Presumptuous Politics

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Sanders projected to win Washington, Alaska, Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses

Sen. Bernie Sanders was projected to win the Alaska, Washington and Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses -- victories he hopes will spark a Western states comeback and help him cut into frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s substantial lead.
The Associated Press projected Sanders the winner of the Alaska and Washington contests Saturday, while the results of Hawaii's presidential contest weren't announced until early Sunday morning.
"We knew things were going to improve as we headed west," Sanders said at a rally in Madison, Wis. "We are making significant inroads in ... Clinton's lead ... We have a path toward victory."
Clinton leads by roughly 300 pledged delegates, with 142 up for grabs Saturday. Washington had the biggest prize, 101 delegates, followed by Hawaii with 25 and Alaska with 16.
Sanders, a democratic socialist, on Saturday acknowledged his struggles in recent contests across the South, with its strong conservative voting bloc. But he remained optimistic about upcoming contests in the more liberal West including those in Oregon and California, which alone offers 546 delegates.
The next Democratic and Republican primaries are April 5 in Wisconsin.
Sanders is popular among younger and more progressive Americans but continues to struggle to connect with Hispanic and African-American voters.
He will win at least nine delegates in Alaska. And all of them are elected to the state Democratic convention, not the party's national nominating convention in July in Philadelphia.
Going into Saturday, Clinton had a 1,223-to-920 lead on Sanders in so-called pledged delegates, who are bound to candidates by their states' elections.

Data curated by InsideGov

It takes 2,383 delegates to clinch the nomination.
Sanders was expected to do well in Washington, considering residents of Seattle, the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest, are among the most liberal in the country and major campaign contributors.
He drew more than 10,000 supporters to a rally Friday evening at Safeco Field in Seattle. And by Saturday afternoon, the state appeared to be having a record voter turnout, which has helped keep alive Sanders’ insurgent campaign.
In Spokane, a huge line of caucus attendees had already snaked around a high school parking by Saturday morning.
"I think one of the biggest things is free tuition for students and getting big money out of politics," said Savannah Dills, 24, a college student who supports Sanders. "He's not paid for by billionaires."
Top Sanders adviser Ted Devine recently told FoxNews.com that he was optimistic about the campaign cutting Clinton’s lead this weekend to under 300 delegates “with a couple of thousands more delegates to go.”
Most of the Washington’s Democratic leadership had endorsed Clinton, including Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
Still, Sanders entered Saturday’s contests optimistic after winning more delegate than Clinton in three contests earlier this week -- nearly 20 in the Idaho and Utah caucuses, despite losing the marquee Arizona primary to the former secretary of state.
Sanders has done significantly better in caucus contests, now winning nine of the last 11.
Most of his 14 primary-season wins have been in states with largely white populations and in the caucus contests, which tend to attract the most active liberal Democrats.
Yet Sanders still needs a dramatic surge to catch Clinton or even hold her under the number needed to clinch the nomination, despite the optimism and fundraising numbers, which also include collecting more than $140 million from 2 million donors.
Clinton did not hold a public event after the Alaska and Washington results were announced.
While Sanders faces a steep climb to the nomination, a string of losses for Clinton would highlight her persistent vulnerabilities, including concerns about her trustworthiness and weak support among younger voters.
Clinton’s delegate advantage, before Saturday, increases to 1,692-to-949 once the superdelegates, or party officials who can back either candidate, are included.
Based on that count, Sanders still needs to win 58 percent of the remaining delegates from primaries and caucuses to have a majority of those delegates by June's end.
His bar is even higher when the party officials are considered. He needs to win more than 67 percent of the remaining delegates overall -- from primaries, caucuses and the ranks of uncommitted superdelegates -- to prevail.
Because Democrats allocate their delegates on a proportional basis, meaning that the popular vote loser can still pick up a share, his Saturday victories netted Sanders a gain of at least 27 delegates to at least five for Clinton.
Clinton has been looking past the primary contests and aiming at potential Republican challengers. In interviews, rallies and speeches this week, she largely focused on Tuesday's deadly attacks in Brussels, casting GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as unqualified to deal with complicated international threats.
Her campaign sees the April 19 contest in New York as an important one, not just because of the rich delegate prize but because losing to Sanders in a state she represented in the Senate would be a psychological blow. She hopes to lock up an even larger share of delegates in five Northeastern contests a week later.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Gay Cartoon

Majority versus the Minority.

