Super Tuesday on March 1 was supposed to be the day when the primary races were largely settled with a clear winner emerging, with all the other candidates acknowledging reality and dropping out of the race and throwing their weight behind the party nominee, enabling that person to focus for the next eight months on uniting the party and crafting a message that would win the general election in November.
[Read more…]
The two party establishments must have been wishing for different results than what they got last night. On the Democratic side, no doubt they were clearly hoping that Hillary Clinton would crush Bernie Sanders and force him out of the race quickly so that then Clinton and the party could go back to their familiar and comfortable space of oligarchy-friendly, Wall Street-friendly, and war-friendly policies without the pesky Sanders forcing her to address the issues of inequality, war, and the corrupt political system that have been the cornerstones of his candidacy.
[Read more…]
She rightly points out that while we pay a lot of attention to presidential election years, we pay far too little attention to mid-term elections and local and state elections, although these can have very significant consequences. The low voter turnout at such elections tends to result in horrible people getting elected to office.
[Read more…]
One of the zombie memes of this election cycle is that while Sanders is the better candidate on the issues and has been a consistent supporter of progressive values all his life, we should vote for the warmongering, oligarchy-supporting Hillary Clinton because despite her dubious past policy positions and doubtful integrity, she is the more ‘electable’ candidate.
[Read more…]
Hillary Clinton has refused to release the transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs, speeches for which she received a whopping $675,000 for just three speeches. It is unlikely that she had anything to say that was of practical use to the audience of investment bankers, so naturally one wonders why they were willing to pay her so much and why she is so reluctant to reveal their contents.
[Read more…]
Yesterday a federal judge ruled against the FBI in its efforts to get Apple to unlock the phone of a suspected drug dealer. This ruling has an impact on the other case in which the FBI has demanded that Apple unlock the phone of the San Bernadino shooter. The government is using a 227-year old law known as the All Writs Act as the basis for its claim. (Neil Richards and Woodrow Hartzog explain the origins and purpose of this law.)
[Read more…]
The Daily Show compares the records of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on civil rights issues.
[Read more…]
What should be a concern is that while turnout has been at record high levels for the Republican primary contests, it has been at low levels for the Democrats.
[Read more…]
The US Supreme Court decision outlawing bans on same-sex marriages has resulted in some state legislatures passing statutes that allow people to discriminate against the members of the LGBT community under the guise of advancing ‘religious freedom’. Indiana was one such state but faced condemnations from business and calls for boycotts of conventions and tourism that prompted it to reverse course.
[Read more…]
Tomorrow is Super Tuesday that sees a whole slew of primary and caucuses and is the day when the political and media establishment see whether their last ditch campaign to dethrone Donald Trump works. They have decided to throw everything at him in the hopes of blunting his progress. But the confusion into which he has thrown the establishment can be seen even here since it is not clear what they are hoping for as their best outcome.
[Read more…]