from Sanders’ rise the past couple of months and further splintered the non-Sanders vote. Bloomberg will get his first ballot tests on Super Tuesday, although it is possible that his position has deflated since his debate debacle last Wednesday.
Overall, we can’t necessarily assume that the shape of the race would be much different if the alignment of candidates changed. If Bloomberg or Pete Buttigieg or Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar or other candidates dropped out today, it’s not a sure thing that their supporters would completely flock to non-Sanders candidates.
Sanders is well-liked by Democrats, and recently he has been leading other contenders in hypothetical one-on-one matchups. An Associated Press-NORC poll conducted in the aftermath of the New Hampshire primary showed Sanders with the best favorability among Democrats of any of the other candidates. While Democratic elites are starting to sound the alarms about Sanders and his potential weaknesses against Donald Trump, the Democratic rank and file seems fairly comfortable with him as the nominee.
The other candidates, and party leaders who are worried about Sanders’ ability to lead the Democratic ticket, have precious little time to make Democratic voters as uncomfortable with Sanders as some of them seem to be. Otherwise, he’s going to be the nominee, and Republicans will work to turn Democratic fears about Sanders’ far-left politics into realities.
Further reading: Kondik on House Democratic fears; Ryan at UVA
In a New York Times column published Monday morning, Crystal Ball Managing Editor Kyle Kondik explores whether Sanders, if nominated, would cost Democrats not just control of the presidency, but also the majority in the House. It’s not hard to understand how that could happen, Kondik writes, but there is some nuance that’s being lost in some of the Democratic panic.
Also, see this piece from UVA Today’s Caroline Newman about former House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R) Friday afternoon discussion with Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato at UVA. Count Ryan as one of the many Republicans who hopes his party gets to run against Sanders this fall.
Read the fine print
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Use caution with Sabato’s Crystal Ball, and remember: “He who lives by the Crystal Ball ends up eating ground glass!”
Sanders as ‘Uniter’? First Jewish President? Flynt’s Arrows
Good morning. It’s Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. It’s now apparent, if it wasn’t previously, that the Democratic Party has a clear front-runner for the 2020 presidential nomination. His name is Bernard Sanders, though he’s answered to “Bernie” since he went into politics in the 1970s. Until about five years ago, however, if you called him a “Democrat” he would correct you.
The “democratic socialist” who attracted the most votes in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada — by increasingly large margins — was born in Brooklyn three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was five years before Donald J. Trump was born at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, about 12 miles away.
Although Sanders put down roots in Vermont, he and President Trump are New Yorkers in every way, including the not-so-good ways, as Howard Fineman recently explained. To say that they can be salty is an understatement. You don’t have to be on Twitter to know that The Donald ran for national office, and has governed for three years, with the sensibilities of a New York insult comic. Bernie Sanders is no piker himself. When I was covering the Clinton administration, I recall then-Rep. Sanders comparing the White House to “a mental hospital where people are completely divorced from reality.” He hasn’t mellowed in the meantime. Sanders routinely derides Trump and other rich people, along with entire sectors of the U.S. economy, as “crooks.” Recently he said, “I don’t think billionaires should exist,” which would not only magically do away with the incumbent president, but also eliminate one-third of the Democratic field still competing with him.
Trump? Don’t even get me started. Here’s my point: At a time of weaponized social media (some of it from foreign governments), “fake news” from various points on the ideological spectrum, and politicians untethered from good manners or even simple civility, do the American voters stand a fighting chance of doing the right thing?
I’m not sure of the answer, but on this date in 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously gave the citizenry the benefit of the doubt. On an 8-0 vote (Justice Anthony Kennedy didn’t participate), the high court affirmed the right to freedom of expression — even involving the most unsavory form of satire.
I’ll have more on that epic case in a moment. First, I’d point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following:
* * *
After Big Nevada Win, Sanders Claims “Uniter” Mantel. Susan Crabtree reports on the campaign’s euphoria — and the party establishment’s unease.
RNC’s Record January Haul Dwarfs Dems’ Total. Phil Wegmann has the story.
Reforming the Impeachment Process. Frank Miele shares ideas about how justice, and the American public, could be better served.
Will America Elect a Jewish President? With Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg vying for the Oval Office, Myra Adams explores a longstanding question.
Republicans, Oppose Tax Hikes (and That Includes Carbon Taxes). In RealClearEnergy, Mike Palicz urges the GOP to honor its platform.
Time to Retire the No-Tax-Increase Pledge. In RealClearPolicy, James Capretta argues that the boilerplate GOP stance adds to government dysfunction.
Congress Can Stop Ticketmaster’s Monopoly. In RealClearMarkets, Mark Perry touts the BOSS Act as a long-overdue way to protect consumers.
As Nurses Suffer Burnout, Education May Be Best Medicine. In RealClearEducation, Patrick Donovan spotlights a way forward for health care providers overwhelmed by job stress.
* * *
In the 1970s, Larry Flynt emerged as a pornographer and social critic who, in his own words, was intent on “pushing the envelope of taste” in the pages of Hustler, his unapologetically raunchy magazine.
In this aim, Flynt did not fall short. His publication stood apart, even within its genre, for its misogyny, gynecological depiction of the female form, racial stereotypes, bathroom humor, and general irreverence. Not to mention vicious political satire, usually aimed at Republicans.
Hustler featured a regular running cartoon of a pedophile named “Chester the Molester,” published a photograph of Jackie Kennedy Onassis sunbathing nude, and made fun of first lady Betty Ford’s mastectomy. (The latter was the only one for which Flynt expressed remorse.)
