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For more coverage of Hillary Clinton at Daily Kos, visit the Hillary Writers Circle.
For breaking news, follow First Amendment.
Look for Hillary-friendly open threads and hangouts throughout the day.
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Happy Saturday Morning, everybody.
A bit earlier than usual, and there was a lot of material that I was able to use, so this one is a bit larger than usual.
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Index:
1. Hillary’s Victory Fund starts investing in Democratic races across the country
2. Hillary and Bernie — Cash on Hand issue
3. DNC to offer Sanders a convention concession
4. Hillary’s Child Care and Paid Family Leave OpEd article in the Washington Post
5. Hillary’s Gun Control plans, Legislating from the bench
6. Trump. Trump. Trump.
7. Polls. Polls. Polls.
a. Primary polls
b. polls vs. Trump
8. Clash between Hillary and Bernie. Puerto Rico rescue plan agreed on between White House and the House. Hillary is for it, Bernie against it.
9. Celebrity Roundup
10. Misogyny Rules The 2016 Election. Is the left worse than the right?
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Let’s get to it:
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1. Hillary’s Victory Fund starts investing in Democratic races in battleground states
The Hillary Victory Fund has started getting monies to Democratic candidates in the staked-out 2016 battleground states.
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The AP reports:
Eyeing Senate, Clinton directing money to 2016 battlegrounds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton, seeking a governing coalition if she wins the White House, is pumping millions of dollars into key battleground states at the heart of her presidential map and Democrats' quest to regain control of the Senate.
The Democratic National Committee and state parties are spending about $2 million initially to build coordinated campaigns in eight battleground states with competitive Senate races. The money is being raised by Clinton's campaign through her Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that allows Clinton to raise large checks of more than $350,000 from wealthy donors.
This is awesome. Hillary is building the party up by financing tough Senate races in key battleground states. With her we don’t just get a potential President, but a true party leader. She knows how important winning the Senate is, and she’ll do everything she can do win the Senate back for us.
The fortunes of Clinton and the Democratic Senate candidates are tightly wound. Democrats need a net gain of five seats to recapture control of the Senate, which could be pivotal for Clinton to move her agenda through Congress if she wins the White House. And many Senate candidates could see their futures shaped by Clinton's performance.
The DNC has hired a few hundred field staffers and expects to bring on more organizers in the coming months. Many will be shifting over from working on the presidential campaigns of Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who recently laid off hundreds of field staffers.
Laid of workers from Bernie Sanders’ campaign, hired and employed courtesy of the Hillary Victory Fund. How poetic and ironic at the same time.
2. Hillary and Bernie — Cash on Hand issue
As some here were made aware last night, the latest FEC numbers are out. And they show Hillary with a comfortable $30 Million cash on hand. Hillary has had $30 Million or better cash on hand now for 6 of the last 7 reporting periods. However, Bernie Sanders started May with only $5.8 Million Dollars cash on hand. That is significant, because Bernie spent a lot more money than he took in via fundraising in April, an incredibly high, unsustainable burn rate. He took in $26.9 Million in April, but spent $38.6 Million in the same month. That left him cash poor going into May.
The LA Times reports:
Bernie Sanders running short of cash entering California, financial filings show
Money is becoming a challenge for Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders could finally be plagued with a problem that has dragged down insurgent presidential candidates in the past — running low on cash.
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But now the money appears to be drying up as the primary nears its end and Sanders faces increasingly long odds of winning the nomination, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Sanders spent $38.6 million in April but raised only $26.9 million, ending the month with $5.8 million, records show.
Meanwhile, Clinton started May with $30 million in the bank. She raised $25 million and spent $23.9 million in April.
It's a bad time for Sanders' pockets to be getting lighter. He's pledged to win California, which holds its primary on June 7, but campaigning here is notoriously expensive.
Ads in California are among the most expensive in the nation. And, it is a large state with several large media markets, each demanding its own advertising schedule, and each pricey.
ABC News has more on this issue:
Sanders Campaign Down to Less Than $6 Million in Cash
Bernie Sanders' campaign had less than $6 million at the start of May, a critical cash shortage as he makes an admittedly tough final play to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination from Hillary Clinton.
Sanders' rival had five times as much money, according to new Federal Election Commission filings, beginning the month with $30 million in the bank.
The two were on roughly equal fundraising footing last month, with Clinton and Sanders each raising more than $25 million. But the Vermont senator spent almost $39 million to Clinton's $24 million, the reports showed.