Scottish police investigate killing of Muslim shopkeeper

LONDON – Scottish police say the killing of a Muslim shopkeeper who wished Christians a happy Easter is being investigated as "religiously prejudiced."
Vigils were held Friday night in memory of 40-year-old Asad Shah, who was killed Thursday night in Glasgow.
He had apparently posted messages on Facebook calling for religious harmony: "Good Friday and very happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation x!"
Police say a 32-year-old man has been arrested in connection with Shah's death. The suspect, who police say is Muslim, has not been identified or charged.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon joined the vigil in support of Shah and his family. Many lit candles and left flowers.
The police promise a full investigation into Shah's death.

Cruz responds to 'garbage' affair accusations, blames Trump

The Donald Trump-Ted Cruz mud-slinging took another bizarre twist Friday, driven by an Internet frenzy over a tabloid report alleging Cruz had extramarital affairs.
Cruz addressed the salacious report in the National Enquirer at an event in Oshkosh, Wis., calling the claims “garbage” and “complete and utter lies.” He also placed the blame around the neck of front-runner Trump.
“It is a tabloid smear and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen,” Cruz said, claiming the only on-the-record source for the story is Roger Stone – who formerly served on the Trump campaign as an adviser.
Trump, in a written statement, denied Cruz’s claims.
“I have no idea whether or not the cover story about Ted Cruz in this week's issue of the National Enquirer is true or not, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it, did not know about it, and have not, as yet, read it,” he said, adding he does not surround himself with “political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence.”
He said: “Ted Cruz's problem with the National Enquirer is his and his alone, and while they were right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards, and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin' Ted Cruz.”
Stone also tweeted in response:
The article in the Enquirer cites sources saying the Texas senator is facing allegations he had at least five affairs, including with a political consultant and a “high-placed D.C. attorney.”
The Internet has been abuzz with speculation as to the identities of the alleged mistresses and #CruzSexScandal was trending on Twitter on Friday.
The latest campaign trail eruption caps a week of fighting between the two candidates over attacks on their wives.
On Thursday, Cruz called Trump a “sniveling coward” after Trump retweeted an image late Wednesday that showed a picture of Trump’s wife Melania alongside an unflattering image of Cruz’s wife Heidi, with the caption “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
The spat began when Trump objected earlier this week to a Facebook ad that showed Melania posing nude with the caption: “Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or you could vote for Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”
Though the ad makers are not affiliated with Cruz, Trump tweeted that Cruz should “be careful” or he would “spill the beans on your wife.”

Nearly 20,000 support petition to allow guns at Republican National Conventio

Nearly 20,000 people have signed a petition to allow the open carry of firearms at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.
The group Americans For Responsible Open Carry started the petition on Change.org on Monday, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal. The petition had a goal of 5,000 signatures and by Wednesday it had reached the goal. As of early Saturday morning, the group had reached just over 18,000 signatures.
The GOP Republican National Convention is going to be held at the Quicken Loans Arena from July 18-21. The Ohio Republican Party told the Beacon-Journal it wasn’t aware of the petition.
The Secret Service along with Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, state and federal officials are handling the security at the event. The Secret Service banned guns at the GOP Convention in Florida four years ago.
“They are coordinating and will be continuously refining security plans leading up to the national convention,” Republican National Convention spokesperson Alee Lockman told the newspaper.
The group has a list of demands for the convention.
First, the group wants the arena to suspend its open-carry ban during the convention. The group then wants the NRA has to condemn Ohio’s law banning guns in some public places.
“Policies of the Quicken Loans Arena do not supersede the rights given to us by our Creator in the U.S. Constitution,” the petition reads.
Americans For Responsible Open Carry also want presidential contender Ohio Gov. John Kasich to use his executive power to override the so-called gun-free zone loophole in Ohio’s law. RNC Chairman Reince Preibus also must explain how “a venue so unfriendly to Second Amendment rights was chosen for the Republican Convention and have a backup plan to move the site if the group’s demands aren’t met.
Finally they call for the three other candidates to pressure the GOP to protect the Second Amendment.
Ohio is an open-carry state, but they are not permitted in the Statehouse and even if concealed, could be banned by businesses and property owners, according to the Beacon-Journal.
Quicken Loans Arena forbids guns and weapons of any kind from “heavily attended” events.
The arena said it is following the state’s concealed carry law and the right for private businesses to ban firearms on its property.
The petition claims that because Cleveland is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, forcing attendees to leave their weapons at home is putting everyone at risk.
“Without the right to protect themselves, those at the Quicken Loans Arena will be sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers, criminals or others who wish to threaten the American way of life.”