Sometimes the material was there for its shock value; some of it was to titillate readers; some was there, well, just because Flynt could do it. After a woman was raped by several men on a pool table at a bar in New Bedford, Mass., Hustler produced a mock civic billboard, “Welcome to New Bedford, the Portuguese Gang Rape Capital of the World.”
Beneath the crudity was a political message embracing libertarian views and a socially libertine lifestyle — and needling those whom Flynt deemed bluenoses or hypocrites. He could be mean about it, too. When “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace became an anti-porn crusader who said she was forced into X-rated films by her husband at the point of a gun, Hustler ran a bestiality snapshot of her from an earlier porn movie with the hideous caption, “Notice the gun in Fido’s paw.”
His publication drew the ire of numerous cultural critics, from feminists to the faithful. Among was latter category was the Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr., a politically active Virginia televangelist who was also making a name for himself in the evolving media culture of the times. Larry Flynt wasn’t someone to turn the other cheek, and the November 1983 issue of Hustler included a parody of Jerry Falwell talking about his “first time.” The bit was modeled after contemporary Campari ads that included interviews with celebrities about their “first” times — ostensibly tasting the iconic liqueur for the first time — but with a sexual double entendre.
In Hustler’s satire, Falwell’s “first time” was a drunken incestuous rendezvous with his own mother in an outhouse. The famous preacher wasn’t a subscriber to the magazine, but a news reporter informed him of the offensive feature. As it happens, Falwell’s mother had recently died. Incensed, as anyone would be, Falwell sued for libel and intentional infliction of emotional stress.
At trial, a jury of Falwell’s fellow Virginians ruled that a reasonable person wouldn’t believe that Hustler was really claiming these outrages were true — but they sided with the pastor on the emotional harm claim. A federal judge upheld the verdict, as did the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court took the case, and its Feb. 24, 1988 ruling surprised many — Flynt most of all.
“This case presents us with a novel question involving First Amendment limitations upon a state’s authority to protect its citizens from the intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote in the 8-0 decision.
“We must decide whether a public figure may recover damages for emotional harm caused by the publication of an ad parody offensive to him, and doubtless gross and repugnant in the eyes of most,” Rehnquist added. “[Falwell] would have us find that a state’s interest in protecting public figures from emotional distress is sufficient to deny First Amendment protection to speech that is patently offensive and is intended to inflict emotional injury, even when that speech could not reasonably have been interpreted as stating actual facts about the public figure involved. This we decline to do.”
To decide otherwise, the justices reasoned, would effectively outlaw political cartooning. This, too, the high court ruled, would be an unwise and unconstitutional decision to render. Rehnquist, who as a younger man had aspired to be a cartoonist, approvingly quoted one in his decision:
“The political cartoon is a weapon of attack, of scorn and ridicule and satire; it is least effective when it tries to pat some politician on the back. It is usually as welcome as a bee sting, and is always controversial in some quarters.”
Rehnquist did not identify the cartoonist, but I will. His name was Scott Long, and as the longtime editorial cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star, he was an equal opportunity offender. In a 1962 article for Quill, the magazine published the Society of Professional Journalists, Long wrote, “Those of you who have been on the muzzle end of a cartoon blast know the effectiveness of a good cartoon, and you have proven it to those of us who fire the blast by your heated phone calls to our homes at tender hours.”
But Scott Long also understood, as I fear too few journalists do today, that a little empathy for those wounded by the Fourth Estate’s slings and arrows is a good thing. The same is true about exhibiting humility now and then. Long’s tenure at the newspaper coincided with Hubert H. Humphrey’s extended political career in Minnesota politics as a mayor, U.S. senator, and vice president.
Known as a true “happy warrior” of American politics, HHH practiced his craft at a frenetic pace. During his first year in Washington, Scott Long drew a cartoon titled “A Day in the Life of Senator Humph,” which showed his subject speeding through a day of frantic multi-tasking. In one panel he was simultaneously conducting four phone conversations, and in another one, he arrived at the family home where he promptly repaired the lawn mower.
In the last panel, Scott Long drew a caricature of himself, exhausted, and being carried out on a stretcher. The caption: “Local cartoonist who tried to keep pace with Senator Humph for a day in Washington is being sent home to get some rest.”
There are certain things that are considered to be taboo in the political world. It’s actually much harder in today’s world to shock people as just about anything seem to be attack-worthy in modern day campaigning, but one thing that is not is the use of children’s questions. Anyone who questions the validity or sincerity of a statement or question that comes from pre-teen kids is instantly rebuked by the masses.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg and his campaign know this. They’re smart and with the campaign showing signs of slowing in the polls after scorching results in Iowa and New Hampshire, it wouldn’t be shocking to learn that they used a seemingly innocuous question from a 9-year-old to spark buzz about their candidate. We’re not accusing the campaign, the questioner Zachary Ro, or his parents of doing this, but it’s odd that nobody’s even asking the question. Therefore, we will.
Did the Buttigieg campaign coordinate with the parents of Zachary Ro have the candidate asked the question, “Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too? I want to be brave like you.”?
“Well, I don’t think you need a lot of advice from me,” Buttigieg told Ro. “You seem pretty strong to me. It took me a long time to figure out how to tell even my best friend that I was gay.”
It was a question made for buzz. It was a question that was sure to grab attention of mainstream media. It was asked during a campaign rally, not a town hall or other moderated event. This was the campaign itself collecting, selecting, and asking the questions. It’s suspicious at the least, notorious at worst if the parents and the campaign coordinated to have the question asked.
If it’s a truly organic and unexpected question pulled from a fishbowl, so be it. But nobody’s going to find out because nobody’s going to ask anyone involved if it was staged.
