"Latinos para Trump," the sign says. At the bottom in the fine print, "Paid for by Donald J. Trump for President, Inc." In English. Backed up by dubious polling, with few if any among us fooled? Something Mitch McConnell might have dreamed up with a bit of aid with the cooking from Pence.

Politico has the image with the story, and you can marvel at the flag in the image, and the fine print in English. (Flag made in China along with matching GOP flag lapel pins. No tariff.)

President Donald Trump’s new favorite talking point is a claim that his recent crusade for a southern border wall, which draws furious accusations of xenophobia and racism, has made him more likable to Hispanics.

“When you look at the Hispanic polls, I’m up 19 percent,” Trump said at the White House last week. “And the reason I’m up 19 percent … I think it’s the fact that they understand, better than anybody, what’s going on at the border.”

It was at least the third time Trump has publicly referenced the surprising number, including in a Jan. 27 tweet in which he argued his monthlong standoff with Congress was a political success. It appears to come from an NPR/Marist poll that shows his approval rating among Hispanics soaring from 31 percent in December to 50 percent this month.

“It’s an astonishing number,” Fox News host Pete Hegseth told viewers days after the Jan. 17 poll was released.

But veteran pollsters who spoke with POLITICO called the number suspect, citing issues with the poll’s sample size and methodology. Broader polling data show little sign that Trump’s standing with Hispanics is on the rise.

To the consternation of Democrats, however, it doesn’t seem to be falling, either. Trump’s dire rhetoric about immigration seems to have done little damage to his modest — but not insignificant — support among Hispanics.

Trump’s support among Latinos and Hispanics in three other polls taken in January — 18 percent in a ABC/Washington Post survey, 30 percent in a The Economist/YouGov one, and 35 percent in poll from Quinnipiac University — produced an average of 27.6 percent.

That roughly matches the 29 percent of the Hispanic vote Trump carried in the 2016 presidential election, an improvement of two percentage points over Mitt Romney’s performance with those voters four years earlier.

And Latinas? Politico shows no sign for them, no flag, no white cowboy hat?

Second class Hispanics, or what? What would Romney say? Trump doing better with that demographic segment than the Mittster; does it mean they felt 47% Angst, or that too many relatives lost their jobs when American Motors went under?

Latinas - Hushed because DJT, Inc. printed no signs for them, no cowboy hats to fit, no flags? Hushed by seeing hush money payments in amounts they'd earn by hard labor done over multiple years? Big bucks for a f--- being a turn-off idea to them? A simple truth - DJT, Inc., needs more signs. There's a guy printing signs in Anoka County, but that is its own separate story.

The overarching question emerges; will DJ Trump, Inc. print new "Latinx" signs with the footer in Spanish? (See, e.g., HuffPo, LA Times, over this actual emerging issue of political correctnex.)

A talking dildo.

Video. Eight minutes plus, without saying he loves Citizens United, dark money, and Roberts, as his kind of jurist. There's a joke from the W. Bush days about why his tie is so tight.

_____________UPDATE______________
One Kentucky item, unfavorable toward the man, here. It links to the official bill page.

Quaintly, McConnell gets WaPo op-ed space, where he declines to link to the bill itself, but rather to here. Disinformation does point away from the facts; in this case, from the bill text.

Vox, honest in it's McConnell reporting.

Stuff, here, here, here and here. Enough.

Well, almost enough. That first misc. link mentions and links to a dark money slush fund that prevailed in litigation, and for some unknown reason it gets less heat than Citizens United. That particular dark money slush fund was not helpful toward Laura Moser's progressive candidacy in the Houston area. Not unlike another. But however chimerical its chances, this HR 1 lays out talking points for 2020. Mitch understands, but is unconvincing because the bill text maps actual needed reform. It is hard to imagine Pelosi aboard the HR 1 train, were she to expect it has any chance to leave the station. She, like Mitch, is in party leadership. Differing party regulars, but leadership figures in the two party stranglehold. How much blah-blah can you take?

_____________FURTHER UPDATE_______________
As to HR 1 and how political operative people sort out over it with 2020 in mind, Angie Craig is the new Minnesota CD2 Rep., and has put her future in alignment with the bill. This is not said in a cynical way. Craig will prove to be one of the better DC pubic servants, with a greater trust here in her than in Pelosi; ditto for AOC relative to Pelosi.

Pelosi is an ax-murderer. Not using a stelleto, rather a crass blunt ax wielder. Mitch would be proud but his help for Pelosi is not needed. She's done her own dirty work. Early and with malice.

Pelosi needs to be primaried. For whatever good it might do, the step is entirely necessary.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
HR 1 is going nowhere because of a Republican Senate, an insufficiently progressive total House majority, and because of the White House occupant. If McConnell has stuck to that as a speech topic, that reality, it would have galled less. DOA at the Senate if it even gets out of the House committees, true; however the man dismissed the intelligence of us all by bullshitting in ways that ignored the fact that the bill is a roadmap if not having a chance now. He got creepily partisan instead of addressing the issues.