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Bernie Sanders' campaign had less than $6 million at the start of May, a critical cash shortage as he makes an admittedly tough final play to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination from Hillary Clinton.
Sanders' rival had five times as much money, according to new Federal Election Commission filings, beginning the month with $30 million in the bank.
The two were on roughly equal fundraising footing last month, with Clinton and Sanders each raising more than $25 million. But the Vermont senator spent almost $39 million to Clinton's $24 million, the reports showed.
I am highlighting this issue, and the precarious situation Bernie looks like he is in, because I want you to keep this in mind when we see some see change in the race over the next few days, some “peace” agreement struck between Team Bernie and the DNC or Bernie with Harry Reid, or Bernie with Hillary, or some other alignment. This might well be the reason why. If you are short on cash and you have to keep an expensive campaign going, you start running out of options fast.
To that end:
3. DNC to offer Sanders a convention concession
The Washington Post reports:
DNC to offer Sanders a convention concession
In an attempt to head off an ugly conflict at its convention this summer, the Democratic National Committee plans to offer a concession to Sen. Bernie Sanders — seats on a key convention platform committee — but it may not be enough to stop Sanders from picking a fight over the party’s policy positions.
Allies of both Clinton and Sanders have urged Democratic leaders to meet some of Sanders’s more mundane demands for greater inclusion at the Philadelphia convention. Their decision to do so is expected to be finalized by the end of the week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. But growing mistrust between Sanders supporters and party leaders have threatened to undermine that effort.
Even with the committee assignments, Sanders plans an aggressive effort to extract platform concessions on key policies that could prompt divisive battles at a moment when front-runner Hillary Clinton will be trying to unify the party. Among other issues, he plans to push for a $15 national minimum wage and argue that the party needs a more balanced position regarding Israel and Palestinians, according to a Sanders campaign aide who requested anonymity to speak candidly.
My personal take here is, no to the items that don’t explicitly overlap. Hillary won the nomination. She has won by every measure imaginable. Therefore, Team Hillary gets to dictate the platform. So, no to any foreign policy initiative like the mentioned Israel/Palestine position, or the $15 minimum wage. Bernie’s agenda was soundly rejected and defeated. Why would we make it our platform?
But, YES to a meeting of the minds on items where both are very close:
Make paid family leave a big plank of the platform.
Getting rid of the restaurant minimum wage loophole that pays servers only $2.13 an hour and then they rely solely on tips to make up the rest.
Put in a general agreement that Wall Street needs to be reigned. Hillary’s Wall Street plan earned the praise of Elizabeth Warren and many economists, is widely seen as the better plan by many. A general point about the need to reign Wall Street in can certainly be part of the platform.
The same is true for a general agreement on health care, in which the platform can include the striving for universal health care, goal being to insure every American. To that end Bernie is proposing a Single Payer health care system, whereas Hillary is proposing building on the ACA with a public option that allows “Medicare for All” and is slated to eventually insure all Americans, and initially it includes a buy-in to the popular Medicare program as early as at 50 years of age (right now Medicare kicks in at 65 years of age), which would insure an additional 7 Million people with Medicare. Recently the ACA reported that it achieved a 90% insurance rate for the first time in US history. Over 90% of Americans now have health insurance.
4. Hillary’s Child Care and Paid Family Leave OpEd article in the Washington Post
Hillary wrote an OpEd for the Washington Post on the all-important issue of Child Care in this country. It was published yesterday.
As you may recall, last week Hillary proposed a 10% cap on child care costs. That means nobody should be made to pay more than 10% of their income for child care. The rest would be made up via subsidies and tax credits.
Here is Hillary about this issue in her own words:
Hillary Clinton: Child care now costs more than rent. Here’s how to fix this crisis.
By Hillary Clinton May 20 at 12:53 PM
Jennifer lives in Loudoun County. She has three young boys. She pays $2,500 every month for child care. That’s more than her mortgage.
This month in Northern Virginia, I met several moms and dads who told me similar stories.
In every state in the country, child care for two kids now costs more than the average rent. You read that right — child care costs more than housing. And in many states, it’s even more expensive than college tuition.
For parents who need to work, this is more than an inconvenience. It’s a crisis.
