Category Archives: Ron Paul

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who was the only senator to oppose a coronavirus relief package last month, announced Sunday that he has tested positive for the virus.

He is feeling fine and is in quarantine, an announcement on his Twitter said. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events.

It added, He expects to be back in the Senate after his quarantine period ends and will continue to work for the people of Kentucky at this difficult time.

In addition to being the only senator to vote against an $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus package, Paul also was one of the eight senators who voted against paid sick leave in a stimulus bill that passed with an overwhelming 90-8 vote last week.

I think that the paid sick leave is an incentive for businesses to actually let go employees and will make unemployment worse, Paul, a physician who has a Kentucky-issued medical license, explained to Newsweek.

CNN reported that Paul closed his Capitol Hill offices over a week ago and urged employees to work from home due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Two people who attended the annual Speed Art Museum ball in Kentucky with the senator on March 7 later tested positive for the virus, according to the Courier-Journal.

But despite reportedly being tested roughly a week ago, Paul continued to interact with colleagues and even worked out at the Senate gymand was swimming in the poolon Sunday morning, shortly before he received his positive test results, Politico reported.

Paul is the first senator to test positive for the novel coronavirus. Two other members of Congress, Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Ben McAdams (D-UT), have also gone public with positive test results.

According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, is particularly dangerous for people with lung problems. In August 2019, Paul had part of his lung removed after an altercation with his neighbor Rene Boucher. The two had a long-running dispute over lawn care.

On March 2, Paul appeared on Fox News and downplayed the global threat of the coronavirus.

While it is worldwide, I think there is room for optimism that this thing may plateau out in a few weeks and not be as bad it as it may have been portrayed, he said to host Neil Cavuto. Weve seen pockets of this around the world and even in Italy and Iran where we have it, but none of it is approaching what started in China.

When asked about institutions taking larger measures to limit the spread of the virus, Paul was resistant to the idea. I think closing down the Smithsonians would be way too premature and I wouldnt advise something like that.

And when Cavuto asked Paul about making personal adjustments to avoid infection, the Senator was particularly defiant. I mean, I fly all the time and Im not cutting back on my flying... I was on a plane today, he said. I could be wrong and this could be really bad in two or three weeks or a month, but Im hoping its not going to be. Im not ready to buy all the toilet paper at Target.

The senators father, Dr. Ron Paul, a physician and a former Republican congressman from Texas, published an essay called The Coronavirus Hoax last week for the New River Valley News, a local outlet based in Virginia.

People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus pandemic could be a big hoax, with the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated by those who seek to profitfinancially or politicallyfrom the ensuing panic, the elder Paul wrote.

As of Sunday afternoon, there are 30,000 COVID-19 cases in the U.S., and nearly 400 people have died.

View post:
Sen. Rand Paul Reveals He Has Coronavirus - The Daily Beast

Americans should oppose the nearly $2 trillion corporate bailout bill masquerading as stimulus currently under negotiation in the U.S. Senate. This profligate spending will do little to help the American economy or average citizens in the long run. But the additional debt added to an already whopping $1 trillion 2020 federal deficit will plague taxpayers for years.

Long-run thinking, though, is not in vogue in Washington, D.C. Perhaps our president, senators, and U.S. representatives are beyond hope. Perhaps they have fully embraced state control of the economy. The American people have not and if our elected representatives vote yes on this rushed and unholy bill, we should vote no on them in the fall.

We are in a dramatically deflationary period, with vast parts of the U.S. economy shut down due to the COVID-19 virus. More money and more cheap credit cant stimulate anything in such an environment, because money and credit arent goods and services. It can and will, however, saddle future generations of Americans with more debt misery and entrench a standard of moral hazard for corporations from which free markets may never recover.

The correct response to the current economic crisis is simple and painful. First, get America back to work as soon as possible. Humanitarian concerns and economic concerns are not in conflict; in fact, they are closely linked. An economic depression is far deadlier than any virus, and tradeoffs are required.A poorer America is an America with far worse public health.

Second, allow existing bankruptcy and insolvency processes to run their course. Bailouts are not the answer, new owners who can turn companies around are. Corporate assets, contracts and products dont disappear in bankruptcy. Yes, there will be pain as many (not all) existing employees lose their jobs. But executives and boards of failing companies should lose their jobs first and foremost, and new shareholders should seek clawbacks of ill-deserved bonuses and stock compensation.

Again, this will not be pretty but shareholders, not taxpayers, must bear the economic burden when companies fail.

As with most emergency spending legislation, this proposed bill is lengthy and its details are fuzzy. But todays Wall Street Journal sums up the whole sordid process nicely: Lobbyists Pile On to Get Wins for Clients Into Coronavirus Stimulus Package.

Among these opportunities: $500 billion in business loans from the U.S. Treasury, which means backed by you and me. Seventy billion dollars is earmarked for airlines and their suppliers, including Boeing, Delta, United and General Electric.

Airlines especially deserve scrutiny for approaching the public trough. Several reportedly spent more than 95 percent of their free cash flow in recent years on stock buybacks. That money was wasted, vaporized by the drop in their share prices over the last week. If they need money now, they have several choices: Borrow, sell stock or sell airplanes. Theirs is a particularly cyclical and volatile industry; dont executives remember the falloff of travel after 9/11? Why dont they hold more operating cash?