Political campaigns can be dirty business, especially this late into a contentious nomination process in which several candidates still have hopes of being the nominee. We shouldn’t take anything at face value without asking the obvious questions.
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Tom Steyer isn’t done in the presidential race. At least he’s not done making an impact. While his chances of actually getting the nomination would only break above the longshot-level if most of the other candidates inexplicably dropped out, he does have a very clear path to influence the election and spin it in Bernie Sanders’ direction.
Currently, Steyer is polling at a very strong third place in the South Carolina primary this week. He also happens to be outspending everyone there, making a play for the Black vote that makes up 6-in-10 of the Democratic voters there. Though his chances of winning the primary are low, he should get delegates. The same can’t be said for fellow billionaire Mike Bloomberg who isn’t even on the ballot.
Bloomberg has put all of his eggs into the Super Tuesday basket. It’s a brokered convention strategy; if he can keep Sanders from winning the nomination outright, he believes he can unify (ie buy) support for the nomination at the convention. It’s a strategy that may very well work, but the person who stands in the way the most (other than Sanders if he gets a majority of delegates) is Steyer.
The key to this is the math surrounding the new rules from the DNC. Candidates must get 15% in local and/or state races to qualify for any delegates. Sanders is polling strongly in most Super Tuesday states, but not necessarily strong enough to get a majority of the delegates. That’s where Steyer comes into play. He’s spending more than anyone other than Bloomberg in the multiple television markets important on Super Tuesday. A strong third place finish in South Carolina will give him something (other than delegates) that Bloomberg won’t have: momentum.
Bloomberg is banking (literally) on flooding the market with so many ads that his name is echoing in people’s dreams as they sleep. He’s trying to out-muscle the field and the only person who can get traction otherwise is Steyer. If the “lesser” billionaire can take a strong finish in South Carolina plus huge spending on ads into a contentious Super Tuesday, there’s a good chance he could get to 15% in some states. But more importantly, he could prevent Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar from reaching the threshold. Currently, FiveThirtyEight shows Sanders as the only candidate meeting the threshold in California:
All Steyer has to do is keep Bloomberg under 15% in some of the Super Tuesday states and both billionaires’ campaigns will be essentially done. A strong showing in South Carolina (plus millions spent on ads) may make Steyer the Bloomberg-killer.
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This article has nothing to do with China. It has everything to do with the Democratic Party and more specifically the Establishment wing of the party. They have a problem, at least a perceived one. Senator Bernie Sanders is not fading away as they’d hoped. They desperately want him to and they’re playing every angle possible to try to force him out.
Instead of being weakened by the majority of DNC-controlled talking heads on their news channels and networks trying to subvert his campaign, it seems as if Sanders is getting stronger. He went from wining the popular vote but coming in second in delegates in Iowa to winning New Hampshire, and now winning Nevada with a far greater margin than just about anyone expected.
Meanwhile, Establishment Democrats are throwing a fit. They’re doing all the math they can fathom to try to figure out how best to keep Sanders from being the nominee. They’re trashing him, warning of Russian interference. They’re saying he can’t beat President Trump. They’re saying he’ll “bern” the down-ballot races and cost the Democratic Party the House of Representatives.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because the same basic arguments were used by both Establishment Republicans and NeverTrump conservatives in 2016. I should know. I was one of the voices echoing the warnings. I am also humbly acknowledging now, as I have been for a while, that I was absolutely wrong. But the difference between NeverTrumpers and the unhinged elements of the Democratic Party who are warning against Sanders is that we have the luxury of seeing our perspectives proven wrong. The Democrats, on the other hand, will never have that luxury. They’re either going to subvert Sanders’ nomination or he’ll get the nomination and lose. Either way, the Democratic Party will be in shambles.
Like President Trump, the Sanders campaign is enjoying a surge thanks in large part to the Democratic National Committee’s machinations in their efforts to stop him. They’re stuck in Bernie’s Chinese finger trap as his grip over the Democratic base strengthens. That’s not to say they won’t be able to break free. In fact, I’d put it at 50/50 that they’ll get their wish. If they can’t destroy him leading up to the convention, they’ll do everything they can to destroy his nomination there. Doing so will cause a war between Sanders supporters and the DNC, one that has been raging since the moment Hillary Clinton lost in 2016. But the war thus far has been more of a cold war. It will turn into full-blown political battles if Sanders is robbed of the nomination this year.
Why would the Democratic Party do this? Are they oblivious? No. They’re banking on the notion that while Sanders supporters will never forgive them, they’ll still side with whoever the Democratic nominee is over President Trump. I wouldn’t be so sure about that. In fact, I’d say the President’s anti-Establishment mindset is more aligned with Sanders supporters than any of the Democratic candidates.
There’s another factor that bodes ill for the Democratic Party. The Justice Democrats and their patsies like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are fighting a long-term battle within the party. To them, a victory over President Trump by the Democratic Establishment candidate works against their goals of converting the Democratic Party into the Democratic Socialist Party. Many, perhaps most, will see four more years of President Trump as a more politically expedient option than 4-8 years of a moderate Democrat in the White House. If President Trump wins, the Justice Democrats will only pick up steam. If an Establishment candidate wins, the Justice Democrats will actually suffer as a result.
Don’t expect them to publicly endorse President Trump any time soon, but they will not get on board the DNC’s moderate train. They will primary every moderate candidate they can. If someone other than Sanders (and possibly Elizabeth Warren) gets the nomination, the Justice Democrats will put all of their eggs (and dollars) into supporting radical progressive candidates for the House, Senate, and in state and local races. They will ignore the presidential race altogether. They may even go so far as to subtly encourage their base to ignore the presidential race at the ballot box, a “none of the above” approach.
If Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, the Democratic Party will have to figure out how to embrace him without embracing his policies. That’s a losing formula. If they accomplish the destruction of his campaign, they may destroy their party as well.
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Who gives the most money to WHO, the World Health Organization? The United States, of course. But who gives the most money to causes favored by executives and administrators at WHO? China. It would seem as though the United States is doing it wrong, at least from an influence perspective, as the WHO has echoed the Chinese narrative regarding the coronavirus since it became a worldwide concern, long before they were willing to raise alarm bells.
In fact, the WHO scolded nations, including the United States, for imposing “racist and unnecessary” travel bans to and from China. For an organization that has a stated goal of protecting the world from outbreaks of infectious diseases, they’ve done a piss-poor job of putting the world’s concerns over the economic concerns of the Communist Party of China.
This explosive video by China Uncensored sheds light on why WHO has dropped the ball over and over again since the coronavirus started spreading. What it doesn’t tell us is why mainstream and social media continue to spread WHO’s lies.
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It isn’t a secret that Andrew Yang was my favorite Democratic candidate. I would never have voted for him; at no point did his handful of decent ideas interest me enough to make me vote against President Trump. But I liked him as a candidate and I like him as a CNN analyst any time I’m stuck in the airport.
Here’s just the latest correct assessment, courtesy of Ted Cruz:
Yang is right: This is the most fundamental political shift of the past decade. The Democratic Party has abandoned the working class, has abandoned union members, and the GOP has become the blue-collar party of jobs. https://t.co/SsVPfjRDO6
The Democratic Party tries to paint itself as the party of the people, the Democratic Socialist Workers’ Party, so to speak. But just as Marxists of past and present embraced heavy doses of government control, big labor, and wealth redistribution schemes, so too does today’s manifestation of the Democratic Party represent concepts that subvert American freedom in an effort to keep working class people controlled.
It isn’t just Bernie Sanders, though he’s the de facto leader of the Democrats who are willing to acknowledge they’re Democratic Socialists. Even the most “moderate” candidates are proposing such authoritarian practices, it’s impossible to compare them with past foes of conservatism like Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, and Joe Biden (oh way, he’s still around).
Most voters in America today can be divided into two categories: Those who recognize the anti-American, anti-prosperity path the New Democratic Party wants to take us down and those who refuse to see it because of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
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From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
FIRST READ: South Carolina is Biden’s last chance to stop Sanders
After Bernie Sanders steamrolled through Nevada, after Joe Biden (finally) finished second in the Silver State and after Pete Buttigieg took third, this coming Saturday’s contest in South Carolina is shaping up to be Biden’s final stand if he wants to win the nomination.
And it could also be Sanders’ opportunity to put the whole thing away – in less than a month.
REUTERS/Randall Hill
The good news for Biden is that NBC’s Craig Melvin is reporting that influential South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., will endorse the former vice president on Wednesday. This comes after Clyburn said on “Meet the Press” that he would be endorsing – but wouldn’t reveal that choice.
The bad news for Biden, however, is that he’s been losing ground in the Palmetto State: An online CBS/YouGov poll showed the former vice president at 28 percent in South Carolina – followed by Sanders at 23 percent, Tom Steyer at 18 percent, Elizabeth Warren at 12 percent and Pete Buttigieg at 10 percent.
Back in November, the same poll had it Biden 45 percent, Warren 17 percent and Sanders 15 percent.
And Steyer appears to be peeling away African-American support from Biden: Steyer gets 24 percent of the African-American vote in the new CBS/YouGov survey – compared with Biden’s 35 percent and Sanders’ 23 percent.
Here’s the thing about final stands: They rarely turn out well for the candidate who’s making one.
Remember Rudy Giuliani and Florida in 2008? Or Ted Cruz and Indiana in 2016?
And even if Biden hangs on in South Carolina, will he have the momentum (and money) to compete with Sanders on Super Tuesday?
Is it already too late to stop Sanders?
Say goodbye to Dems’ 2018 playbook?
Let’s get this out of the way: Yes, Bernie Sanders, if he becomes the Dem nominee, can win the general election.
2016 proved any party’s presidential nominee has – at least – a puncher’s chance.
But what Sanders as the Dem nominee would mean is that the party is giving up on the political playbook it used against Republicans in 2018. Pre-existing conditions. Referendum on Trump. Outsider candidates.
Indeed, it remains noteworthy that NONE of the Democratic candidates who flipped districts or states ran under the Bernie Sanders banner in 2018.
And those who did lost – like Andrew Gillum in Florida and Ben Jealous in Maryland.
One other thing: Sanders still doesn’t have an endorsement from a single Democratic politician who represents a swing congressional district, or a senator/governor representing a battleground state.
TWEET OF THE DAY: Sanders praises Castro (Nope, not Julian)
Russia, if you’re listening…
Beyond the results out of Nevada, the other big news from late last week concerned Russia and the 2020 election.
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that intelligence officials warned House lawmakers that Russia was interfering in the 2020 election to try to get Trump re-elected – “a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.”
On Friday, the Washington Post followed up that Russia was attempting to help Bernie Sanders, too.
And here’s how the Trump White House spun the news: “Well, there are these reports that they want Bernie Sanders to get elected president. That’s no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow. President Trump has rebuilt the American military to an extent we haven’t seen since Ronald Reagan. So, I don’t think it’s any surprise that Russia or China or Iran would want somebody other than President Trump,” National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told ABC.
2020 VISION: Breaking down Bernie’s big win in Nevada
After Bernie Sanders’ narrow victory in New Hampshire, what stands out from his performance in Nevada on Saturday was how well he did across the board in the Silver State.