Pelosi, with PayGo, can wave it at the Wall stuff, or whatever, how's it going to be paid, but it is clear she wanted to scuttle progressive moods. It is arguably wise to do so when the chance of implementation of the goals is non-existant, but it means having to go beg leadership if there is a 2020 alteration of terrain, and then deal cutting crap will show who Pelosi is in terms of being counter-progress at her multimillionaire core.

A lens for consideration of the PayGo thing where only Khanna, Ocasio-Cortez, and Gabbard voted no on the rules package mainly because of PayGo, is a mid-year Intercept item from last year, online here.  The lesson being how things are can capture the best of us about how things could and should be, and that log-rolling is the present norm to the point it can be questionable if not totally counterproductive. Ocasio-Cortez by dint of spirt has become a public voice as to things others have said over the years, with deaf ears turned whereas she gains attention and respect while setting an agenda table broader than has ever been popular among politicians in the past. She has along with Bernie created a view of what could be, how things should be, that was unvoiced previously to Bernie challenging the Clintons' poisoning of the Democrat well. Bless them both, and with Elizabeth Warren now, not last cycle when she was begged to move, now entering a race where Bernie will soon declare; and with the Dems superdelegate concession being only on a first ballot among committed national delegates, a dual progressive contest now might end up with Beto Booker or some such lesseer person emerging and with motive to again say four years of Trump, even four more, may be necessary to educate the Democratic insiders that if they want hands on the spoils they MUST respect a progressive agenda; i.e., abandoning Clinton-Obama-Biden versions of Republican-lite. Keep serving that brand, keep seeing Republic-actual getting the spoils. Wall Street does not care if their ass is kissed by Trump sorts, or Clinton sorts, so they are indifferent as long as progressivism is accorded no real respect; and they've had their way with the last election where a historically obnoxious and publicly disliked pair were paraded with a, "That's your choice, now vote," insulting audacity. That audacity and the evil it has done, the latest tax cut with deficit-disastrous implications being but the latest disservice done to the nation. Wall Street needs to be curbed. Surprisingly, that linked video included Biden at its outset but then looked three other ways. "It's Joe's turn" must be feared; such a mistake having been recent but absent any learning curve discernible from outside the inner party. Same old, same old cannot be a success merely because Trump is so egregious. That is the presumption of the inner Democrat operatives, that a sack of it can be sold by denigrating Trump and posing, and that thought needs to be destroyed; however long it will take of Republican control of the spoils. We need "Their Evolution" along with Our Revolution. Gotta be, however long learning may require.

___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Gotta say it again - BERNIE WOULD HAVE WON. BERNIE CAN WIN THIS TIME. THE BETO BOOKERS OF THE WORLD CAN CHANNEL FOUR MORE YEARS OF TRUMP; AS CAN THE KAMALA GILLIBRANDS; ETC. JOE, AMY? GET SERIOUS.

Johnnie's in the basement, mixing up the medicine, . . .

Wapo reports, and embeds.

Like the man wrote and sang . . . Mammon?

Serve 'em, serve somebody a bud, if legalized.

Is there wisdom in picking a trade war with those who've built a greater wall?

Image. Bloomberg.

But remember, had there been a border war border wall back then we'd not have to put up with Texans today. Yes, a porous border did hurt Mexico. While saddling us with Ted Cruz and Beto. Beto and Ted, cause to want a wall? Indirectly at least?

UPDATE: Lyndon Johnson.

FURTHER: Note the correction. "Border war" made no sense in context, and there was a border war with an Alamo insurgency force concentration put down by superior lethal force, much as with Mad Dog Mattis' Fallujah put down. Each barbaric in its implementation. Each ultimately ineffective in the end.

If there'd been a border wall perhaps Sam Houston would have had no town named after him.

Writing in the plural while she's just one person. Presumptive-aggressive?

Link. Pablum in the plural. We? Her and her tapeworm?

UPDATE: Biden can write in the plural. Everywhere he goes it's with Anita Hill and three witnesses. Also, him and his crowns.

Kamela Harris announces presidential candidacy.

AP item, carried by Strib, stating in part:

[...] If Booker enters the race, he and Harris could face a fierce competition for support from black voters.

[...] South Carolina, where black voters make up a large share of the Democratic electorate, is likely to figure heavily into Harris's prospects. And early voting in Harris's home state of California will overlap with the traditional early nominating contests, which could give Harris a boost.

Harris's campaign team is already taking shape and includes several veterans of Democratic politics.

Juan Rodriguez, who ran Harris's 2016 Senate campaign, will manage her presidential bid. Her sister, Maya Harris, a former top adviser to Hillary Clinton, will be the campaign chair. The veteran campaign finance lawyer Marc Elias will serve as the Harris campaign's general counsel, and Angelique Cannon, who worked for Clinton's 2016 campaign, will serve as national finance director. David Huynh, who was Clinton's director of delegate operations in 2016, will serve as a senior adviser. Lily Adams, a Clinton campaign alum who has worked as Harris's spokeswoman, will be communications director.