A recent national survey found that more than three-quarters of mothers and half of fathers say they’ve had to pass up work opportunities, switch jobs or even quit working because there was no other way to pay for child care. But working fewer hours or dropping out of the workforce altogether can have long-term consequences for families’ incomes.
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We’ve got to make investing in child care a national priority, especially for young parents, many of whom are trying to pay off student loans.
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Many workers don’t have paid family leave. Many women don’t even get a single paid day off to give birth. The pressures are so intense that some workers worry that taking an earned vacation day will be seen as slacking off.
As president, I would work to make quality, affordable child care available to all families.
I’m committed to increasing federal investments and incentivizing states so that no family ever has to pay more than 10 percent of its income for child care. This is a big idea, and I’m determined to fight for it.
Let’s double our investment in programs I helped develop as first lady: Early Head Start and the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership program. These programs bring an evidenced-based curriculum to child care and make sure kids get the best possible start in life, no matter how much money their families have.
Let’s lighten the burden on the one-quarter of college students who are parents by providing scholarships of up to $1,500 per year for child care.
And because none of this would be possible without talented and hardworking child-care professionals, let’s make sure we’re paying them a decent wage, too.
In addition to affordable child care, working parents deserve the security of knowing they won’t lose income — or their jobs — for taking care of themselves or a loved one. One dad in Virginia told me that to stay home for his newborn’s early days, he had to cobble together sick days and vacation days. Many people can’t do even that.
It’s time we stopped being the only advanced economy in the world that doesn’t offer workers paid family leave. That’s why I strongly support thepaid family leave proposal the D.C. Council is pursuing. We should encourage states and local communities to take action as long as Congress refuses to act.
Under my plan, working Americans would earn up to seven days of paid sick leave each year. They would be guaranteed up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to care for a new baby or sick family member or to recover from an illness or injury. And we can fully fund this program by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share of taxes.
It’s all too easy for “kitchen table issues” such as these to get overlooked in our politics. But they matter to families. They matter to kids. And they’ve been the work of my life.
So until America’s moms and dads can sleep a little easier, I’m going to keep bringing them up.
This will help many, many people. Most families are impacted by these high costs for child care, many families have to make the tough choice between one parent keeping their job or staying home with a newborn. America will be transformed into a much better, kinder and loving, nation if these plans, all paid for under a workable and realistic budget, are made into reality.
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5. Hillary’s Gun Control plans, Legislating from the bench
Trump was endorsed by the NRA yesterday. And he left his usual toxic droppings all over that event. But it’s all the same, because Hillary is going to get serious about fighting the NRA, a very powerful lobby, tooth and nails, and make some important progress on the gun control front.
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A developing story, and potentially very important when it comes to gun control, is Hillary’s opposition to the Heller Gun Rights ruling.
Bloomberg reports:
Hillary Clinton Opposes Heller Gun Rights Ruling, Adviser Says
Hillary Clinton believes a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that is the linchpin of an individual's right to own a gun was "wrongly decided," her policy adviser told Bloomberg Politics on Friday.
"Clinton believes Heller was wrongly decided in that cities and states should have the power to craft common sense laws to keep their residents safe, like safe storage laws to prevent toddlers from accessing guns," Maya Harris, a policy adviser to Clinton, said in an e-mailed statement. "In overturning Washington D.C.'s safe storage law, Clinton worries that Heller may open the door to overturning thoughtful, common sense safety measures in the future."
The stance by Clinton, the all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee, carries potentially profound implications for the future of gun rights in the U.S.
In striking down a longstanding handgun ban in the District of Columbia, the D.C. v. Heller ruling marked the first time the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protected an individual's right to own a firearm for lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home.
The author of the contentious 5-to-4 opinion was Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. Republicans who control the Senate have vowed to block the confirmation of a successor until the next president is chosen. If Clinton, a lawyer before she entered politics, becomes president and chooses a nominee who reflects her view, a future Supreme Court could revisit, and potentially overturn, that ruling. Such a scenario could permit state and local governments to take stricter steps to restrict the sale of firearms in attempt to curb gun violence.
In addition, with several justices poised for possible retirements in the coming years—as of Election Day, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be 83, Anthony Kennedy will be 80 and Stephen Breyer will be 78—the next president's picks could have a profound impact on the future of gun rights in the country.