He won among men (getting 38 percent), per the entrance poll. He won among women (30 percent).
He took 29 percent of the white vote, 27 percent of the African-American vote and a whopping 51 percent of the Latino vote.
He also won 49 percent of “very” liberals and 29 percent of “somewhat” liberals.
And he even tied Biden among moderates/conservatives.
That’s an impressive showing. Oh, and Sanders appeared to have won big among rank-and-file Culinary workers.
But here’s where Sanders underperformed: He got just 11 percent among seniors, 22 percent among moderates and 23 percent among white women with college degrees.
On the campaign trail today: The campaign activity turns to South Carolina: Joe Biden hits Charleston… Elizabeth Warren also stumps in the city with Ayanna Pressley… Pete Buttigieg holds an event in Arlington, Va., before stumping in Charleston and doing a town hall in CNN… And Buttigieg, Warren and Tom Steyer all speak at a “First in the South” dinner in Charleston.
Dispatches from NBC’s campaign embeds: As Bernie Sanders becomes the cemented Democratic front-runner, he’s starting to test a unity message in Texas, NBC’s Gary Grumbach reports: “Sen. Bernie Sanders focused on unity [Sunday] during a rally in Houston, Texas, one day after winning the Nevada caucus by what appears to be a considerable margin. ‘Understand that we are in this together,’ Sanders said. ‘There is no family in America, no family, you think you’re alone–you’re not. There’s no family in America that does not have its share of problems, trust me, alright? You think you’re the only family, you’re not. Every family has a problem and what America must be is an understanding that my family has got to care about your family. Your family has got to care about my family. And that as human beings we share a common humanity that we are in this together.’”
Meanwhile, NBC’s Marianna Sotomayor reports on Joe Biden from Sunday: “Biden would not say if he was concerned about whether Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wins in two of the three first [nominating] states could hurt him in South Carolina. But he did agree that Sanders was definitely coming in with momentum. However, Biden was quick to slow that momentum by pointing out key differences between them both, including their support for former President Barack Obama. ‘You know, Bernie wanted to primary Barack in 2012. You know, I’ve had his back the whole time. Bernie wanted to primary him,’ he said. ‘So I mean the idea that all of a sudden everybody’s real good buddies and real supportive of our agenda when we were president and vice president is kind of being exposed.’”
DATA DOWNLOAD: And the number of the day is … $14.7 million
$14.7 million.
That’s the amount of money, per Advertising Analytics, that Tom Steyer spent on TV and radio ads in Nevada, where he finished in fifth place in delegates (with 96 percent in).
That $14.7 million was EIGHT times more than the second-biggest advertiser in Nevada – Bernie Sanders. Here’s the ad spending breakdown:
Steyer: $14.7 million Sanders: $1.8 million Warren: $1.5 million Biden: $1.4 million Buttigieg: $1.2 million Klobuchar: $851,000 Persist PAC (pro-Warren): $796,000 Vote Vets (pro-Buttigieg): $598,000 Democratic Majority for Israel (anti-Sanders): $520,000 Unite the Country (pro-Biden): $470,000 Vote Nurses Values (pro-Sanders): $175,000
The good news for Steyer: His 18 percent in the CBS/YouGov poll of South Carolina qualifies him for Tuesday’s debate in South Carolina, NBC’s Ben Kamisar reports.
THE LID: Going over the oversample
Don’t miss the pod from Friday, when we did a deep dive into how our sample of black voters feels about the 2020 field.
ICYMI: News clips you shouldn’t miss
It’s official: Biden nabbed second place in Nevada — and Rep. Jim Clyburn will endorse him in South Carolina.
Pete Buttigieg wants another look at “inconsistencies” in the Nevada results.
Don’t miss this from over the weekend: “National security adviser Robert O’Brien said he’s seen ‘no evidence’ that Russia is seeking to aid President Donald Trump’s re-election, but he said reports that Russia is trying to boost Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign were ‘no surprise.’”
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Almost a year to the day after Jussie Smollett was first brought up on charges accusing him of staging a bizarre hate crime on himself, the former “Empire” actor is expected back at Chicago’s main criminal courthouse Monday to face a new criminal case connected to the incident.
A new indictment earlier this month alleged Smollett made four separate false reports to Chicago police in the aftermath of the Jan. 29, 2019, incident near Smollett’s residence in Chicago’s tony Streeterville neighborhood.
Smollett, who has since moved out of state, now must undergo the criminal court process anew. Early Monday, he is expected to learn which judge will be assigned to his new case, enter a plea of not guilty, and have a bond hearing.
Chicagoans enjoyed a mild weekend of weather, but winter is coming back. The National Weather Service Monday firmed up its forecast for a winter storm headed into the area, saying most of Illinois will be under a winter storm watch starting Tuesday morning. More than 6 inches of snow will be possible between Tuesday and Wednesday.
The snow isn’t expected in time to mar the morning commute, but by Tuesday’s evening rush hour, travel could become hazardous, meteorologists warned.
Illinois Republicans thought they had the perfect message for voters ahead of the November election. They could point to numerous federal investigations that have ensnared Democrats at the city, suburban and state level.
But that strategy took a hit last week when Republican President Donald Trump decided to commute the sentence of former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who attempted to shake down a children’s hospital for campaign funds and tried to sell President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.
It can be a long wait to get on the bus, as people ahead of you fumble for change and try to remember where they put their Ventra cards. That wait is one of the chief causes of bus delays, along with bad traffic.
In order to speed things up, the CTA this summer will introduce an “all-door” bus boarding pilot on two South Side routes. All-door bus boarding allows riders to enter a bus through both the front and rear doors.