Her staff says she plans to reject the assistance of a super PAC, as well as corporate PAC money. She's invested heavily in cultivating a digital, small-dollar donor network before her presidential bid.

Before her 2016 victory in the Senate race, Harris made her career in law enforcement. She served as the district attorney in San Francisco before she was elected to serve as attorney general.

[bolding added] From the campaign that lost to Trump. TRUMP!

If Booker does not enter the contest many will be greatly surprised. The Hill.

WashExaminer, stating:

Kamala Harris will do what Cory Booker can't: Say no to super PACs
by Philip Wegmann - January 21, 2019 12:23 PM

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., just made her presidential announcement and made life that much harder for Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Because if he wants the nomination, he will have to distinguish himself from her, and fast.

Both appeal to minority voters. Both captivate audiences with similarly inspiring stories about their upbringing. [...]

Unlike Booker though, Harris will say no to dark money. Multiple outlets report that she plans on rejecting assistance from super PACs as well as corporate dollars.

The clearest difference between the two so far, it could become a flash point in the coming primary fight where rejecting PAC money has become a badge of honor. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., built his 2016 campaign on small-dollar donations, rejecting most super PAC dollars and regularly whacking Hillary Clinton over her failure to do so. Harris is the latest in the 2020 crowd to follow in Sanders' footsteps.

What about union money? Presumably Harris would take it, "corporate" being a chosen word. Bernie will run again, it is a matter of time.

Booker taking corporate money? Links here, here, and here. "Better than Gillibrand," which applies to Harris and Booker, is not good enough. Not with actual progressives Warren and Sanders factored into things. Harris perhaps being better than others besides Warren and Bernie. A law enforcement background needs to be addressed, in terms of general popular appeal. These are not the Nixon years, Harris prosecuted, and marijuana legalization is an issue.

Can there be any doubt: Bernie in 2020?

Despite a request to be on the press mailing list being declined by Our Revolution, keeping me on the solicitations list which is okay because the campaign will need financing and I can kick in multiples of twenty-seven bucks from time to time; the folks at OR were kind enough to forward a reminding link:

https://ourrevolution.com/press/

Readers are urged to bookmark that link. "News" is what it is called, but it's the press releases which anyone can follow. Hit that link, look at the recent items = THE MAN IS RUNNING, THE URGING BEING PRELIMINARY THEATER.

AND IT IS GOOD. BERNIE WOULD HAVE WON. BERNIE WILL WIN.

Elizabeth Warren is another great candidate, there will be many and early funding realities which will winnow things as was the case last cycle when, for instance, Jeb never caught the fire.

If a final decision comes down to Bernie or Lizzie, think how that can delight far more than "those guys" with their Ted and Donald pairing. Who else? Cory, Kamela, that woman who used Franken as her springboard, who? Tulsi?

2020 will prove interesting, how mainstream media will try to ignore and then undercut both Bernie and Lizzie. It will stink, but it will reflect how Bernie was treated when corporate media along with corporate donors favored losers, the Clinton spouses and the Podesta brothers. How mainstream corporate media reacts to Democrat challengers and to Trump and Pence will expose the bias there, which already is no real secret. MSNBC will be the most conflicted, wanting to appear as something other than same old, same old, part of the beltway crowd where money talks big time.

Whoring for mega-donor dollars was last cycle's governing tune. Now, Bernie and Lizzie each will need small donor love, that twenty-seven bucks on average kind, because some will be on vacation:

- please click this image and read it -

Look for the beloved letter recipient Saban family to favor Cory, Kristin, or Kamela in order to torpedo progressivism spoiling their party and Goldman Sachs will follow suit. If that level of obstruction to progress can be overcome, we may have the best President ever.

City of Ramsey, where I live in Anoka County, MN, is, according to Reflections in Ramsey considering again a "franchise fee."

All I know is what I read online, and I have a Google Alert set for "Reflections in Ramsey" so that the anon. author can bypass me easily by changing his Wordpress blog to another name and identity. With or without a dimming of the northern lights.

In the past while on the town's Charter Commission I recall the question arising and disappearing while I pushed for charter amendment by the Commission with some others foot-dragging about whether we had the power. That you find out by getting off the dime and doing it and unless and until a judge tells you the power is not there, it is.

But majority rules and I quit the Commission.

I recall the Assistant Chair [or Vice-Chair, whatever the title] then had innovative charter language in mind, he proposed it, but it hung fire. Whether that person still resides in Ramsey is not known to me. The proposal within meetings, for convenience was referred to as the "Niska amendment" or the "proposed Niska Charter amendment." It was direct in its language, a good proposal. Diddling happened.