I am getting the idea that Hillary is poised to bring about major changes to gun laws in this country with a liberal/Progressive Supreme Court revisiting many of the previous case laws that profoundly changed gun rights in this country, one example being the Heller vs. DC case highlighted in this article. When people tell you that the NRA is too strong, that Congress will never agree to any gun control measures, keep the Supreme Court in mind. Important changes to many of our current laws (not just gun control) can come once the Supreme Court tilts into our favor, which it will automatically with Hillary’s election as she’ll replace Scalia with a Progressive judge. Gun control changes via court rulings, legislation from the bench. Works for me, as it should for any Progressive.
Gabby Giffords tweeted:
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6. Trump. Trump. Trump.
What would a news day be without Trump? Do we even remember those days? Vaguely, right? Well, he’ll be with us daily until November. Let’s see what’s up with the Fascist:
Elizabeth Warren has shot off a few more salvos in Trump’s direction via Twitter yesterday. She has gotten under Trump’s skin, no doubt, and she continues to belittle Trump and tell the world how ridiculous he is.
Let’s see how Trump responds. The Warren/Trump twitter feud has been pretty entertaining, to say the least.
Next on the Trump front:
Team Hillary made Morning Joe retract a big error, another one of Trump’s big lies.
PoliticusUSA has the scoop:
Hillary Clinton Forces Joe Scarborough To Correct A Massive Donald Trump Lie
The Hillary Clinton campaign stopped a Trump lie and a Trump enabler dead in their tracks by forcing Joe Scarborough to correct a lie that Trump uttered during a Morning Joe interview on the air.
Scarborough asked Trump if he would have stayed out of Libya. Trump answered, “I would have stayed out of Libya. I would have stayed out of Iraq too.”
At the time, Trump’s lie generated no pushback from Joe Scarborough.
The Hillary Clinton campaign was listening and they forced Scarborough to correct Trump’s lie on the air:
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Trump lied, blatantly, about Lybia, and Team Hillary caught him and corrected the lie. Joe had to correct it right on the air. Of course, in typical Morning Joe style they offered a weak “So a little bit of a disconnect there”. No, a massive lie. Come on.
Also on Trump, Melissa McEwen from Shakesville wrote an open letter to Trump, and it is worth a read:
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Dear Donald, From One Pissed Off American Woman
Dear Donald Trump:
Over and over, I have heard you say that a Trump presidency would be good for women. That you cherish women. That nobody respects women more than you do.
This, sir, is unmitigated garbage.
There are lots and lots of people who respect women more than you do.
Any person who doesn’t use sexist slurs or demean women with whom they have disagreements by calling them fat, ugly, on the rag, etc. respects women more than you do.
Any person who doesn’t say terrible things about immigrants—at least half of whom are women—respects women more than you do.
Any person who doesn’t call for a ban on Muslims—at least half of whom are women—respects women more than you do.
Any person who does not support nuclear proliferation, withdrawal from NATO, or any other of your reckless foreign policy suggestions, respects women more than you do.
Any person who supports reproductive choice, family leave, early childcare, universal healthcare, and a robustly funded social safety net respects women more than you do.
Any person who doesn’t refuse to support minimum wage increases, who doesn’t tell people earning low wages just to work harder, who does treat the gendered pay gap with the seriousness it deserves, respects women more than you do.
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It goes on like that.
One of the best put downs of Trump you’ll see all year, I think. Check it out.
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Of course, in her great CNN interview with Andrew Cuomo Hillary put Trump in his place.
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7. Polls. Polls. Polls.
There have been some interesting and telling polls over the last few days. Let’s review them. They are all looking pretty good right now. Let’s start with two primary polls:
a. Puerto Rico primary poll
CLINTON POISED FOR BIG WIN IN PUERTO RICO PRIMARY
Continuing our coverage of the 2016 Elections March-April Puerto Rico poll, today we present the results regarding the presidential race in the US territory. As expected, Democrats dominate, in particular Hillary Clinton, who looks like the likely winner of the June 5 contest. Registered voters were asked during March and April, that if they had a vote, which of the then-candidates for the US presidency would they prefer.
Hillary 65.87% — Bernie 34.13%
PR is a big Democratic state. Trump didn’t fare well in comparison to either Democrat, although Hillary did best in any matchup, including when the choices were between Hillary, Bernie and Trump:
The poll also shows the former Secretary of State with a net favorability of 64%, compared to Sanders’ 34%.
Looks like PR is strong Hillary country, as widely expected.