San Francisco mayor bans city workers from traveling to North Carolina

Is this guy a dictator telling his workers where they can and can not go. Forcing his beliefs on others.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement Friday he doesn’t want any city workers to travel to North Carolina unless necessary in wake of its legislation which blocks anti-discrimination for gay, lesbian and transgender people.
“We are standing united as San Franciscans to condemn North Carolina’s new discriminatory law that turns back the clock on protecting the rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals,” Lee said in the statement.
“Effective immediately, I am directing City Departments under my authority to bar any publicly-funded City employee travel to the State of North Carolina that is not absolutely essential to public health and safety.”
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill this week to void a Charlotte ordinance that would’ve provided protections against discrimination in public accommodations.
McCrory, who was the mayor of Charlotte for 14 years and had criticized the local ordinance, signed the legislation Wednesday night that he said was "passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette."
Although 12 House Democrats joined all Republicans present in voting for the bill in the afternoon Wednesday, later all Senate Democrats in attendance walked off their chamber floor during the debate in protest. Remaining Senate Republicans gave the legislation unanimous approval.
"We choose not to participate in this farce," Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue of Raleigh said after he left the chamber.

The law also prevents other cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination rules and imposes a statewide standard that leaves out protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to KTVU-TV.
Gay rights leaders and transgender people said the legislation demonizes the community and espouses bogus claims about increasing the risk of sexual assaults. They say the law will deny lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people essential protections needed to ensure they can get a hotel room, hail a taxi or dine at a restaurant without fear.
"McCrory's reckless decision to sign this appalling legislation into law is a direct attack on the rights, well-being and dignity of hundreds of thousands of LGBT North Carolinians and visitors to the state," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. Civil liberties groups pledged to push for repeal and were weighing legal options
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who pressed to get the anti-discrimination ordinance approved, said she was appalled by the legislature's actions.
"The General Assembly is on the wrong side of progress. It is on the wrong side of history," Roberts said in a prepared statement. But McCrory said in a release "the basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings" was violated by "government overreach and intrusion" by Roberts and the city council.
Lee applauded Roberts in his statement Friday for taking “steps at the local level to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination. I also applaud Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed who is a champion for equality for all.”
Georgia is also embroiled in a religious liberty bill, which has passed the Georgia Legislature but Gov. Nathan Deal has yet to sign.
KTVU-TV reported that Facebook and Apple have expressed its displeasure with the North Carolina law.
The NBA has also mulled relocating its 2017 All-Star Game which was scheduled to be played in Charlotte. “[We] do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte,” the statement read. "The NBA is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment to all who attend our games and event," the association said.

Friday, March 25, 2016

University Idiot Cartoon

Students terrified by 'Trump 2016' chalk drawings

Has America brought up a Nation of Idiots?