May the question this time be resolved properly. Whatever fee or tax is imposed, the household here will pay, and let the Reflector fight it out, (given past opportunity being water under the bridge and well down river all the way to the oceans of the world).

Bless them. Sitting on an issue at a time when action seemed wiser, seeing it show a Phoenix-like audacity now, bless them all. Some have patience with diddling, some do not.

Any reader caring can follow that opening paragraph link and wonder about detail. Asking the Reflector is difficult, given anonymity. Go read multiple pages of some meeting minutes or meeting agenda online, or Charter Commission meeting minutes, and see if any clarity can be found.

In any event, whether called a "franchise fee" or a "tax," it is a "tax" in its effect because utilities pass on charges to ratepayers.

Before his death poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen began one item, "They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom, For trying to change the system from within, ...". A shorter number of years here, but boredom as real as Cohen's. There will be nothing more written here about the situation.

Superdelegates and caucus/primary concerns within the Democratic Party.

The sidebar entries need updating; the process has been changed; see, e.g., here, here and here, which are largely cumulative. UPDATE: Poor attention to basic proofreading, the links being here, here and here.

The thumb on the scale must be held back on a convention first ballot; then if there is no majority candidate based upon pledged delegates, superdelegates may influence voting. As party delegates they shall remain influential in informal persuation situations, and in other things, e.g., rules committee service capacities.

Situations where donor contributions to state party coffers can be pledged to be in large part rebated to some centrally favored candidate's financing may still occur but campaign finance policing should lessen the situation of when insiders had already determined and arranged such a money juggling situation based on the premise it was Hillary's turn, a situation in 2016 implemented before Sanders gained major traction.

This cycle with no pre-ordained front runner and a multitude wanting to take on the Trump presidency the demeanor of things is entirely different. If anyone might be viewed as a frontrunner it arguably is Bernie. How things shake out at the 2020 Dem convention is yet to be guessed; with a number of individuals having already declared formal candidacies. Sidebar updating re "superdelegates" will be pursued in ways a majority of readers may welcome.

UPDATE: One further link.

Always keeping an eye on opensecrets.org proves enlightening.

In line with the headline: Trump, Gillibrand, Gillibrand, King. Each item is worth the time it takes to read it.

The dumb border wall smokescreen is not about issues that are real. Percolation in the sidebar says so.

Gee. The sidebar does change from time to time. Minnesota is blessed with a new outstanding Attorney General who understands grassroots organization and would have also had a strong influence on a national level, until torpedoed. He has worked relentlessly and we who appreciate that should extol it.

If stupidity of the border wall kabuki theater has not already dawned on you, Breitbart with other intent brings the message home - stupid is as stupid inspires. Meanness fences mixed with a home's wrought iron lock-free gate where the fence is to assure the dog let out into the yard does not poop on the sidewalk. Genius in being silly at Brietbart underscores the diversion as what it is. Real issues exist needing leadership, and a border wall surely is not one of them. Yet Pelosi wants it to be so seriously "debated" that other things are swept into forgetfulness. Ocasio Cortez helps keeping eyes on the prize. One among several doing so. Times are in flux, and you can see that through the smoke.

Guardian publishes news U.S. concentrated media deem unhelpful to their themes.

E.g., here and here.

I.e., don't give the prols ideas.

UPDATE: Chomsky.

Mongering it big-time.

After WWII the War Department was renamed. Orwell wrote.

Two dots. Connect the dots.

Some say that we as a nation can no longer afford Social Security. That Single Payer cradle to grave would be too costly. What is costly? What is helpful?

Procurement is a generic term not defining what makes sense to procure, or what to eschew in best judgment. A Green New Deal could be procured. There is nothing impossible to that. Has been procured, can be procured, are not congruent by any measure of necessity.

Links: Here and here. Biden for President?

A handful of malconternts in their silly little yellow vests with nothing better to do than instigate trouble.

not exactly

UPDATE

Three YouTube videos, make it four.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Bernie will run. He is consolidating and updating his database and soliciting support. Warren had people begging her to run last cycle but declined. Now Bernie has momentum and name recognition and trust. Not that Warren would be anything but a good president, better than any in my lifetime. Bernie just has the same gravitas and took action instead of sitting and watching Clinton-Podesta ineptitude prevail in getting Donald Trump, TRUMP!, elected. How less than competent can you be. And Warren deferred.

Yes, the Warren Senate seat was the candidate's priority, retention before putting all one's eggs in a speculative basket. Precautionary thought is not bad thought. But Bernie stepped on the gas and others need to deal with that.

Consolidating and updating the donor database:

Click each item to read and interpret. Any questions?

BERNIE WOULD HAVE WON. BERNIE WILL WIN.

______________UPDATE______________
Readers who may not have accessed Bernie Sanders' official Senate homepage recently, or ever, should:

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/

A video is highlighted which though not bipartisan does have a reach to include one of Minnesota's new Congress members and Senator Booker, i.e., a spectrum of Democrats, with a first step set of concrete proposals to lower pharmaceutical pricing in our nation. View it.