Wrigley Field is a great place to watch a game, but truth be told, most Cubs fans probably prefer watching their team from the comfort of their homes, where it’s much less expensive and the bathroom is closer. As television shows go, the Cubs could be must-see TV in 2020 — at least if you’re able to see them, writes columnist Paul Sullivan.
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. . . No it does not have anything to do with leaping or with Celtic dancing. Check out The Old Farmer’s Almanac!
by Catherine Boeckmann: 2020 is a leap year! Find out why and what this means, and see when the next leap year will be. Plus, we’ll explain why leap years are necessary and share the fun folklore surrounding them.
WHAT IS A LEAP YEAR?
Simply put, a leap year is a year with an extra day—February 29—which is added nearly every four years to the calendar year.
Why Are Leap Years Necessary?
Adding an extra day every four years keeps our calendar aligned correctly with the astronomical seasons, since a year according to the Gregorian calendar (365 days) and a year according to Earth’s orbit around the Sun (approximately 365.25 days) are not the exact same length of time. Without this extra day, our calendar and the seasons would gradually get out of sync. (Keep reading for a longer explanation.)
Because of this extra day, a leap year has 366 days instead of 365. Additionally, a leap year does not end and begin on the same day of the week, as a non–leap year does.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT’S A LEAP YEAR?
Generally, a leap year happens every four years, which, thankfully, is a fairly simple pattern to remember. However, there is a little more to it than that.
Here are the rules of leap years:
1. A year may be a leap year if it is evenly divisible by 4.
2. Years that are divisible by 100 (century years such as 1900 or 2000) cannot be leap years unless they are also divisible by 400. (For this reason, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 were.)
If a year satisfies both the rules above, then it is a leap year.
Why Is 2020 a Leap Year?
2020 happens to follow the rules of leap years:
2020 divided by 4 equals 505 with no remainder.
2020 is not a century year, so it does not need to be divisible by 100 or 400.
Therefore, 2020 abides by the rules of leap years and will have an extra day added to it: Saturday, February 29.
WHEN IS THE NEXT LEAP YEAR? Leap Year Leap Day
2020 Saturday, February 29
2024 Thursday, February 29
2028 Tuesday, February 29
2032 Sunday, February 29
WHY DO WE NEED LEAP YEARS?
The short explanation for why we need leap years is that our calendar needs to stay aligned with the astronomical seasons.
One orbit of Earth around the Sun takes approximately 365.25 days—a little more than our Gregorian calendar’s nice, round number of 365. Because the calendar does not account for the extra quarter of a day that the Earth requires to complete its orbit around the Sun, it doesn’t completely align with the solar year.
Because of this .25 difference, our calendar gradually gets out of sync with the seasons. Adding an extra day, aka a “leap day,” to the calendar every 4 years brings the calendar in line and therefore realigns it with the seasons.
Without leap days, the calendar would be off by 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds more each year.
After 100 years, the seasons would be off by 25 days! Eventually, the months we call February and March would feel like summer months in the Northern Hemisphere.
The extra leap day adjusts this drift, but it’s not a perfect match: Adding a leap day every four years overcompensates by a few extra seconds each leap year, adding up to about three extra days every 10,000 years.
WHAT IS A LEAP DAY? AND A LEAPLING?
A “leap day” is the extra day in the leap year: February 29.
A “leapling” is a person born on a leap day. Any leap day babies out there? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
LEAP YEAR FACTS AND FOLKLORE
Ages ago, Leap Day was known as “Ladies Day” or “Ladies’ Privilege,” as it was the one day when women were free to propose to men. Today, Sadie Hawkins Day sometimes applies to Feb 29 (leap day), based on this older tradition./li>
According to folklore, in a leap year, the weather always changes on Friday.
“Leap year was ne’er a good sheep year” (old proverb)
Are Leap Years Bad Luck? Many feel that to be born on Leap Day, thereby becoming a “leapling,” is a sign of good luck. In some cultures, it is considered bad luck to get married during a leap year. We don’t know of any evidence supporting that marriage theory, but we do know that during leap years:
Rome burned (64)
Titanic sank (1912)
By the same token, also in leap years:
the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620)
Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is electricity (1752)
Gold was discovered in California (1848)
————————– Catherine Boeckmann is the Digital Editor and contributor to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Posted with full credit & Under The Fair Use Doctrine.
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Joe Biden still leads in the polls in South Carolina, but Bernie Sanders’ big win in Nevada means the rest of the field is chasing him. Also, more than 100,000 cheering fans greet President Trump at the start of a two-day visit to India. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.
Watch Video +
Democrats shift their focus to the South Carolina primary
Watch Video +
Sanders would be hardest Democrat for Trump to beat, GOP Senator Tim Scott says
Watch Video +
Black voters in South Carolina are crucial for Democratic candidates
Read Story +
California couple in their 70s found after 8 days in woods
Read Story +
Telling the complicated history of Charleston, South Carolina
On the menu today: a reminder that Bernie Sanders’s controversial remarks came when he was well into adult life; the grim outlook for Sanders in the general election in Florida and Pennsylvania; and why you shouldn’t always bet on the candidate who’s hot on social media.
People Will Discuss ‘Ancient History’ When the Nominee Is an Ancient Candidate
As winter turns to spring, and as spring turns to summer, prominent Democrats and left-leaning public voices will try to gaslight you. Some of the Democrats who are most worried about nominating Bernie Sanders right now will bury their doubts and objections down deep and insist that anyone who isn’t on board is some sort of unthinking lunatic, or that not being a Sanders supporter must reflect a complete endorsement of everything Donald Trump has done as president.
