Monday, September 9, 2019

Progressive News Bytes


MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019: LATEST NEWS BYTES

Yes, trim the Senate, starting with Mitch McConnell  

The main target, Mitch McConnell, is on the RIGHT
NBC News says the landscape of the U.S. Senate may be due for a trimming and then reseeding. Very competitive are No. Carolina, Texas, Iowa and Georgia. The most vulnerable seats include Colorado, Maine and Arizona. Here are some examples...
In Iowa, Sen. Joni Ernst is a one-term incumbent running in a state that has been hit hard by the president’s trade disputes with China. 
In Texas, Sen. John Cornyn is up for re-election in a state where the registered voter demographics are changing and where GOP Sen. Ted Cruz had to fight hard to eke out a win over then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
Seats that could be upsets are Montana, Kansas, Kentucky and So. Carolina. If we can just get rid of Mitch McConnell in Kentucky the whole political spectrum will change.

MSNBC comments on Democrats 2020 Senate chances...


You think Fox News is biased and spews lies and misinformation, just wait for Sinclair Broadcasting, who now has control over the local broadcast airwaves reaching 72% of the nation’s households. And they are ultra-conservative. Sinclair has “must-run” commentaries at its 193 broadcasting outlets in 89 markets required by all of its stations to air. Here's an example coming from political commentator Boris Epshteyn, coming straight out of the 1990s...
"Epshteyn argued that children must not be exposed to the “gratuitous violence” of video games and movies, and that the “impact of violent media on the psyche of our youth” has to be a part of preventing mass shootings."
AlterNet says the broadcaster could be "competing with Fox News to be Trump’s favorite propaganda machine." Just what we need.

Turning to another major problem, Suicide rates are on the rise in rural America reported by Danielle Steelesmith, a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. Not unexpected, the presence of more gun shops was also associated with an increase in suicide rates in all counties, except for the most rural ones. Number one, rural areas love their guns and, two, they were also what helped put Donald Trump in the White House.
Okay, farmers were one of the hardest hit with the Trump tariffs, but the study doesn't mention them specifically. However, one must wonder?

How No. Carolina ended gerrymandering...


And finally, Politico says, "Republicans fear drubbing in next round of redistricting." When Democrats fell asleep at the switch in 2010, [it] "cost them control of Congress for nearly a decade." The Democrats still haven't fully waked up but recent laws on the issue are kicking in and could help save their ineffectual butts in 2020...
Senior Republicans concede they’re at risk of losing dozens of state-level elections that will determine who wields power over the post-2020 congressional map — and potentially which party controls the chamber for the following 10 years.
That should get us back to round zero, but then, something must be done to prevent gerrymandering in the future. 

Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

  THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...