___________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Cory Booker while Bernie speaks looking moderately discomforted, for cause. Allow him a learning curve, cut some slack, but not too much. Visions and revisions.

Clinton, Biden - Wellstone, Dayton. Learn because mistakes are costly.

The voting.

The resolution.

Never forget.

Any questions?

Joe Biden and your privacy.

Mainstream tech-related reporting you should read.

If walking near the nation's southern border try not to step in any of the fake news.

Example. Same source, second example. Same example, comparable source.

Off the border, bad news from Brietbart: Throwing Al Franken under the bus to push her own ambition is not a resume plus per some perspectives. Wishing it were fake, but likely it's not.

Protest happening as the trees are leafing out? But where? Where would be most appropriate, given sources for disdain?

With Spring around the corner is it time for the Occupy effort to reinvigorate with the trees and flowers, as OCCUPY TRUMP TOWER? Federal employees by then tired of shutdown continuation taking part? Oligarchs and opportunism the target, with intransigence and Pence included?

click image to enlarge. source. Wikipedia

If the object and outcome is to get recognition while beaten by militarized cops in an intense put-down effort, why do it now in nasty weather.Wait until Spring.

Anatol France commented upon "the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

julian castro and tulsi gabbard announce early as presidential contenders.

WaPo on Gabbard, on Castro. Getting out ahead of a Biden announcement makes sense. Biden and the machine. Tulsi backed Bernie, back then, along with Kieth Ellison, back then. Tulsi has been critical of Middle East regime-change war, after having served there. She is getting sniping for having that position. Don't expect bank money to back her. Related WaPo coverage.

https://www.tulsi2020.com/

Biden critiqued. In a crowded primary will name recognition be enough? Against a clock in "debate" sessions? Against Trump? Would fresh progresivism be a better offer; Warren, Bernie, any of several? Will the machine redo 2016 or has the machine some upward sloping learning curve?

Will Tulsi gain traction? Against Warren, would she compare well?

centenial

"In her assassination Hohenzollern Germany celebrated its last triumph and Nazi Germany its first".

Ich war, ich bin, ich werde sein

Assassinated a hundred years ago during troubled post-war years in Germany. Wikipedia attributes the opening quote to "British New Left historian Isaac Deutscher."

Minnesota Senate District 11 special election has drawn commentary online, and there is a Ballotpedia page.

COMMENTARY: left.mn and mnppannex.blogspot.com have each posted notice.

Ballotpedia. There are blurbs by Lee and Lourey. Lee gets to specifics, Lourey puffs. Specifics are favored here. Especially with what Lee promises being congruent with policy thinking at Crabgrass.

After Leah Phifer dropped out of the CD8 contest last year Michelle Lee was the candidate remaining that appeared most promising to me but was second in the DFL primary, Radinovich winning that but losing the general to Stauber.

Lee has an ActBlue contributions page, but trying to find a snail mail address proved unsuccessful. If one is found this post will be updated. Should Lourey win the special election primary, clearly, he'd be the choice here for the final contest for the seat which in a best world would remain DFL, regardless of which person advances per the primary.

Not living there but free to endorse, the above sums up thinking here. May the best Democrat win

_____________UPDATE_____________
Lee's policy positions per the Ballotpedia entry are consonant with the policy statements she posted while running for the CD8 seat. Consistency in politics in our times being a virtue, with her ISSUES PAGE available; stating in part:

We have led the nation with MinnesotaCare, I support its expansion to provide affordable, quality care for every Minnesotan. I remain hopeful we will one day have a single payer healthcare system (Medicare for All) providing affordable healthcare to all-- while protecting our rural health care providers. Rather than wait for the federal government to act, we must act now. We must seize this opportunity to lead the nation by providing all Minnesotans with quality affordable healthcare coverage.

[...] I believe “right to work” is wrong for Minnesota. [...] I support unions and I support a living wage. [...] I support free tuition to our trade schools and community colleges. I support farm to table agriculture and the expansion of grants to provide locally grown food in our schools.

On broadband her position appears to implicitly argue for net neutrality without getting into the detail such a statement might require. She is explicit:

We must set aside dollars to expand broadband and high-speed internet to our rural areas and hometowns. I propose working with the federal government to fund a Rural Broadband Act, reminiscent of the Rural Electric Act of the 1930s that brought lights to every farm and home here in the 11th District. Access to 21st-century technology will spur a boom---that will bring our young people home to build businesses and create job opportunities for others.

Because broadband managed as with cable TV; packages, extras and all; is antithetical to "21st-century technology" capable of spurring a boom, the inference drawn here is that candidate Lee would like to see Minnesota's new Governor follow the lead that Montana Governor Bullock established, (followed for example by Cuomo in New York), that by executive order any service provider to the State, to qualify for being a provider, must embrace and provide statewide net neutrality service.

