Saturday, April 27, 2019
Friday, April 26, 2019
Joe Biden Declares - Raising The Democratic Field To 21
Here is the message he sent to Democrats:
America is an idea. Based on a founding principle that all men are created equal.
It's an idea that's stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, and more powerful than any dictator.
It gives hope to the most desperate people on Earth. It instills in every single person in this country the belief that no matter where they start in life, there's nothing they can’t achieve if they work at it.
Today, that idea is under attack.
We've got a president who assigns a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it.
A president who, like most charlatans and demagogues throughout history, seeks only to aggrandize himself, to consolidate his own power -- by blaming the "other."
If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation.
I cannot stand by and watch that happen.
Our core values, our very standing in the world, our democracy, and everything that makes us who we are is at stake.
That's why I'm announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.
Biden's entry into the race raises the total of Democrats (and Independent) running for the nomination to 21 candidates. Here are the 21 candidates:
* Joe Biden
* Elizabeth Warren
* Kamala Harris
* Beto O'Rourke
* Pete Buttigieg
* Cory Booker
* Julian Castro
* Amy Klobuchar
* Jay Inslee
* John Hickenlooper
* Andrew Yang
* Michael Bennet
* John Delaney
* Tim Ryan
* Wayne Messam
* Kirsten Gillibrand
* Maryanne Williamson
* Seth Moulton
* Eric Swalwell
* Tulsi Gabbard
* Bernie Sanders
It will be interesting to see how long all these candidates stay in the race. I don't expect anyone to drop our before the June debates, but if some of these candidates can't start getting stronger support after those debates then we could start seeing some drop out. Any candidate that cannot get above 2% support by the end of this year is just wasting their time, because their candidacy is not viable.
The primaries/caucuses start in early February of 2020. How many will still be in the race at that time?
Some Good And Bad News About Incarceration In The U.S.
The good news is that's about 10% less than in 2009 (the peak prison population year).
The bad news is that the United States still has more people behind bars than any other nation in the world -- both in total numbers and the per capita ratio.
Why? Are Americans more lawless than the citizens of other countries? Not at all. People are pretty much the same all over the world.
One reason is that the United States has decided that it can solve social problems (drugs, prostitution, etc.) by locking people up. Another reason is that, although some other countries follow that fallacious reasoning, the U.S. gives much harsher sentences for that conduct.We need to change that.
Don't get me wrong. Prisons are necessary to deal with true criminals -- those who hurts people or take their property. But we must stop locking people up just because we don't like their conduct (even though that conduct doesn't harm other people).
We need to depend more on treatment (voluntary) and education to treat social ills. We need to use probation more for non-violent crimes, and use shorter sentences when probation fails. And we need to make our prisons more attuned to rehabilitation and make sure once released, a person can get a decent job.
We can do much better. Sadly though, our politicians don't understand the reform that is badly needed.
Measles Outbreak Sets A 21st Century Record
The number of new measles cases in the United States in 2019 is the highest of any year in this century -- and that's for only four months of this year. Imagine how high it will be by the end of the year!
We can thank the idiots in the anti-vaxxer movement for this for spreading lies about vaccines.
From NPR.org:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 695 measles cases in 22 states.
"This is the greatest number of cases reported in the United States since measles was eliminated from this country in 2000," says a CDC statement issued late Wednesday. . . .
"The longer these outbreaks continue, the greater the chance measles will again get a sustained foothold in the United States," the CDC said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement that the rise in measles cases is "avoidable."
"Measles is not a harmless childhood illness, but a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening disease," he said. "We have the ability to safely protect our children and our communities. Vaccines are a safe, highly effective public health solution that can prevent this disease. The measles vaccines are among the most extensively studied medical products we have, and their safety has been firmly established over many years in some of the largest vaccine studies ever undertaken." . . .
The measles outbreaks were largely imported by unvaccinated travelers who were exposed to the disease in another country and then on their return to the U.S. exposed other unvaccinated people. If a community is highly vaccinated, then the outbreaks are minimal or don't happen at all.
"However, once measles is in an under-vaccinated community, it becomes difficult to control the spread of the disease," said the CDC. . . .
The states with reported cases of measles are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee and Washington.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Half Of Registered Voters Say Trump Obstructed Justice
Donald Trump says he was exonerated by the Mueller Report. He says he did not try to obstruct justice, and that Congress should not investigate any further. But about half of registered voters are buying the lie.
About 49% say Trump did try to obstruct the Mueller investigation, while only 39% say he did not. And 48% believes Congress should continue to investigate that obstruction, while that same 39% say it should not.
As usual, Trump's supporters believe him. Others do not. As the chart below shows, about 62% of registered voters believe Trump has lied to the American people. They want an investigation.
These charts reflect the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between April 21st and 23rd of a national sample of 1,268 registered voters, with a 2.8 point margin of error.
Three Interesting Charts On The 2018 Vote
I found these charts interesting, and thought you might also. We already knew the 2018 vote was much larger than the midterm vote in 2014. These charts show how much it was up in each demographic group. If the turnout in 2020 mirrors the 2018 turnout (in terms of growth in each group), then the Democrats should do very well.
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