Benchmark Politics has an informative and detailed primer on the PR primary, well worth a read:
A Look into the Puerto Rican Democratic Primary
b. New Jersey poll — Quinnipiac
Poll |
Date |
Sample |
MoE |
Clinton |
Sanders |
Spread |
RCP Average |
4/1 - 5/16 |
-- |
-- |
55.0 |
38.0 |
Clinton +17.0 |
Quinnipiac |
5/10 - 5/16 |
696 LV |
3.7 |
54 |
40 |
Clinton +14 |
Monmouth |
5/1 - 5/3 |
301 LV |
5.7 |
60 |
32 |
Clinton +28 |
Rutgers |
4/1 - 4/8 |
292 RV |
6.3 |
51 |
42 |
Clinton +9 |
Hillary looks to be comfortably ahead in New Jersey right now. New Jersey is becoming more and more likely to put Hillary over the pledged delegate threshold of 2,026. In other words, Hillary is likely to have won the nomination before California results are known.
Speaking of which, 538 shows Hillary with a very strong 93% chance of winning the California primary.
California Democratic Primary
Their model currently predicts a 61% to 37% win for Hillary in California.
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b. Polls vs. Trump
Much has been made about that Foxnews poll that showed Trump moving ahead of Hillary in a head to head poll. A day later CBS/NYTimes shows a much different result. In the CBS poll Hillary is 6% ahead of Trump. Foxnews has shown Trump ahead of Hillary in January as well, the only poll out of over 50 to do so. And in November. I go with the CBS poll instead, for my money.
Hillary Clinton Leads Donald Trump in Latest New York Times/CBS Poll
In a new poll released Thursday by The New York Times and CBS News, the former Secretary of State and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leads billionaire buffoon and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump by six points – 47 to 41 – among general election voters.
While the survey shows both Trump and Clinton with favorability ratings under water, Trump performs slightly poorer with a 55 percent unfavorable rating among the broader electorate. Clinton is seen in an unfavorable light by 52 percent of voters.
About half of those surveyed believe the former Secretary of State has the right kind of temperament to be president, while seven out of 10 said Trump does not.
Trump’s dismal performance among key voting blocs gives Clinton the edge going into November, the poll shows.
Among women voters, a whopping 60 percent view Trump unfavorably. A scant 14 percent of voters under the age of 30 view him positively, and nearly 70 percent of nonwhite voters have a negative opinion of Trump – a kiss of death to any candidate hoping to win a national election in 2016.
Also of note, a poll from Foxnews Latino Decisions. Hillary beats Trump with Latinos by almost 40% in that poll, 62% to 23%.
Poll: Trump trails Clinton by nearly 40 points with Latinos
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump faces a serious challenge with Latinos, according to a Fox News Latino poll published Friday, trailing Hillary Clinton among those voters by nearly forty points.
Clinton leads Trump 62% to 23% with Latino voters, according the poll out Friday. And 74% said they have an unfavorable opinion of the likely Republican standard-bearer.
"Much was made during the 2012 election about Mitt Romney's dismal performance among Latino voters (27 percent)," Fox reports. "But Trump's current 23 percent ... paired with the 74% unfavorable rating has the real estate mogul facing a monumental task if he wants to win over Latinos."
Finally, in this segment, the latest Florida poll released Friday pitting Hillary and Trump against each other shows Hillary in the lead by 2%. Florida has shown a relatively consistent lead for Hillary over Trump, no doubt due to the fact that most Hispanics/Latinos dislike Trump strongly, and Florida has a large percentage of them. If Hillary wins the 19 states that have voted Democratic for 6 consecutive cycles now, plus brings in Florida, that’s the election won right there. So, Florida is very important this time around. It will be one of the top battlegrounds, as will be, once again, Ohio and Virginia.
8. Clash between Hillary and Bernie. Puerto Rico rescue plan agreed on between White House and the House. Hillary is for it, Bernie against it.
A real policy difference on the Puerto Rico bailout plan between Hillary and Bernie has emerged yesterday evening.
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Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clash over Puerto Rico rescue bill
The White House and the House reached a deal late Wednesday to aid Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that has amassed $70 billion in debt and has been languishing in recession for nearly a decade. The Senate is expected to go along with the bill.
Clinton isn't thrilled. She has "serious concerns" about parts of the plan, but she believes Congress should pass it and President Obama should sign it quickly.
"We must move forward with this legislation," Clinton said Friday. "Otherwise, without any means of addressing this crisis, too many Puerto Ricans will continue to suffer."