Perhaps readers in that special election district should ask all candidates where they stand on net neutrality. It could be an eye opener, between DFL and GOP, given that the Trump appointed head of the FCC, a former industry lawyer, killed net neutrality as federal law; Trump being head of the one party.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Snail mail address to contribute to the Lee campaign:

Michelle Lee for State Senate
4310 Old County Road 8
Moose Lake, MN 55767

FURTHER - Minnesota Campaign Law/Regs require donor identification of occupation/job, in my case "retired." Not using ActBlue, but guessing, their contribution system includes such disclosure in completion of a donor form. I put "retired" on the memo line next to the signature line of the check. Snail mail contributors should remember to "memo" their info.

___________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Lourey has a campaign website and facebook page. Issues? Do your web research on his stances on questions of policy. There might be policy statement paragraphs I overlooked. There is an online report stating without fleshing out:

Lourey said he would focus on health care, education, and building strong communities if elected.

"Foucs on health care" seems to beg the question. UnitedHealth can be said to "focus" on health care, but not in any way I might credit.

Ditto, AFSCME, "AFSCME members talked to the candidates before endorsing Lourey, who earned our support with his clear commitment to fighting for things like quality public schools in every community, accessible and affordable health care, fair and safe workplaces and economic security for working families and retirees."

Single payer, if discussed pre-endorsement, is not mentioned. AFSCME people know details matter, so it's hard to figure the endorsement as more than "Trust us." AFSCME comes across as more mainstream vanilla than progressive in this situation. As if owing the family over past public union support.

As noted previously by quoting, Lee commits to an ultimate objective of Medicare for All with an intervening look at improving MinnesotaCare. Strib wrote today of pubic option aims of some in the DFL to improve MinnesotaCare; thereby being specific. Specificity matters.

Running on the family name? If it wins at the primary level, okay, close ranks and keep the seat DFL. But an expectation of goals and aims being stated beyond platitudes, when unmet, is vexing. Like a porcupine rolled up into a ball, and then simply waiting out a situation. The suggestion of quiet and "safe" follower, vs willingly vocal and strongly committed leader, is a worry.

If you buy into the theme of the item, might it be because he no longer has Steve Bannon around as a moderating influence and as a stabilizing presence and personality?

Link Perhaps it is only cantankerousness because his bone spurs are acting up. Like gout or some such.

So who would likely make money off of the wall, vs the spin-off from a Green New Deal?

If he had that border wall would the ghost of the Gipper haunt him, "Mr. Gorbechev, Take Down That Wall?" Causing an identity crisis and having him tweet in Russian? They'd have to get him a new tablet with a popup on-screen Cyrillic keyboard.

The press would go crazy. Few of them can read Russian.

Focus on the duty, and do your job.

An unrelated image but not totally so. Don't focus on hocus pocus.

Focus on first offering the hand, whose hand reaches on top, as well as holding it longer than the other person. Hat tip to Sam Seder.

Not a progressive, but having a moment to treasure. Notice the glide and slide on that "... so help me God," bit of the oath. It really does not belong in swearing allegiance to a nation and its laws and to a secular office and its duties. It's surplus word use.

Cognitive flexibility.

Explaining the tee shirt, the Taliban, Catch the Fire, Franklin Graham, Abigail Whelan - and more -

Any questions?

Border Wall: Sense and nonsense.

Alternet, here and here.

An open letter from Keith Ellison issued upon his inauguration as Minnesota Attorney General.

Sent by email to supporters and others who have signed up for Keith's mailing list (hence, no link can be provided):

[Today, Jan. 8, 2019 -- 11:40 AM (28 minutes ago)]

Keith Ellison for Attorney General

eric,

Yesterday, I was officially sworn in as Minnesota Attorney General.

I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to serve you as the People’s Lawyer, and I’m more than ready to get to work to help Minnesotans afford their lives and live with dignity.

As we start this new chapter together, I wanted to take a moment to talk about Alec Smith. Alec was loved by his family and friends and worked hard as a restaurant manager. He had a dream of owning his own one day.

Last year, when Alec turned 26, he was kicked off his mom’s health insurance. He couldn’t afford insurance of his own on his salary of $35,000. His insulin alone cost him $1,300 a month. Alec started rationing the insulin that was saving his life, and he died a month later.

Alec couldn’t afford his life, and he wasn’t alone. The price of insulin has gone up 1200% in 20 years. This has enhanced the profits of the corporations that make it, and threatened the lives of the 1.25 million Americans who live with Type 1 diabetes — especially African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, and American Indians, all of whom live with far higher rates of it.

In this time of the worst income inequality in America in a century, one of the last bastions of power for regular people is our democracy. But the demands of profit over people are putting pressure on our democracy.

As the People’s Lawyer, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office will be the place — as it has been from Walter Mondale to Lori Swanson — where we protect the rights of the people.