The unasked question lurking underneath the Senate bill is this: How do we pay for it all? Congress doesnt have $2 trillion to spend, and 2020 tax receipts wont begin to cover the bill. This means the federal government will effectively print the money, likely in a circuitous way by issuing new Treasury debt and using the Federal Reserve Bank as a backstop to buy it all if investors wont. And what sort of investor wants to loan Uncle Sam money for 10 years at less than 1 percent interest anyway?

At least Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersRand Paul's coronavirus diagnosis sends shockwaves through Senate Biden says he will broadcast regular coronavirus briefings Biden says he will start vetting process for VP pick 'in a matter of weeks' MORE (I-Vt.) is more honest: He thinks government simply should give Americans money every month, with or without a crisis. We now see plainly that congressional Republicans agree with him, at least conditionally. What a sad state of affairs.

If the bailout of 2008 had worked, U.S. companies would not need a bailout today. They would have thanked their lucky stars then, and focused on building healthier balance sheets with more cash and less debt. Let new owners, not American taxpayers, save them today.

Jeff Deist, former chief of staff for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), is president of the Mises Institute, a non-profit think tank that promotes teaching and research in the Austrian school of economics.

See the original post:
Against the coronavirus corporate bailout | TheHill - The Hill

Derrick Reed and Nyanza Moore are running against each other and one other serious candidate in the Mar. 3 Democratic primary for a Houston-area House of Representatives seat. (Pierce Bush, President George H.W. Bush's grandson, is running on the Republican side, and the district is said to be competitive, though it used to be solidly Republican and had indeed been Ron Paul's old House district.)

Moore had apparently accused Reed of committing domestic violence, so Reed sued; as the Houston Chronicle (Jasper Scherer) reports,

In one post, Moore indicated that she possessed a protective order involving Reed and his ex-wife. Reed denied the allegations and said no protective order "exists between he and his ex-wife or any other woman."

"Mr. Reed was with his ex-wife for approximately 20 years and has never beat or abused her," the filing reads. "The police have never been called out to any of their residences for domestic violence or any physical altercation."

In a statement, Reed's ex-wife said, "The claim being made that my ex-husband, Derrick Reed, physically abused me during our marriage is false. This accusation is damaging and unfair to our young and impressionable children and is an untrue characterization of their father."

And last week, Brazoria County (Texas) District Court Judge Patrick Sebesta issued a temporary restraining order requiring Moore to stop making such allegations (at least until a hearing scheduled for Feb. 25), and issue a retraction:

The Court, having read and carefully examined the pleadings, testimony, and/or affidavits presented, this Court determines that Plainitiff has demonstrated that there is substantial likelihood that Defendants [Nyanza Moore and her campaign committee] have engaged in conduct and/or are continuing to engage in conduct, about to perform, or will be allowing the performance of acts related to the subject litigation that are unwarranted and in violation of the Plaintiff's rights and could render the judgment in this litigation ineffectual. It appears from Plaintiff's Verified Original Petition that if the commission of said acts on the part of Defendants is not immediately restrained, there is a substantial likelihood that Plaintiff will suffer immediate and irreparable damage to Plaintiff's business, integrity, and reputation, among other things. Further, Plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law and will suffer irreparable harm if the Temporary Restraining Order is not granted.

IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED that the Clerk of this Court issue a Temporary Restraining Order restraining and enjoining Defendants from making any and all publication or republication of the Defamatory Statements or any defamatory statements regarding Mr. Reed allegedly committing any criminal act of domestic violence [and] continuing their acts of defamation per se of Mr. Reed and falsely stating and inferring that Mr. Reed "beats women" or has committed an act of domestic violence;

Defendants are ordered to withdraw their published defamatory statements, including those that have published via video recording; and

Defendants are ordered to issue a public and express retraction of the statements in every social media and media method Defendants used to disseminate the defamatory statements.

Yet regardless of who's telling the truth as to the underlying allegations, the order is clearly unconstitutional:

[1.] The First Amendment may allow injunctions against repeating libels, issued after there has been a trial at which the statements were found to be false and defamatory. But it doesn't allow pretrial injunctions, based on a finding that there is merely a "substantial likelihood" that the statements are false (especially when, as seems to be the case here, the injunction was a temporary restraining order issued without the defendant even having a chance to defend herself). That's true in libel cases generallyand it's certainly true as to charges being made by candidates in a political campaign.

[2.] But beyond that, the Texas Supreme Court expressly held in Kinney v. Barnes (2014) that the Texas Constitution forbids injunctions against making or repeating libels (though it allows injunctions, entered after a trial, ordering the removal of specific web pages found libelous):

Accordingly, we hold that the Texas Constitution does not permit injunctions against future speech following an adjudication of defamation. Trial courts are simply not equipped to comport with the constitutional requirement not to chill protected speech in an attempt to effectively enjoin defamation. Instead, as discussed below, damages serve as the constitutionally permitted deterrent in defamation actions.

The court had in a 1983 case made clear that pretrial injunctions are unconstitutional as well, and reaffirmed that in Kinney, rejecting any "distinction Kinney emphasizes between permanent injunctions on speech adjudicated defamatory and pretrial temporary injunctions on allegedly defamatory speech." But it appears that the trial judge was unaware of this.