Emory University in Atlanta is under siege at this hour from a chalk-wielding Donald Trump supporter who caused a massive outbreak of micro-aggressions among frightened students.
Terrified collegians are hunkered down in their safe spaces – traumatized by whoever wrote “Trump 2016” and “Accept the Inevitable: Trump 2016” on campus sidewalks.
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“That was a bit alarming,” one panicked student told The Emory Wheel. “What exactly is inevitable? Why does it have to be accepted?”
Another student whimpered that she did not feel safe.
“I’m supposed to feel comfortable and safe [here],” she told the campus paper. “But this man is being supported by students on our campus and our administration shows that they, by their silence, support it as well…I don’t deserve to feel afraid at my school.”
The Emory Latino Student Organization posted a Facebook message calling the drawing “an act of cowardice.”
“They did not do this merely to support the presidential candidate, but to promote the hate and discrimination that goes along with him,” they wrote.
Oh, the humanity!
Dozens of students protested the chalk drawings in the university’s quad – demanding the administration take action against the pro-Trump supporter.
“You are not listening! Come speak to us, we are in pain,” students shouted as reported by the campus newspaper. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
I’m not a clinical psychologist, but those kids are freaking nuts, folks.
Emory University President Jim Wagner later met with the protestors and acknowledged in an email that they had voice “genuine concern and pain in the face of this perceived intimidation.”
“I cannot dismiss their expression of feelings and concern as motivated only by political preference or over-sensitivity,” he wrote in an email to students. “Instead, the students with whom I spoke heard a message, not about political process or candidate choice, but instead about values regarding diversity and respect that clash with Emory’s own.”
President Wagner vowed to launch an investigation and round up the pro-Trump graffiti artists, the newspaper reported.
He said if the individuals are students they will go through a conduct violation process and if they are not students they will face trespassing charges.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports reports that the university’s student government association is providing “emergency counseling for students triggered by the Trump 2016 campus chalkings.”
That’s actually not a bad idea. Based upon my observations there are many students at Emory University in dire need of professional help.
The student newspaper also took a few jabs at Mr. Trump – calling him “an offensive man” who has made “racist, sexist and xenophobic statements.”
Mr. Trump is also a close friend to New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick – but that’s a topic for another day.
But Editor-in-Chief Zak Hudak also defended free speech and suggested that the protesters should be allowed to protest and the chalkers should be allowed to chalk.
“If we shut down the opposition, we lose our purpose as a university,” he opined. “We lose the courage to inquire, and we lose the ability to engage with the contention that we will encounter outside of the Emory community.”
Ironically, there was no outrage from liberal students or the university administration or the campus newspaper in 2014 when protesters drew chalk outlines of bodies during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.
I reckon at Emory University black lives do matter, but the lives of Trump supporters do not.
It’s unclear at this point when the unrest at Emory will subside. It may be necessary for Georgia’s governor to call out the National Guard.
And there are unconfirmed reports that a FEMA caravan was spotted traveling South on Interstate 75 – with piles of baby blankets and crates of pacifiers.
But a source at the Centers for Disease Control tells me there are grave concerns that what happened at Emory University is not an anomaly.
And they fear that if the Republicans nominate Donald Trump – it could spawn an epidemic of micro-aggressions on university campuses across the United States.

Federal appeals court slams IRS in Tea Party case, demands documents

In a blistering rebuke of the IRS, a Cincinnati-based federal appeals court has ordered the tax-collecting agency to quit stalling and produce the names of organizations it targeted based on their political leanings.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit gave the IRS two weeks to turn over the documents sought as part of a class-action lawsuit brought by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots.
“The lawyers in the Department of Justice have a long and storied tradition of defending the nation’s interests and enforcing its laws … The conduct of the IRS’s attorneys in the district court falls outside that tradition,” the opinion said.
Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance which is funding the class-action lawsuit, applauded the court's bold comments.
“We are very pleased that the 6^th Circuit had smacked down the IRS and its thuggish DOJ lawyers,” Meckler told FoxNews.com, adding that he felt the IRS is an “unredeemable organization.”
The NorCal Tea Party Patriots sued the IRS in 2013 after a Treasury inspector general concluded the IRS had unfairly singled out for extra scrutiny conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
For the civil suit, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots requested information from the IRS detailing the organizations targeted -- information they say they have not received or has been wrapped up in legal red tape. The panel of federal judges agreed.
“The lawsuit has progressed as slowly as the underlying applications themselves: at every turn the IRS has resisted the plaintiffs’ requests for information regarding the IRS’s treatment of the plaintiff class, eventually to the open frustration of the district court,” the judges claimed in court documents.
The IRS has pushed back on the allegations and maintains that handing over the names and organizations on its “Be on the Look Out” list would violate privacy laws. A lower district court has twice ordered the IRS to produce the documents. In response, the IRS sought a “writ of mandamus” to block the court order.
Tuesday’s angry reprimand by the federal appeals court is in response to the IRS’s writ of mandamus.
“The district court ordered production of those lists, and did so again over an IRS motion to reconsider. Yet, almost a year later, the IRS still has not complied with the court’s orders. Instead the IRS now seeks from this court a writ of mandamus, an extraordinary remedy reserved to correct only the clearest abuses of power by a district court,” Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote. “We deny the petition.”
The panel of judges gave the IRS two weeks to start handing over the documents.
In the 17-page opinion, Kethledge laid out a list of requests NorCal made to the IRS that were either ignored entirely or stuck in a legal runaround. In one, the IRS demanded NorCal provide 3,000 pages of what the inspector general called unnecessary information. In turn, the IRS then claimed it would be "unduly burdensome" for it to provide such information as the names of IRS employees who worked on the case.
The IRS told FoxNews.com it does not comment on pending litigation.