One of the arguments you are certain to hear in defense of Sanders, when others criticize his past stances and statements, is a variation of: “Why are you bringing up all this ancient history?”
The correct answer is: “Because you guys nominated an ancient candidate. You notice nobody’s talking about what Pete Buttigieg did in the … READ MORE
“Makes an original and compelling case for nationalism . . . A fascinating, erudite—and much-needed—defense of a hallowed idea unfairly under current attack.” — Victor Davis Hanson
President Trump has reversed his predecessor’s weakness toward Russia and developed an impressive track record against the Putin regime’s aggressive behavior.
Putin’s ability to project power is small and his economy is small, but the Russian leader has presided over a massive strategic nuclear weapons modernization aimed at obliterating the United States, full-scale nuclear warfare exercises against the US and its allies, and a Cold War-level campaign of subversion and spying against the US and its interests worldwide.
Phil Haney was a “bug guy” and a national treasure – an entomologist who proudly described how his skills in classification and following the focuses of his intensive research to “the nest” helped protect America against Sharia-supremacists, at home and abroad.
Phil was a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security where he performed such work brilliantly for Customs and Border Patrol for fifteen years. During much of that time, he was highly acclaimed by his superiors for ferreting out some 300 terrorists.
But in the Obama administration, his work was unwelcome, harassed and punished. Phil was subjected to nine different investigations, but fully exonerated each time. He retired and courageously blew the whistle on the Islamists and leftists who are still endangering us all.
Phil Haney died of a gunshot wound last week. Freedom is less secure today as a result.
This is Frank Gaffney.
With Diana West
DIANA WEST, Nationally syndicated columnist, Blogs at Dianawest.net, Author of Death of the Grown Up, American Betrayal, and Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy:
The sentencing of Roger Stone
The continuation of the anti-Trump conspiracy into 2020
Unemployment is at historic lows – for whites, for blacks, for Latinos, for Asians, for men, for women, for just about everybody. The stock market is up and so is consumer confidence. Even Americans who don’t like the president give him high marks on how he’s handling the economy. Wages… CONTINUE Read More »
Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news, is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. He has covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 13 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He won six Emmys at CBS, and seven at HBO, where he now reports for the widely acclaimed broadcast Real Sports. [Read More…]
NEVADA CAUCUSES: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) won the Nevada caucuses Saturday. With 96% of precincts reporting, Sanders won 47% of county convention delegates, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 20%, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) at 14%, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) at 10%. Megadonor Tom Steyer (D) received 5% and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) received 4%. (New York Times)
ENDORSEMENTS: House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn plans to endorse Biden on Wednesday. (Politico) Spiritual author Marianne Williamson (D) endorsed Sanders on Sunday. (CNN) Actor Clint Eastwood endorsed former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (D). (Wall Street Journal)
GA SEN SPECIAL: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) “said he will announce on Monday that the window to qualify for the race will be between March 2-6, the same period that other candidates seeking state office must officially declare their intention to run. The move is supported by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who signed an executive order last week that paved the way for the decision by formally calling for a special election.” The decision “would limit the already crowded field.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
TX SEN: The Houston Chronicle editorial board endorsed state Sen. Royce West (D) on Friday in his bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R), citing his decades in the state legislature building bipartisan coalitions. (Houston Chronicle)
TX-28: Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Rep. Henry Cuellar’s (D) campaign offices over the weekend, giving the incumbent a boost “in the homestretch of his hotly contested primary race, calling for a decisive win” over attorney Jessica Cisneros (D). (Texas Tribune)
NJ GOV: Gov. Phil Murphy (D) “disclosed Saturday he has a tumor on his kidney that is 90 percent likely to be cancerous and he will soon undergo surgery.” Murphy told reporters “that doctors caught it at an early stage and have ‘complete confidence’ they’ll be able to fully remove the tumor. He said he does not expect he’ll have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.” Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver (D) “will serve as acting governor while Murphy is incapacitated.” (NJ.com)
RI GOV: Former State Police Superintendent Brendan Doherty (D) “still has the itch to run for office. … Doherty, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2012 as a Republican but is now a registered Democrat, confirmed he has been having conversations with supporters about throwing his hat in the ring in the 2022 governor’s race.” (Boston Globe)
SC SEN: President Trump “will raise money in South Carolina before his North Charleston rally next week—for himself, the Republican Party, and” Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R) campaign. The Feb. 28 event will be Trump’s first “Palmetto State fundraiser designed in part to benefit Graham.” (McClatchy)
Sanders didn’t just win the Nevada caucuses on Saturday—he dominated his competition, receiving almost 50% of the county convention delegates (with 96% of precincts reporting). He showed his ability to build a coalition in the first state with a diverse electorate, assembling liberal, young, and Latino voters on his way to victory. His opponents should be nervous—California and Texas vote on Super Tuesday, and they have similar demographics to Nevada. There’s a chance that Sanders could have this thing wrapped up in the next 10 days. — Matt Holt
Fresh Brewed Buzz
“The FBI arrested a man connected to” former Rep. Katie Hill’s (D-CA) “congressional campaign, according to a federal complaint filed in California Wednesday. … the FBI arrested Arthur Dam, whose wife worked for Hill’s campaign, accusing him of coordinating four DDoS attacks against her opponent.” (BuzzFeed)
“One of” Bloomberg’s “strategies—deploying a large number of Twitter accounts to push out identical messages—has backfired. On Friday, Twitter began suspending 70 accounts posting pro-Bloomberg content in a pattern that violates company rules.” (Los Angeles Times)
“D.C. officials have sent 5,000 voter registration cards listing the wrong date for the District’s primary election, the elections board acknowledged Friday. Mailers with voter registration cards incorrectly stated that primary elections are held on the third Tuesday in June. The primary is June 2.” (Washington Post)
“In tapping” Justin Buoen “to manage her campaign, Klobuchar went for a trusted aide rather than an experienced Washington operative. Campaign experts said that’s not unusual—past candidates like” Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama “put home-state advisers in top presidential campaign jobs.” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch has a book deal. “Houghton Mifflin Harcourt confirmed … that it had acquired Yovanovitch’s planned memoir, currently untitled.” (AP)
Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell will be headlining an hour-long set called “Jason Isbell and Doug Jones: A Concert for One Alabama” to fundraise for Jones’ campaign on March 3. (Bama Politics)
OH-06 swung the highest percentage in favor of Donald Trump in 2016 from Mitt Romney’s 2012 numbers.
