Justice Scalia’s Passing Portends a Bitter Partisan Showdown
Apparently, the GOP thinks that Black Presidents only get 3/5ths of a term
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia moved on to his final judgment day over the weekend. The nation’s conservatives skipped past mourning mode for a man who’d immeasurably helped their causes and went directly to saber rattling.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, en route to his annual visit to the US Virgin Islands, wasted no time in letting it be known that President Obama shouldn’t waste his time trying to pick a replacement.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in a statement. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.” [Read more…]
Pragmatic Realism Inc: Who Wants the Era of Big-Program Liberalism Over?
Last week, in a New York Times editorial, Mark Schmitt joined the chorus of clear-eyed “realists” chiming in against Bernie Sanders’ bold agenda in “Is the Era of Big-Program Liberalism Over?”
While acknowledging the political appeal and strategic advantages of universal programs, Schmitt argued that, given the presumably inevitable constraints of the present, the future belongs to an incrementalism that is “most interesting and novel for the absence of big, universal programs that require legislative action.”
This approach to policy forgoes the need for tax increases on the rich and corporations and instead “test[s] the limits of what government can do by rearranging the pieces of existing programs, using regulations, incentives to states, tax credits and ‘nudges’ informed by behavioral economics in place of direct spending.” [Read more…]
The GOP Courts Latinos
Stop Playing Word Games: Debate Moderators Must Ask Honest Questions About Abortion
By Jodi Jacobson / RH Reality Check
The media loves to obsess about—and stoke controversy around—abortion and contraception. Journalists and talk show hosts can endlessly plumb these long-simmering issues for ratings and sound bites. On the Sunday talk shows, in radio interviews, and presidential debates, politicians exclaim with abandon their support for any number of restrictions and laws, using their so-called pro-life stances to gin up their bases like matadors swinging a red cloak in front of a riled-up bull.
Rarely, however, do journalists stop to ask these politicians: Exactly what is the evidence for your position? And I have never heard anyone ask for some deeper reflection by a politician on the consequences of treating the lives of millions of people and families like so many political poker chips to bargain away at the election table.
After all, when some powerful senator blithely declares he “chooses life,” he’s not choosing to pay the medical bills for, diaper, feed, clothe, nurture, educate, and make a lifelong commitment to that child. He is leaving that to someone else who becomes a parent for the rest of their life, whether they wanted to be or not, or can afford to, or not. [Read more…]
New Hampshire Voters Give the Establishment a Middle Finger Salute
The first actual voting in the 2016 presidential primaries took place last night and the frustrations of the people manifested themselves by way of solid victories for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (+22%) and The Donald (+19%).
Today I’ll celebrate my one thousandth post at San Diego Free Press by sharing some observations on the implications of these victories.
The New York Times analysis of voting patterns showed Sanders winning with majorities from men, women, first-time voters, past voters, non-gun owners, middle-income people, and low-income people. Hilary Clinton won voters 65+ and households earning more than $200,000 annually. The Democratic candidates split voters in the 45-64 age demographic.
Trump carried every major GOP demographic group: men, women, young voters, old voters, high school-educated voters, college-educated voters, voters who make less than $50,000 per year and voters who make more than $100,000 per year. [Read more…]
June Vote Set for San Diego Minimum Wage Increase
Voters in the city of San Diego will get a chance to weigh in on an ordinance providing stepped increases in the minimum wage and up to five earned sick days annually in the June 2016 primary election.
A historic wrong will be righted with public approval of the measure, implementation of which was delayed by a deceptive petition campaign financed by out of town interests whose business model depends on government assistance to their employees.
The original ordinance was approved in the summer of 2014, following months of City Council president Todd Gloria attempting and essentially failing to get business community input. Mayor Kevin Faulconer vetoed the measure. The City Council overrode the veto, 6-3, voting along party lines. [Read more…]
Faulconer Flunky Dukes It Out With Saldaña in UT Interview
Today’s Union-Tribune interview with mayoral candidate Lori Saldaña read like a debate between the former Assemblywoman with Mayor Faulconer’s campaign manager Jason Roe. This was coverage reminiscent of the Copley era.
Rather than give Saldaña a clear shot at explaining her views and critiques (and she has plenty) of the present regime, the Union-Tribune tapped the mayoral pit bull to refute her point by point.
This reminds me very much of the old days around the paper, wherein any viewpoints counter to “everybody knows” were quickly smothered with officially blessed counterpoints. [Read more…]
Iowa Caucuses: Trump Trumped, Hillary Feels the Bern
The first scene from the first act of the drama that is the 2016 presidential election has ended. Today we’ll look at jubilant winners and sore losers, the spin and the spun, of the Iowa caucuses.
Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ended up with the closest contest in state Democratic caucus history. Clinton was awarded 700.59 state delegate equivalents, versus 696.92 for Sanders, with 171,109 Democratic voters participating. Both campaigns celebrated the results.
Ted Cruz led the Republican pack, beating out The Donald. Coming in at a close third, Marco Rubio is on his way to becoming the candidate of choice for conservatives who’d like a little less cray-cray in the mix. According to ABC News, turnout for Republican caucuses was estimated to be more than 180,000, beating the previous record of 121,354 caucus goers set in 2012. Democratic turnout, by the way, was down by 29% from 2008. [Read more…]
Clinton Democrats in 2016: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here
Whatever happens in today’s Iowa caucuses, one thing is abundantly clear—when confronted with a credible challenge from the left in the form of the Bernie Sanders, the response of much of the leadership of the Democratic Party and their allies in the corporate media has been to defend the status quo with great zeal even if it meant borrowing tropes from the right.
Whether it was red-baiting from Thomas Freidman or condescension mixed with an appeal to “realism” from Paul Krugman, the drumbeat was loud and consistent: Sanders’ agenda, with it’s direct ties to the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and FDR was simply an unrealistic option in the neoliberal era.
It didn’t matter if it was Clinton proxies stirring fears about taxes, terrorism, and government health care or commentators on CNN and MSNBC bloviating about how Sanders’ views were the progressive past to Clinton’s pragmatic future, the fix was in. After the last few months of the Democratic presidential campaign, it has never been more clear that Noam Chomsky’s critique of America’s political system being dominated by the “two wings of the business party” working in concert with a corporate propaganda machine is spot on. [Read more…]
Local Politics Gets Interesting: Block Drops Out, Castellanos Gets Scorned, and Saldaña Makes It Official
As January draws to a close, political campaigns in San Diego are beginning to take shape.
San Diego’s Marty Block took to the state senate floor on Thursday to announce his decision not to run for re-election, clearing the way for Assemblywoman Toni Atkins to take his seat.
City Attorney candidate Rafael Castellano’s run of local club support came to an end last night when the influential Democrats for Equality failed to endorse any candidate, following a forum where a past lawsuit for sexual harassment emerged as an issue.
And, as expected, former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña made her challenge to incumbent Mayor Kevin Faulconer official yesterday at a press conference in Old Town.
[Don’t forget! Friday’s Starting Line includes the Weekly Progressive Calendar] [Read more…]
Trump Nixes Fox Debate, Looks to General Election
As much as I hate to do it, I’m gonna give The Donald the notice he so desperately craves today. The GOP’s leading candidate said “no” to the voice of republicanism’s Thursday night showcase of presidential candidates. A popular point of view following his decision to pull out of the Fox debate has been this could be the end of Donald Trump’s candidacy.
I beg to disagree.
This decision not to play nice with Fox News represents, in my opinion, a shift in strategy for Trump. He’s decided getting the Republican nomination is a done deal and is turning his focus to the general election. [Read more…]
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