Plot twist: Long ignored, California could be deciding factor in GOP race

Just one month before the Republican presidential convention, the fate of the party's primary race could be determined in the unlikeliest of battlegrounds: California.
The state, voting alongside several others on June 7, was never expected to be a major factor this year due to its late position on the primary calendar. But now, the tight state of the race means territory long known as a bastion for liberal Democratic politics will have incredible sway over the GOP contest.
With 172 delegates in play, the largest haul of any state on the primary map, California could help decide whether Donald Trump is able to clinch the nomination before the July convention -- or whether the party will be looking at a floor fight in Cleveland.
“We’re not used to talking about California being an important state in the general or primary election -- particularly the Republican side in the primaries. But this year, every delegate matters, and California, which is sitting right at the end of the calendar on June 7, is a huge prize,” said Nathan Gonzales, head of the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, an election handicapper.
While California is the land of Reagan, the imperative to court the state's voters represents an obvious challenge for Republican candidates.

Delegates Awarded to Republican Candidates | InsideGov

Hollywood, San Francisco ... these aren't exactly hubs of the conservative cause. But the state is vast -- 163,000 square miles -- and candidates will have to figure out where their message plays best.
Bill Whalen, politics research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said the battle will be waged across a diverse population, which ranges from the Latino strongholds of Southern California to the wealthy Silicon Valley tech elites in the north to the socially conservative evangelicals of the "inland empire."
The successful candidate here will have to navigate those ramparts and everything in between.
The most recent poll shows front-runner Trump with the edge.
According to a Public Policy Institute of California poll of likely voters taken in the 12-day period leading up to Marco Rubio’s departure from the race on March 15, Trump had a comfortable lead in the state with 38 percent, followed by Ted Cruz with 19 percent and John Kasich with 12 percent. After Rubio suspended his campaign, the PPIC recalculated, taking Rubio out of the mix and working in voters' second choice. This gave Cruz a bump to 27 percent and Kasich to 14 percent, while Trump remained at 38 percent.
Whalen, though, said Cruz could have an advantage.
“There’s going to be a premium on the ground organization and that favors Cruz,” he said.
As of this week’s contests, Trump has 739 delegates, Cruz has 465, and Kasich has 143. One of these candidates has to reach 1,237 to win the nomination outright, or else the process moves to a contested convention this summer.
The way California's primary system is set up, the winning candidate there has the potential to take home a huge stash of delegates.
That's because the 172 delegates will be awarded by congressional district, meaning the three delegates in each of the 53 districts go to the winner of that district -- plus 13 bonus delegates to the candidate who gets the most votes statewide.
“I think California is going to matter a lot,” Gonzales said, adding, “It’s going to be a challenge for these candidates. There are hundreds of miles of opportunity to make their mark.”
Candidates stand to win or lose not only in the state’s few GOP bastions like the Central Valley 23rd District -- home to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy -- but in congressional districts that are typically a no-go for Republicans, like the 13th, which includes Berkeley and Oakland and went 87 percent for President Obama in 2012.
It doesn’t matter the district; each has three delegates in play.
While candidates will have difficulty traveling to each district and television media in the state is expensive, resources will have to concentrate on direct mail and targeted email, Internet advertising and social media, said Gonzales. Candidates will need a game plan to solidify the voters already in their corners, and reach out to new ones who could help tip the scales on June 7.
California also is a closed primary, which means only Republicans can vote -- a potential plus for Cruz, who has done better in closed state primaries and caucuses.
So what does the California Republican look like?
According to David Brady, political science professor at Stanford University, it depends where you go.
“California Republicans are somewhat divided, with the majority being fiscal conservatives, but more socially liberal than Republicans in other regions of the country,” he said. “This is particularly true in the coastal populated regions while the interior has more social conservatives which is associated with evangelicals.”
He predicted "Cruz will do well in the interior regions" and could pick up support from voters opposing Trump. "However, in terms of pure ideology, most coastal Republicans are closer to Kasich,” he said.
As far as issues go, Whalen noted that what plays in the rest of the country is resonating in California, too. “The California Republican Party is a microcosm of the national GOP,” he said. “The party is struggling over immigration.” Brady added that the economy and terrorism continue to be hot-button issues in the state, with the water shortage of local importance.