Sanders, who is challenging Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, said, "I am proud to stand in strong opposition to this bill." He suggested the rescue plan would benefit Wall Street "while workers, senior citizens and children are punished."
The clash between Clinton and Sanders comes weeks before Puerto Rico's Democratic primary on June 5.
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The Obama administration thinks the top priority is to give Puerto Rico a clear path to restructure its debts, meaning the island might be able to delay payments or not pay back the full amount. The PROMESA bill does provide an option for debt restructuring.
Here we have a case where this bill, while not perfect, would bring relief to Puerto Rico in the form of debt restructuring and also debt forgiveness for a portion of the $70 Billion that is currently owed. Bernie’s opposition centers on Wall Street’s original role in how a portion of the debt load was acquired in the first place. A valid criticism, perhaps. Still, many people suffer. Puerto Rico suffers tremendously right now, is in the midst of a massive crisis. Against that back drop I think Hillary’s position here is the right one. Provide instant relief, then as President make sure the oversight board is acting in the best interest of the Puerto Rican people.
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9. Celebrity Roundup
Now to the somewhat lighter side of things.
Julia Roberts tweets her support for Hillary with a rather moving dedication:
Colbert talks about Hillary, Bernie, Nevada incident, Nader, etc. Funny!
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What’s with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s obsession with Hillary now? Last week he gave “advice” to her, in the form of (paraphrased) “get a VP like me, I would be very vocal and put Trump in his place.”
Chuck Todd followed up with him yesterday on the VP issue:
Mark Cuban is 'absolutely' open to being Hillary Clinton's vice president
After Cuban joked to CNN that Clinton needs a running mate who is "someone like me who could just throw bombs at Donald [Trump]," Cuban fielded a follow-up question from NBC's Chuck Todd.
"If she really did come to you, would you listen?" Todd asked in a taping for an episode of "Meet the Press" that will air on Sunday.
"Absolutely," Cuban, a "shark" investor on ABC's "Shark Tank" program said. "But the key would be she would have to go more to [the] center.
"I like the fact that Senator Clinton has thought-out proposals. That's a good thing because at least we get to see exactly where she stands. But I think Senator Sanders has dragged her a little too far to the left. Things like college tuition and other business elements that really I think could hurt the economy. If she's willing to listen, if she's willing to hear other sides of things, then I'm wide open to discussing it."
Uh, ok. No. Hillary’s college compact is not negotiable. Exit stage left now, Mark.
Finally, in this segment, an appearance from someone rather unexpected. It is Mike Dukakis, former Democratic Party leader, former candidate for the Presidency, now teaching professor at Northeastern U and UCLA, offering advice to the candidates.
Dukakis offers firsthand advice in Hyannis speech
HYANNIS — Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was critical of Donald Trump, and perhaps more surprisingly of Bernie Sanders, as he gave a characteristically candid keynote address on this year’s national election at a Harvard Club of Cape Cod luncheon Friday. After a brief introduction by Harvard Club of Cape Cod President Alexander Rossolimo, Dukakis shared some wisdom from those successes, with critical words for several candidates. “I’m not happy about it,” he said, when an audience member asked about Sanders’ determination to be as difficult as possible to Hillary right up to the end. “It’s very tough to pull back and say, we gave it our best shot, we think we made an impact, but now we've got to go to work with the person that’s won and really make this thing happen. I hope he will do that sooner rather than later.”
Good advice. Time for Bernie to pivot to supporting the nominee and the party, even as you still go for more delegates in the remaining contests.
“My advice to my party … is to take this election very seriously,” he said. “It’s an opportunity not just to win the presidency but to transform the Congress. To do so, he said, the Democratic Party should run a “50-state campaign,” with grass-roots, precinct-based organization.
He also said Hillary Clinton, whom he sees as the presumptive Democratic nominee, should have strong, well-recognized surrogates who can shield her from personal attacks and fight back against them. “You’ve got to be ready, and have a strategy to deal with that. In this case, it has to be handled very carefully and skillfully. The last thing we need is getting Hillary Clinton dragged down into the muck with this guy.”
Mike Dukakis also had some choice comments for Trump. Click on the link for a further read.