Continued here:
Congressional Candidate Ordered Not to Repeat Charges That Her Opponent Abused His Wife - Reason

The Atlas Shrugged author made selfishness heroic and caring about others weakness.

This story first appeared at AlterNet.

Ayn Rands philosophy is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil. Gore Vidal, 1961

Only rarely in U.S. history do writers transform us to become a more caring or less caring nation. In the 1850s, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was a strong force in making the United States a more humane nation, one that would abolish slavery of African Americans. A century later, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) helped make the United States into one of the most uncaring nations in the industrialized world, a neo-Dickensian society where healthcare is only for those who can afford it, and where young people are coerced into huge student-loan debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

Rands impact has been widespread and deep. At the icebergs visible tip is the influence shes had over major political figures who have shaped American society. In the 1950s, Ayn Rand read aloud drafts of what was later to become Atlas Shrugged to her Collective, Rands ironic nickname for her inner circle of young individualists, which included Alan Greenspan, who would serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1987 to 2006.

In 1966, Ronald Reagan wrote in a personal letter, Am an admirer of Ayn Rand. Today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) credits Rand for inspiring him to go into politics, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) calls Atlas Shrugged his foundation book. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) says Ayn Rand had a major influence on him, and his son Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is an even bigger fan. A short list of other Rand fans includes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Christopher Cox, chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission in George W. Bushs second administration; and former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

But Rands impact on U.S. society and culture goes even deeper.

The Seduction of Nathan Blumenthal

Ayn Rands books such as The Virtue of Selfishness and her philosophy that celebrates self-interest and disdains altruism may well be, as Vidal assessed, nearly perfect in its immorality. But is Vidal right about evil? Charles Manson, who himself did not kill anyone, is the personification of evil for many of us because of his psychological success at exploiting the vulnerabilities of young people and seducing them to murder. What should we call Ayn Rands psychological ability to exploit the vulnerabilities of millions of young people so as to influence them not to care about anyone besides themselves?

While Greenspan (tagged A.G. by Rand)was the most famous name that would emerge from Rands Collective, the second most well-known name to emerge from the Collective was Nathaniel Branden, psychotherapist, author and self-esteem advocate. Before he was Nathaniel Branden, he was Nathan Blumenthal, a 14-year-old who read Rands The Fountainhead again and again. He later would say, I felt hypnotized. He describes how Rand gave him a sense that he could be powerful, that he could be a hero. He wrote one letter to his idol Rand, then a second. To his amazement, she telephoned him, and at age 20, Nathan received an invitation to Ayn Rands home. Shortly after, Nathan Blumenthal announced to the world that he was incorporating Rand in his new name: Nathaniel Branden. And in 1955, with Rand approaching her 50th birthday and Branden his 25th, and both in dissatisfying marriages, Ayn bedded Nathaniel.

What followed sounds straight out of Hollywood, but Rand was straight out of Hollywood, having worked for Cecil B. DeMille. Rand convened a meeting with Nathaniel, his wife Barbara (also a Collective member), and Rands own husband Frank. ToBrandensastonishment, Rand convinced both spouses that a time-structured affairshe andBrandenwere to have one afternoon and one evening a week togetherwas reasonable. Within the Collective, Rand is purported to have never lost an argument. On his trysts at Rands New York City apartment,Brandenwould sometimes shake hands with Frank before he exited. Later, all discovered that Rands sweet but passive husband would leave for a bar, where he began his self-destructive affair with alcohol.

By 1964, the 34-year-old Nathaniel Brandenhad grown tired of the now 59-year-old Ayn Rand. Still sexually dissatisfied in his marriage to Barbara and afraid to end his affair with Rand,Brandenbegan sleeping with a married 24-year-old model, Patrecia Scott. Rand, now the woman scorned, calledBrandento appear before the Collective, whose nickname had by now lost its irony for both Barbara andBranden. Rands justice was swift. She humiliatedBrandenand then put a curse on him: If you have one ounce of morality left in you, an ounce of psychological healthyoull be impotent for the next 20 years! And if you achieve potency sooner, youll know its a sign of still worse moral degradation!

Rand completed the evening with two welt-producing slaps across Brandens face. Finally, in a move that Stalin and Hitler would have admired, Rand also expelled poor Barbara from the Collective, declaring her treasonous because Barbara, preoccupied by her own extramarital affair, had neglected to fill Rand in soon enough onBrandensextra-extra-marital betrayal. (If anyone doubts Alan Greenspans political savvy, keep in mind that he somehow stayed in Rands good graces even though he, fixed up byBrandenwith Patrecias twin sister, had double-dated with the outlaws.)

After being banished by Rand, Nathaniel Branden was worried that he might be assassinated by other members of the Collective, so he moved from New York to Los Angeles, where Rand fans were less fanatical. Branden established a lucrative psychotherapy practice and authored approximately 20 books, 10 of them with either Self or Self-Esteem in the title. Rand and Branden never reconciled, but he remained an admirer of her philosophy of self-interest until his recent death in December 2014.

Ayn Rands personal life was consistent with her philosophy of not giving a shit about anybody but herself. Rand was an ardent two-pack-a-day smoker, and when questioned about the dangers of smoking, she loved to light up with a defiant flourish and then scold her young questioners on the unscientific and irrational nature of the statistical evidence. After an x-ray showed that she had lung cancer, Rand quit smoking and had surgery for her cancer. Collective members explained to her that many people still smoked because they respected her and her assessment of the evidence; and that since she no longer smoked, she ought to tell them. They told her that she neednt mention her lung cancer, that she could simply say she had reconsidered the evidence. Rand refused.

How Rands Philosophy Seduced Young Minds

When I was a kid, my reading included comic books and Rands The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. There wasnt much difference between the comic books and Rands novels in terms of the simplicity of the heroes. What was different was that unlike Superman or Batman, Rand made selfishness heroic, and she made caring about others weakness.

Rand said, Capitalism and altruism are incompatible.The choice is clear-cut: either a new morality of rational self-interest, with its consequences of freedom, justice, progress and mans happiness on earthor the primordial morality of altruism, with its consequences of slavery, brute force, stagnant terror and sacrificial furnaces. For many young people, hearing that it is moral to care only about oneself can be intoxicating, and some get addicted to this idea for life.

I have known several people, professionally and socially, whose lives have been changed by those close to them who became infatuated with Ayn Rand. A common theme is something like this: My ex-husband wasnt a bad guy until he started reading Ayn Rand. Then he became a completely selfish jerk who destroyed our family, and our children no longer even talk to him.

To wow her young admirers, Rand would often tell a story of how a smart-aleck book salesman had once challenged her to explain her philosophy while standing on one leg. She replied: Metaphysicsobjective reality. Epistemologyreason. Ethicsself-interest. Politicscapitalism. How did that philosophy capture young minds?

Metaphysicsobjective reality. Rand offered a narcotic for confused young people: complete certainty and a relief from their anxiety. Rand believed that an objective reality existed, and she knew exactly what that objective reality was. It included skyscrapers, industries, railroads, and ideasat least her ideas. Rands objective reality did not include anxiety or sadness. Nor did it include much humor, at least the kind where one pokes fun at oneself. Rand assured her Collective that objective reality did not include Beethovens, Rembrandts, and Shakespeares realitiesthey were too gloomy and too tragic, basically buzzkillers. Rand preferred Mickey Spillane and, towards the end of her life, Charlies Angels.

Epistemologyreason. Rands kind of reason was a cool-tool to control the universe. Rand demonized Plato, and her youthful Collective members were taught to despise him. If Rand really believed that the Socratic Method described by Plato of discovering accurate definitions and clear thinking did not qualify as reason, why then did she regularly attempt it with her Collective? Also oddly, while Rand mocked dark moods and despair, her reasoning directed that Collective members should admire Dostoyevsky, whose novels are filled with dark moods and despair. A demagogue, in addition to hypnotic glibness, must also be intellectually inconsistent, sometimes boldly so. This eliminates challenges to authority by weeding out clear-thinking young people from the flock.

Ethicsself-interest. For Rand, all altruists were manipulators. What could be more seductive to kids who discerned the motives of martyr parents, Christian missionaries and U.S. foreign aiders? Her champions, Nathaniel Branden still among them, feel that Rands view of self-interest has been horribly misrepresented. For them, self-interest is her hero architect Howard Roark turning down a commission because he couldnt do it exactly his way. Some of Rands novel heroes did have integrity, however, for Rand there is no struggle to discover the distinction between true integrity and childish vanity. Rands integrity was her vanity, and it consisted of getting as much money and control as possible, copulating with whomever she wanted regardless of who would get hurt, and her always being right. To equate ones selfishness, vanity, and egotism with ones integrity liberates young people from the struggle to distinguish integrity from selfishness, vanity, and egotism.

Politicscapitalism. While Rand often disparaged Soviet totalitarian collectivism, she had little to say about corporate totalitarian collectivism, as she conveniently neglected the reality that giant U.S. corporations, like the Soviet Union, do not exactly celebrate individualism, freedom, or courage. Rand was clever and hypocritical enough to know that you dont get rich in the United States talking about compliance and conformity within corporate America. Rather, Rand gave lectures titled: Americas Persecuted Minority: Big Business. So, young careerist corporatists could embrace Rands self-styled radical capitalism and feel radical radical without risk.

Rands Legacy

In recent years, we have entered a phase where it is apparently okay for major political figures to publicly embrace Rand despite her contempt for Christianity. In contrast, during Ayn Rands life, her philosophy that celebrated self-interest was a private pleasure for the 1 percent but she was a public embarrassment for them. They used her books to congratulate themselves on the morality of their selfishness, but they publicly steered clear of Rand because of her views on religion and God. Rand, for example, had stated on national television, I am against God. I dont approve of religion. It is a sign of a psychological weakness. I regard it as an evil.

Actually, again inconsistent, Rand did have a God. It was herself. She said:

I am done with the monster of we, the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame. And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: I.

While Harriet Beecher Stowe shamed Americans about the United States dehumanization of African Americans and slavery, Ayn Rand removed Americans guilt for being selfish and uncaring about anyone except themselves. Not only did Rand make it moral for the wealthy not to pay their fair share of taxes, she liberated millions of other Americans from caring about the suffering of others, even the suffering of their own children.

The good news is that Ive seen ex-Rand fans grasp the damage that Rands philosophy has done to their lives and to then exorcize it from their psyche. Can the United States as a nation do the same thing?