Minnesotans deserve an Attorney General’s Office where they can count on fair treatment and equal justice. And they won’t just come to us — we’ll go to them. There is no town or county too small or too far from the metro that my office won’t help. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office will be the place where everybody counts and everybody matters.

Protecting people before profit is hard work. Protecting our democracy is hard work. What makes the work easy is this: Minnesotans already know how to help each other afford their lives and live with dignity and respect — because we do it every day. It’s who we are.

I want to thank Minnesotans for this incredible honor. I want to thank my mother, Clida Ellison, and all my family and friends. I want to thank my wife Mónica Hurtado for standing with me through thick and thin.

No matter how you voted, or even if you voted: You count. You matter. I am on your side.

Thank you. Let’s get to work.

Sincerely,

Keith Ellison

Krugman publishes truth about taxing the rich; while declining to get into how passive incomes from parked money, capital gains realized and recognized (cashed in), should be taxed at a higher rate than earnings from the sweat of our brows.

Link.

UPDATE: One aspect of a proposed more realistic rate for marginal earnings above ten million dollars would be to fund a Green New Deal.

Why did Fred Trump send son Donald to a military academy if he was going to dodge the Vietnam draft? It's less logical than sending a son to study political science if the kid's going to become a priest.

Becuase he could. Son could. And did. Podiatry can misdiagnose from time to time.

Don't "[...] impeach the motherfucker," instead pass a series of resolutions saying, "He's a motherfucker."

Advice to new Michigan Rep. Tlaib from a WaPo editorial written by, who but a "political science" professor. Wrote the entire thing, never using the word, "Pence." Acknowledged the Senate nose count, party by party. Tepid. Sad.

If Trump feels he can get traction running against "Pocahontas" he might find Warren running against "Trump University."

Checking those defrauding consumers has been Warren's aim, and if there ever was a fraud, it was Trump University. Things could be developed in a way that would go good with popcorn during the show. And while Warren will have to get past a field, Trump will only have a no-sweat getting past Romney. But figure, which side will be attracting the most attention.

I would love to see Elizabeth Warren do a series of campaign ads, where she asks trenchant questions of one of those Trump U. cardborard photo-op things, each time, "No answer, eh? How come, Mr. Trump U?' Something like that. Will somebody please buy Liz one of those cardboard dummy items.

YouTube.

________________UPDATE_________________
Another online images of the cardboard Trump. High def..

Does any reader know where I can get one, along with a Cardboard Stormy Daniels? Found this, but no Stormy.

____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
How many White House staffers would you guess are "Gold Elite" graduates of Trump University? Why might you have guessed as you did? Would you bet money your guess is correct?

FURTHER: That linked National Review item from Feb. 2016 states:

[Trump University ...] instructors touted Trump’s own promises: that students would be “mentored” by “handpicked” real-estate experts, who would use Trump’s own real-estate strategies. Here’s Trump making the pitch himself:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7OkZ64_v9Rk

In fact, and you can confirm it, that YouTube cite is now a dead link. Sad.

FURTHER: Wouldn't one of those life-sized cardboard Trumps make a hell of a background prop here? Just as in use, here .

Petey has a real need, not just a want, but a need. He needs it, FOX should buy it. He deserves that. Why is FOX delinquent? Buy Pete a cardboard Trump. (He can throw axes at it, without any ravage, he'd always overthrow.)

FURTHER: Found it.

NEVER FORGET. It is the defining moment of the man, indelibly painting his portrait for who he is, was, and will be. [UPDATE: Related video. Go figure.]

Another thought, lower budget than a six billion buck wall --- Instead of a Trump Wall,simply bulldoze a deep Pence Trench, (punji sticks optional). Fewer billions, historically grounded back to the Gallic Wars.

FURTHER: Is this perhaps a Trump University graduate making news? Not reported that way, but could it be?

On YouTube. With Warren stump speech followed by arrest footage. Young initiative doing a video capture brought it to a nation. Worth watching.

We don't want any wall waste. If an extra six billion has to be spent, increase Social Security benefits.

Just saying. Only an absolute nasty man would screw up TSA - Airport security over pure duncery. Only a dunce could be so nasty.

Hold steady. Don't cave in to the creep. Tell him our taxpayers are not "the Mexicans" where we were promised "the Mexicans" would pay for a wall, any wall, no wall, fence, trench whatever. I bet Pence is behind it, Trump fronting for him.

The nutshell reason of why I would never vote for Joe Biden even if the other choice were Mike Pence or four more years of TRUMP. [UPDATED]

Not that I am strongly drawn to Kamala Harris. I am not. But this idiot thinks it is a social club to make choices, as with Ms. Clinton, and that's pure bullshit.

Just as it was not "Hillary's turn," this time is NOT "Joe's turn." While favoring Warren and Bernie, and Steve Bullock, any Dem, other than Old Joe, would likely be acceptable, short of "Hillary's second turn."