10. Misogyny Rules The 2016 Election. Is the left worse than the right?
Finally, a story that is a timely and hard hitting article on Misogyny in 2016 politics. It is quite long, and I can only publish excerpts. It gives the perspective of a seasoned journalist who is also a Socialist. The author asks if the left is worse than the right when it comes to misogyny:
Misogyny Rules The 2016 Election. Is the left worse than the right?
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I’ve been a Socialist all my life. My parents were Socialists and for a time–during the dangerous House UnAmerican Activities hearings – my father was a Communist. The story about my parents’ elopement was not that they were too young (they were) or that they were still in college (they were), but that my mother’s father wouldn’t allow my mother to "marry a Commie."
Like my father, I joined the Communist Party in college. But while my father was a card-carrying Communist for years, I left the CPUSA before I left college. I had been lured by a charismatic professor, but I was a budding feminist and the sexism within the far left stunned me, even as a teenager. Women were adjuncts at the meetings, even though the women I knew within the CPUSA were obvious leaders. Yet there we all were, every meeting, making coffee, putting out pamphlets and leaflets, setting up the chairs and placing ashtrays around the room, bringing cookies we had baked the night before. After the meetings we were the ones doing the clean-up. Like wives to the movement.
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Over the years of my journalistic career I have written extensively about women and poverty. Lesbians and poverty. GBT people and poverty. People of color and poverty. How could Socialism not be the most important political movement? If we fixed the dramatic economic disparities between men and women, straights and LGBT, whites and people of color, wouldn’t everything else – notably gender/sex discrimination, racism and homophobia sort themselves out?
Then came the 2016 election season.
Was I lured by Bernie Sanders the way I had been lured by my professor in college? To paraphrase another American politician, You betcha!
But then, as was the case with my college foray into Communism, came the sexism. So. Much. Sexism.
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Most shocking since this primary began a year ago, is that it hasn’t been the GOP or Donald Trump and his followers who have reminded me how misogynist America still is. It’s been Bernie Sanders and his Bernie Bros.
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On May 14, the battle began when Sanders supporters accused Roberta Lange, chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party, of unfairly excluding Sanders delegates who were not registered Democrats. Some of Hillary Clinton’s delegates were disqualified for the same reason.
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On May 17 Boxer, who is the same age as Sanders, spoke out about her experience, saying "Sanders’ supporters made me feel threatened." Lucy Flores, an assembly woman from Nevada who was in attendance and who is a Sanders supporter, released a statement condemning the violence which reads in part, "Actions at the convention clearly crossed the line. Progressive need to speak out against those: making threats against someone’s life, defacing private property, and hurling vulgar language at our female leaders. Regardless of whether you agree with the leadership of our Chairwoman Roberta Lange, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES do her actions warrant being harassed, insulted with misogynistic vulgarities and or threatened in any way."
According to the Nevada Democrats, Lange received thousands of phone calls and several texts a minute for days after her private cell phone number and home phone number were published on Twitter and Facebook by Sanders supporters. Threats to her family, including children, were made. On May 18, NPR politics reporter Tamara Keith included some of the messages in her report on the convention chaos. Most had to be bleeped for language. But one chilling message calmly called for Lange’s public execution. "People like you should be hung in a public execution to show this world that we won't stand for this sort of corruption."
Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid (D-NV) requested an apology from Sanders. None was forthcoming. Although Sanders had previously said months ago there was no place for such behavior in his campaign, rather than call it out Sanders took aim at the Democratic Party in his speech at a California rally on May 17, right after he won the Oregon primary and Clinton won Kentucky.
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The misogyny is thick. So thick. There’s a racial slant to it, as voters of color have overwhelmingly chosen Clinton and Sanders supporters are overwhelmingly white and black women have led this election in ways the mainstream media has ignored.
But what is so hard to accept as I see people who should be embracing the first woman president, who should be looking hard at Clinton’s thorough and wonky and oh-so-prepared proposals for how to make America more equal and egalitarian and fair, is that the Left of which I have been a part since my literal birth and infancy as a Red Diaper Baby, looks so like the Right to which I have been opposed for just as long.
So many years have passed since I was that 16 year old Communist. But so little has changed for women. Maybe Hillary Clinton will get the chance to change all that. But until then, we are all still—Right or Left–metaphorically making coffee and baking cookies and waiting for our turn to speak and be heard.
There is a lot more to read in this story. Please read it in its entirety.
Alright, that’s it for this week’s version of the Saturday Hillary News and Views. Thanks for reading.
And have a great Weekend!