Bruce E. Levineis a practicing clinical psychologist. His latest book is Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite.

Go here to read the rest:
Clinical psychologist explains how Ayn Rand helped turn the US into a selfish and greedy nation - Raw Story

Our team has conducted some tiring research on Rand Paul, current as of 2020-02-20. Rand Paul is a politician in Kentucky. Heres their handsome photo:

Twitter activity: As of 2020-02-20, Rand Paul (@RandPaul) has 2682583 Twitter followers, is following 498 people, has tweeted 13551 times, has liked 854 tweets, has uploaded 3015 photos and videos and has been on Twitter since November 2010.

Facebook activity: As of 2020-02-20, Rand Paul has 789,863 likes on their facebook page, 814,593 followers and has been maintaining the page since February 3, 2011. Their page ID is SenatorRandPaul.

How popular is Rand Paul right now? On Google Trends Rand Paul had a popularity ranking of 3 ten days ago, 2 nine days ago, 3 eight days ago, 2 seven days ago, 2 six days ago, 3 five days ago, 3 four days ago, 2 three days ago, 2 two days ago, 4 one day ago and now has a popularity rank of 1. So in the recent past, they were gathering the most attention on 2020-02-16 when they had a rank of 4. If we compare Rand Pauls popularity to three months ago, they had an average popularity of 1.1, whereas now their average popularity over the last ten days is 2.5. so by that measure, Rand Paul is getting more popular! Its worth noting, finally, that Rand Paul never had a rank of 0, indicating people are always searching for them.

And what about how Rand Paul has fared if we consider the entire past 3 months? Our date indicates 2020-01-31 to be their most popular day, when they had a relative rank of 100. Not bad!

We found suggested searches for people looking up Rand Paul include Rand Paul (duh), Rand Paul presidential campaign, 2016, Paul Rand, Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know and Libertarianism: A Primer.

As of 2020-02-20, our research indicates that people searching for Rand Paul are also searching for these related terms: whistleblower, rand paul whistleblower name, rand paul twitter, trump, eric ciaramella, senator rand paul, who is rand paul, rand paul news, impeachment, rand paul impeachment, ron paul, rand paul names whistleblower, who is the whistleblower, rand paul 2020, iran, donald trump, trump twitter, rand paul iran, fox news, rand paul lindsey graham, lindsey graham, trump news, rand paul tweet, cnn and sen rand paul.

We did some more serious analysis today on the web sentiment regarding Rand Paul, and found a number of recent news articles about them. I may update this post when I have analyzed more of them.

Do you have anything youd like to share on Rand Paul as of 2020-02-20? Let us know in the comments! (And keep it civil)

990 Vesta Drive, Westchester, IL 60154773-652-4824karen.crowder@poptopnews.com

Read more:
What We Found On Rand Paul (2020-02-20) - Pop Top News

Sen. Bernie Sanders giving remarks.(Photo: Bernie Sanders' Senate webpage)

MESQUITE This was certainly not Bernie Sanders first rodeo as a polemicist whipping a mostly young crowd of some 5,000 into a frenzy with his call for a democratic socialist revolution in America via the ballot box.

But his rally Friday night at the Mesquite Rodeo in suburban Dallas might have been the first in a venue usually devoted to steer wrestling, calf roping and bull riding.

I have never been to a rodeo in my life, but I do work in Washington, D.C., and I do hear a lot of bullshit, declared the Vermont senator with his unmistakable Brooklyn accent and brusque cadence.

Sanders arrived in Texas just more than two weeks before the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries in Texas and 13 other states when 34% of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee in July will be chosen. Texas and California hold the biggest troves of delegates.

Sanders, making his second run for president after a long and sometimes bitter contest with Hillary Clinton in 2016, is better positioned at the moment than any other candidate for whats ahead, coming off what was essentially a tie with former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses and a narrow victory Tuesday over Buttigieg in the New Hampshire primary.

But, if he arrived in Texas as a front-runner, it was more a trot than a gallop, in what now promises to be a long war of accretion for delegates in a proportional allocation system that will complicate any candidates ability to assemble a majority of delegates before the convention.

Sanders offered what might or might not have been a shot across the bow at billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, who is turning Texas into a test of the power of money to quickly and decisively move public sentiment in a hard-to-parse presidential race.

I know a little about the power of the 1%, Sanders proclaimed. I understand that the billionaire class has endless amounts of money. They have been buying elections, and were seeing that right now. But at the end of the day, while the billionaire class is in fact enormously powerful with endless amounts of money, the 1% is 1%.

A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released Friday has Sanders vaulting past former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren since its last poll of Democratic voters in October. Sanders is at 24%, Biden at 22%, and Warren at 15%. Bloomberg, the former three-term mayor of New York City who skipped the early contests for Super Tuesday, is at 10%.

The poll says that Trump would beat Sanders by 2 points, within the polls margin of error, Warren by 3 points, Biden by 4 points, and Bloomberg, Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Klobuchar, by 5 points each.

Both Biden and Warren are coming off dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, and much in Texas depends on whether either can revive their fortunes in the Nevada caucuses next Saturday and the primary the following Saturday in South Carolina ahead of Super Tuesday.

Ill be damned if were going to lose this nomination, particularly if were going to lose this nomination and end up losing an election to Donald Trump, Biden, 77, said on a Wednesday evening call with supporters.

Let me begin by making a dramatic announcement: Were going to win the state of Texas, the 78-year-old Sanders said in Mesquite.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Bloomberg, who turned 78 Friday, was speaking at a Harris County Democratic Party dinner in downtown Houston.

Then he addressed 700 African Americans at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, where he was endorsed by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and others, and he apologized for the practice of stop and frisk during his tenure as mayor.

Stop and frisk refers to a police policy of stopping and patting down people frequently young black and brown men who had done nothing to arouse suspicion for questioning.

I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it, and for that I apologize, said Bloomberg.

I defended it, looking back, for too long because I didnt understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids, Bloomberg told the black audience.

Bloomberg then laid out his ambitious Greenwood Initiative that would seek to increase generational wealth accumulation in the black community by expanding access to homeownership and making strategic investments in black-owned businesses and poor neighborhoods.

In his passionate introduction for Bloomberg, Turner said that Bloombergs apology for stop and frisk was a precondition for his endorsement.

I thought this was going to be the death knell for the campaign, but I think he handled it in a way that was appropriate and pragmatic, University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said.

It was my first time seeing him. I was glad he addressed his support for stop and frisk and was being very sincere and acknowledged and recognized his mistake, said Jordan Ar, a 27-year-old Dartmouth graduate and financial adviser in Houston.

I feel like right now hes getting a lot of momentum, Ar said. I listen to NPR every day and for the last three, four, five days, you hear Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Bloomberg.

He brings a different dynamic. I have not completely identified what that is yet, Ar said. At the end of the day the Democratic Party is going to want to get behind a candidate. I think if its Bernie Sanders, its going to be a little bit more difficult. I think Bloomberg is starting to make noise at the right time.

Of Bloombergs lavish spending on his own behalf, Ar said: I think people understand that its his own money. Its not like hes out there asking billionaires for money.

Thanks to his virtually bottomless pockets, Bloombergs late-blooming campaign has a staff of 2,400, including 150 in Texas. It has opened more than 150 offices, including 19 in Texas.

Most importantly, according to Rice University political scientist Mark Jones, Bloomberg has already spent $25.6 million for ads in Texas top six TV markets and has probably spent $30 million statewide.

Hes doing pretty much the broadest media buys Ive ever seen, Jones said. Hes hitting open air TV. Hes hitting full-page newspaper ads, which nobody does anymore, but he does. His digital is over the top. And hes on radio.

Most Democratic primary voters have seen those ads and by and large they have been effective, Jones said. He has gone from someone who was zero in the polls, who was unknown in Texas aside from being the guy who wanted to ban Super Big Gulps, to someone who is now in the second tier and rising.

Despite his long public life, Bloomberg is an awkward politician.

Now if I were in Texas I may say that Donald Trump is scared as a cat at the dog pound, but since Im from New York, I put it this way: Were scaring the living hell out of him, he said. If I offended anyone, Im sorry, but I was told at a dinner honoring Ann Richards, language, colorful language, was allowed.

He said, Were staying in Texas not for Super Bowl Tuesday but through November so we can send Donald Trump packing on Election Day, and my friend Beto (ORourke) showed that it really is possible if you campaign in every county and every corner of the state, and thats what Im going to do.

He bragged about a recent bus tour of Texas he made with the most celebrated jurist ever to sit on the bench Judge Judy. Texas loves Judge Judy. Unlike Senate Republicans, she knows how to deliver the correct verdict.

In Texas, delegates will be allotted proportionally based on a candidates statewide tally and performance in each of the 31 state Senate districts. Critically, a candidate needs to meet a 15% threshold to get any delegates statewide or by district.

Obviously its a very fractured race, and its a race for delegates for Sen. Warren. She has some great opportunities in Nevada and in Super Tuesday states, Julin Castro, who also spoke at the Harris County dinner, said Thursday night.

I feel hopeful, said Castro, the former San Antonio mayor and federal Housing and Urban Development secretary, who has been a full-time campaign surrogate for Warren since dropping his own presidential bid at the beginning of January. She has a very strong organization thats already in place and has been in place for months, unlike most of the other campaigns. I dont think theres a clear front-runner.

In a memo on the state of the race Tuesday, Roger Lau, Warrens campaign manager wrote that, People who are predicting what will happen a week from now are the same people who a year ago predicted that Beto ORourke was a frontrunner for the nomination.

Barely over a week ago, a fifth-place finish in Iowa was seen likely to knock Amy Klobuchar out of the race, and much of the media and pundit class predicted Pete Buttigiegs fade in the Iowa caucuses, Lau wrote. As weve seen in the last week, debates and unexpected results have an outsize impact on the race, and will likely keep it volatile and unpredictable through Super Tuesday.

Weve built an organization to match what we expect to be a drawn-out contest to accumulate delegates everywhere, Lau said.

Beginning Monday, Buttigiegs campaign will have 24 paid staffers in Texas to work with its existing grassroots volunteer networks across the state. But so far, his Super Tuesday travel schedule and six-figure digital ad buy do not include Texas.

Klobuchar has a March 1 visit to Austin planned, but there are no details yet.

For Klobuchar and Buttigieg, who is backed by Austin Mayor Steve Adler, its a matter of picking up delegates where they can.

I do think that it is no little thing that in New Hampshire the center-left vote was way more than what Bernie got, and its more than what Bernie and Warren got together by a considerable amount, said Matt Angle, director of Lone Star Project, which works to improve Democratic fortunes in Texas. And if youre looking at Super Tuesday states, particularly Texas, thats where our vote is, our vote is center-left.

But there is no question that the crowd that Sanders drew to the Mesquite Rodeo is one that only he could draw.

Hes been wanting medical care for all, hes been wanting all of these things like for the whole time, everybody is just following his lead and making slight changes, said Saffron Maasz, 19, of Arlington, who is studying political science at Tarrant County College and works part-time at UPS. I think you should go with the original thinker, the O.G. Hes been riding this horse since the 60s. I think thats really neat.

Maasz was there with her boyfriend, Zach Meuir, 23, who works at a Chick-fil-A. He voted for Trump in 2016 only because I simply didnt want Hillary. I look back on it now as silly.

Jason Stringer, 29, who was drawn to libertarian Ron Paul in the past, said when he listened to Sanders, Everything he said, I kind of already felt, about student debt, health care.

Stringer, a dog groomer from Mesquite attending his first political rally, voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in 2016.

And this time, if Sanders is not the nominee?

Honestly, Im not too sure, he said.

Were kind of hoping it doesnt come to that, said his wife, Misty, 37, who manages a college bookstore.

As far as (Sanders) altogether beating Trump in Texas, I think its quite a long shot, Jason Stringer said.

Monique and Jose Yanez, of Mesquite, both 29, were there with their son, Innocent, 8, and daughter, Serenity, 3.

I think hes the only candidate who can actually beat Trump, said Jose, a retail store manager.

Why?

I dont think those intimidation tactics Trump does will affect Bernie, he said. The only thing he has on him is the socialism stereotype, and I dont think thats going to work. Theres nothing new. Theyve been saying that about him from the start.

Read or Share this story: https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/2020/02/17/not-his-first-rodeo-bernie-man-beat-texas/4786530002/

Go here to read the rest:
Not his first rodeo: Bernie the man to beat in Texas - Standard-Times

Our team has conducted some comprehensive research on Rand Paul, current as of 2020-02-19. Rand Paul is a politician in Kentucky. Heres their handsome photo:

Twitter activity: As of 2020-02-19, Rand Paul (@RandPaul) has 2681742 Twitter followers, is following 498 people, has tweeted 13550 times, has liked 854 tweets, has uploaded 3015 photos and videos and has been on Twitter since November 2010.

Facebook activity: As of 2020-02-19, Rand Paul has 789,884 likes on their facebook page, 814,591 followers and has been maintaining the page since February 3, 2011. Their page ID is SenatorRandPaul.

How popular is Rand Paul right now? On Google Trends Rand Paul had a popularity ranking of 3 ten days ago, 3 nine days ago, 2 eight days ago, 3 seven days ago, 2 six days ago, 2 five days ago, 4 four days ago, 2 three days ago, 2 two days ago, 2 one day ago and now has a popularity rank of 4. So in the recent past, they were gathering the most attention on 2020-02-13 when they had a rank of 4. If we compare Rand Pauls popularity to three months ago, they had an average popularity of 1.1, whereas now their average popularity over the last ten days is 2.7. so by that measure, Rand Paul is getting more popular! Its worth noting, finally, that Rand Paul never had a rank of 0, indicating people are always searching for them.

And what about how Rand Paul has fared if we consider the entire past 3 months? Our date indicates 2020-01-31 to be their most popular day, when they had a relative rank of 100. Not bad!

We found suggested searches for people looking up Rand Paul include Rand Paul (duh), Rand Paul presidential campaign, 2016, Paul Rand, Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know and Libertarianism: A Primer.

As of 2020-02-19, our research indicates that people searching for Rand Paul are also searching for these related terms: whistleblower, whistleblower rand paul, rand paul whistleblower name, rand paul twitter, trump, senator paul rand, impeachment, eric ciaramella, rand paul impeachment, who is rand paul, rand paul news, ron paul, who is the whistleblower, donald trump, iran, rand paul tweet, fox news, rand paul names whistleblower, sen rand paul, rand paul lindsey graham, lindsey graham, rand paul iran, rand paul neighbor, paul ryan and trump twitter.

We did some more tiring analysis today on the web sentiment regarding Rand Paul, and found a number of recent news articles about them. I may update this post when I have analyzed more of them.

Do you have anything youd like to share on Rand Paul as of 2020-02-19? Let us know in the comments! (And keep it civil)

990 Vesta Drive, Westchester, IL 60154773-652-4824karen.crowder@poptopnews.com

Continue reading here:
The Rundown on Rand Paul You Need To See (2020-02-19) Pop Top News - Pop Top News

President Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told us the US had to assassinate Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani last week because he was planning Imminent attacks on US citizens. I dont believe them.

Why not? Because Trump and the neocons like Pompeo have been lying about Iran for the past three years in an effort to whip up enough support for a US attack. From the phony justification to get out of the Iran nuclear deal, to blaming Yemen on Iran, to blaming Iran for an attack on Saudi oil facilities, the US Administration has fed us a steady stream of lies for three years because they are obsessed with Iran.

And before Trumps obsession with attacking Iran, the past four US Administrations lied ceaselessly to bring about wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Serbia, Somalia, and the list goes on.

At some point, when weve been lied to constantly and consistently for decades about a threat that we must take out with a military attack, there comes a time where we must assume they are lying until they provide rock solid, irrefutable proof. Thus far they have provided nothing. So I dont believe them.

President Trump has warned that his administration has already targeted 52 sites important to Iran and Iranian culture and the US will attack them if Iran retaliates for the assassination of Gen. Soleimani. Because Iran has no capacity to attack the United States, Irans retaliation if it comes will likely come against US troops or US government officials stationed or visiting the Middle East. I have a very easy solution for President Trump that will save the lives of American servicemembers and other US officials: just come home. There is absolutely no reason for US troops to be stationed throughout the Middle East to face increased risk of death for nothing.

In our Ron Paul Liberty Report program last week we observed that the US attack on a senior Iranian military officer on Iraqi soil over the objection of the Iraq government would serve to finally unite the Iraqi factions against the United States. And so it has: on Sunday the Iraqi parliament voted to expel US troops from Iraqi soil. It may have been a non-binding resolution, but there is no mistaking the sentiment. US troops are not wanted and they are increasingly in danger. So why not listen to the Iraqi parliament?

Bring our troops home, close the US Embassy in Baghdad a symbol of our aggression - and let the people of the Middle East solve their own problems. Maintain a strong defense to protect the United States, but end this neocon pipe-dream of ruling the world from the barrel of a gun. It does not work. It makes us poorer and more vulnerable to attack. It makes the elites of Washington rich while leaving working and middle class America with the bill. It engenders hatred and a desire for revenge among those who have fallen victim to US interventionist foreign policy. And it results in millions of innocents being killed overseas.

There is no benefit to the United States to trying to run the world. Such a foreign policy brings only bankruptcy moral and financial. Tell Congress and the Administration that for Americas sake we demand the return of US troops from the Middle East!

Read more:
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity : Why I ...

Michele Bachmann: Early in the 2012 presidential race, U.S. Rep. Bachmann looked like she might have an edge in Iowa. She became the first woman to win the Iowa Republican straw poll, edging out Texas congressman Ron Paul and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who finished third. But it was a dubious predictor of the caucus: She finished sixth, dead last, and dropped out of the race the next day. She may have helped nix the straw poll, too: Iowa Republicans have since dropped the tradition.

Tim Pawlenty: No Iowa straw poll would have been good news for Pawlenty, who ended his campaign in August 2011 shortly after finishing in third place. The former two-term Republican governor had been burning through campaign cash all summer, and his team hoped a decent finish in the poll could keep them going for at least a few more weeks. He dropped out the day after the poll and shortly afterward threw his support behind the eventual Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Walter Mondale: Vice President Mondale was so overwhelmingly the favorite for the Democratic Partys nomination in the 1984 Iowa caucus that most of the news focused on who would finish second. He won in a landslide in Iowa with 49% of the vote. The second-place finisher, former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, pulled in roughly 16% support. Hart rode his surprise finish into another surprise victory in New Hampshire but Mondale was still the eventual Democratic nominee that year.

Hubert Humphrey: President Lyndon Johnsons unexpected late withdrawal from the presidential race in 1968 meant a late start for the vice president and former U.S. senator. He missed earlier state primaries, and Iowa didnt do an early caucus back then. Instead, he relied on prominent figures in the labor movement and Democratic Party to help him win over delegates. He eventually landed the nomination, beating another Minnesotan, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, in the process.

See original here:
How other Minnesotans have fared in Iowa - Minneapolis Star Tribune

On November 22nd of last year, the US government announced it would impose sanctions on Irans information minister for his alleged role in limiting domestic Internet access while protests raged in that country over increases in gas prices.

At the time, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin condemned the Iranian government for censuring information that Iranian citizens could view online, stating that, Irans leaders know that a free and open internet exposes their illegitimacy, so they seek to censor Internet access to quell anti-regime protests.

The Iranians were evil, said the US government official in charge of economic sanctions, because it restricted what its citizens could read in the international press.

Our government would never do thatright?

Wrong. Yesterday, the US government knocked Irans state news agency, FARS, off of the Internet entirely, citing US sanctions against the country.

What that means is the Iranian news service is being censored by the United States government and that Americans will therefore no longer be able to see anything from this foreign media outlet.

Exactly what Mnuchin accused Iran of doing back in November.

Zerohedge writes, as Irans PressTV describes further:

The news agency said that it had received an email from the server company, which explicitly said that the blockage is due to an order by the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and its inclusion in the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN).

The agency attached to its post a screenshot of its website with the message http://www.farsnews.coms server IP address could not be found."

Americans are not allowed to see the Iranian perspective on the Middle East because the Beltway bombardiers and their bosses in the military-industrial complex depend on successfully demonizing all Persians so that Americans will accept their annihilation in another neocon war. If Americans are allowed to see the Iranian perspective they might not be so supportive of the slaughter the neocons are cooking up.

The bottom line is this: the US Administration cites Irans restricting of outside media as evidence of the evil nature of the Iranian government, all the while scrambling to restrict American citizens access to Iranian media outlets.

Pot. Kettle. Black. Hypocrisy.

Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Excerpt from:
The Unbearable Hypocrisy of US Sanctions on Iran - Antiwar.com