IDIOTS! Brazen idiorts. Why has that woman been reelected? Her disdain for the electorate comes through loud and clear. The caucus and primary system exist for a reason, and there's zero "super" about Biden or Feinstein, though each because of obscene biasing of things, will be a "superdelegate."

REFORM THAT STEAMING PILE OF VOTER DISDAIN, PLEASE.

Even Beto, to show how far I'd compromise.

LAST: Click the image. You have to read the fine print.

-------------------
UPDATE: Gillibrand is off limits too, after the shiv job she did to Franken.

FURTHER: Harris was too quick to join Gillibrand, but otherwise is better than others. Booker is close to the line, but not in the cellar with Joe and Ms. KG.


And Amy K? That's meant as a joke, isn't it?

___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
A YouTube brief segment from 2010 explaining the 2020 Biden candidacy. As it explained 2016 well in advance of 2016. Too few paid heed.

Few public banks? Why so?

TuYoube. And more beyond public banks.

UPDATE: Fingers err. Proofreading skipped is obvious. As a bet, most figured from the nature of the link that "TuYoube" was intended to say "YouTube."

Jeffrey Sachs is on YouTube.

Start here if you are unfamiliar with him.

Removal of U.S. troops from Syria.

Link.

Romney goes WaPo to trash Trump's character. This is the guy that wrote off 47% of us now trying to write off Trump, and not surprisingly turning to the world's richest man's newspaper to gain a forum.

Romney's item is headlined: "Mitt Romney: The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump’s character falls short."

Besides the obvious, that forty seven percent of us don't care a rat's ass what that pompous Uriah Heep says now or later, there is the clueless man saying all the disastrous policy decisions are fine with him and ringing his okay button, but the man, himself, is an asshole. Mitt needs to look at the man in his shaving mirror when making that judgment.

SO --- Mr Romney Goes to Washington; installment one.

As to choice of forum for his hatchet job, Citizen Bezos as a kid had a sled he called "Rosebud." Proving it takes one to publish one. Kindred souls. Birds of a feather.

UPDATE: A friend sent a link.

LizSez 01: Forming a committee; expect Biden and Booker to decline to join. Nobody from Goldman Sachs expected to board the train.

Liz at her official website

elizabethwarren.com

Gillibrand says the middle class rejects Al Franken. Booker says he'll check with Wall Street about it. Biden says CHANGE and HOPE, and that Tom Perez is his kind of guy. Kamala Harris points out Warren is not from California with all its electorial votes. Berniecrats say welcome. Trump says Pocahontas, but fearfully so, and Warren has the sense to not go there, knowing that calling Trump "HushMoney" or "TwitTweets" would only distract from running on the issues via a sensible platform of reform. Gen. Kelly says working for Trump was worse than combat. Hegseth says, ..., well, who really cares what Petey says?

______________UPDATE______________
Warren's declaring as being wholly into the contest earlier than others is a very positive thing for the nation. Not only is she a contrast to Trump, as very many are, but she's a contrast to the Blue Dogs and middle-roaders of her own party, (Claire, watch the doorknob as you pause to whine on the way out). Warren is one who will KEEP PROMISES and who will promise improvement, not MAGA smoke screening, but actual things for those besides Apple. Speaking of which, the prediction here is that Paul Ryan's first lobbying customer in 2019 will be Apple, after that tax bill, because they owe him. What we owe him we can only hope he encounters, but he never was our Rep, he always was a business asset of the super corporations and the very rich most mean-spirited among us. (How's George W. B. doing these days?) Playing golf with Franklin Graham? Painting Putin portraits? Unless Bernie gets into a candidacy this cycle, Warren is the choice here. Pollsters and pundits can have their audience, my place is for championing progressive things, and not for taking ill-intentioned CNN talking heads seriously.

That CNN thing, their interviewee, Cenk and Anna offer commentary in line with the YouTube comment stream the CNN item generated. Aside from their analysis, I was distracted by his bending his head sideways at the neck, suggesting to me that good posture goes with good ideas. The interesting points in that YoungTurks dialog, Cenk noting how Kamala Harris, the pundit's favorite wannabe did worse in her Senate election relative to Hillary's percentage in California than Warren did against Hillary's percentage in Massachutetts; a truth absent from CNN coverage. Also, Cenk pointing that when the characterization was Warren's polling favorability ratings against Biden et al, were below par, below par is better than above; so watch your figures of speech. CNN is a tool.

Warren interviewed here and here, earlier in time than Jan. 2019.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Beto says Texas has many electoral votes, that losing to Ted Cruz makes him a viable candidate, and that he's younger than Bernie and Warren put together. Also he can pose progressive, pose trumping substance.

FURTHER: The last Texan to get national traction was "Landslide Lyndon," and that came with a war quagmire; so now "Beaten Beto" should be vaulted past actual progressives? Who sez? Somebody needs to explain to me, Trump beat Cruz, Cruz beat Beto, so logic sez Beto can beat Trump? Riun that explanation by me sometime soon. Time is moving on past Beto.