No one won Friday’s challenge. Here’s our challenge: Abraham Lincoln was the tallest president in history at 6 ft 4 in. Who was the shortest, and how tall was he?
“There is no way that this winter is ever going to end as long as this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don’t see any other way out.” (Groundhog Day)
Judge Judy, who endorsed former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg last month, has some advice for supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders: Step off. “I’ll… Read more…
Call him Karl Marx Jr. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic socialist from Vermont who is now the frontrunner for the 2020 presidential nomination, released a… Read more…
India played “Macho Man” by the Village People on Monday ahead of President Trump’s speech at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, India. There are estimates of… Read more…
Julian Assange’s lawyers are in court today in Great Britain. WikiLeaks says the US government confirmed that there are no known cases of anyone being… Read more…
Italian Prime Ministers Renzi and Conte have given different stories in response to Italian actions related to the Russian Collusion Hoax. The one thing everyone… Read more…
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By Kylee Zempel
Bernie Sanders, for all his flaws and eccentricities, is a genuine sympathetic leader, a quality the other serious contenders have yet to display. Full article
By Helen Raleigh
Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, China has expelled or effectively expelled nine foreign journalists as part of the government’s effort to control the narrative of China. Full article
By Mark Hemingway
Joshua Geltzer’s argument to strip states of congressional representation is just the latest in a long line of extremist claims from the left that get laundered through the media to appear as if they are ‘mainstream.’ Full article
By John Daniel Davidson
Like Trump, Sanders is tapping into a seething discontent in American life over who has power and who doesn’t. This isn’t Obama’s America anymore. Full article
By Chad Felix Greene
When I watch the advocacy for transgender transition in children, all I can see is an organized effort to ‘correct’ something that should never have been viewed as wrong in the first place. Full article
By Willis L. Krumholz
Treating child predation like a disease has put too much focus on rehabilitating criminals and too little focus on keeping children safe. Full article
By Sumantra Maitra
Like a risible sequel to the everlasting Star Wars franchise, an old story is back, just in time to delegitimize the next election. Full article
By Dana Loesch
CNN treated the town hall as if it were a professional wrestling match. I was once a CNN contributor, and I think highly of many people there, but I had a feeling I was being ambushed. Full article
By Michael Farris
A number of people in the rural areas of Virginia are openly exploring the idea of urging their county governments to leave the state of Virginia and join West Virginia. Full article
By Alyssa Cordova
Loneliness and a longing for intimacy are real and painful things too many people are experiencing, but pets aren’t the solution. Full article
By Melissa Langsam Braunstein
New definitions in the OED show that even something as mundane as a dictionary can help elevate and circulate bigoted language. Full article
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@DaybreakInsider
Texas Republican Kay Granger finds herself in a race reminiscent of the tea party primary challenges from the last decade. But her opponent could have one problem: The GOP isn’t the tea party. It’s Donald Trump’s party now. Read More…
On paper and in theory, Republicans’ chances of winning back the House look pretty good. But a district-by-district analysis reveals much longer odds, even if the Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders for president. Read More…
The FBI would no longer be able to purge incomplete gun background checks from its systems if legislation by Rep. Jimmy Panetta becomes law. The California Democrat introduced the bill Friday in response to a CQ Roll Call report that revealed the bureau purges hundreds of thousands of background checks each year. Read More…
President Donald Trump’s Western swing last week will provide plenty of material for campaign ads and fundraising blasts for down-ballot races. Rallies in Phoenix and Colorado Springs left no doubt that Republican Sens. Martha McSally of Arizona and Cory Gardner of Colorado will be tied to the president this fall. Read More…
OPINION — The news reports are right about one thing: These are divisive times. So when 403 members of Congress rally around an issue as sensitive as health care for seniors, it means something important. Medicare Advantage is not a Republican or Democratic idea, but an American value that unites us all. Read More…
OPINION — The issue of balance billing is getting fresh attention on Capitol Hill and with good reason: Patients should never receive a bill they didn’t expect or cannot afford. But proposed legislation in the House would empower insurers to reduce patient access to vital emergency air medical transport. Read More…
“There is so much that we share, shared values and ideals.”
“Thank you.”
Smollett was indicted on Feb. 11 on six counts of disorderly conduct.
Jackson rejected his lawyers’ arguments and defended her impartiality.
“We’re here and we’re with Bernie.”
“This negative propaganda about the virus began a couple of months ago and grew larger ahead of the election.”
February 24 2020
On the menu today: a reminder that Bernie Sanders’s controversial remarks came when he was well into adult life; the grim outlook for Sanders in the general election in Florida and Pennsylvania; and why you shouldn’t always bet on the candidate who’s hot on social media.
“Makes an original and compelling case for nationalism . . . A fascinating, erudite—and much-needed—defense of a hallowed idea unfairly under current attack.” — Victor Davis Hanson
Episode 6: The Difference between… 
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews… 
19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA
