April 12, 2020

Alaska Democrats say they received almost double the ballots than in 2016 in vote-by-mail primary

CBS News

April 11, 2020

MEMO: DNC general election programs to support Biden campaign and Democrats across the country

(I’m a member of the DNC National Finance Committee and receive regular briefing notes)

April 8, 2020
TO: Interested Parties
FR: DNC Chair Tom Perez
RE: DNC general election programs to support Biden campaign and Democrats across the country

Since Donald Trump took office, the Democratic National Committee has been preparing to make him a one-term president. We’ve taken nothing for granted, and over the course of this campaign cycle we’ve made historic, early investments to lay the groundwork for our party to win in November.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is now our presumptive nominee -- he built a coalition that united Americans behind his candidacy and demonstrated the strength he will bring to the general election.

In order to elect him and Democrats up and down the ballot in 2020, we are proud to have built the most expansive campaign infrastructure the DNC has ever had for a non-incumbent presidential candidate in modern political history, including the following programs and resources:

THE BATTLEGROUNDS PROGRAM

As part of our Battleground Build-Up 2020 program, the DNC has made multi-million dollar investments across 12 battleground states -- funding hundreds of field organizers, additional offices, and staff dedicated to data, operations and constituency outreach. The DNC is also funding communications staff in 6 battleground states who have been working to define and localize Trump’s record of broken promises for voters in key markets while building an in-state communications infrastructure for the general election.

DATA, TECHNOLOGY, THE VOTER FILE AND COMBATING DISINFORMATION

The DNC has completely overhauled the technology infrastructure of the Democratic Party, and it is unrecognizable from the 2016 cycle. The DNC now maintains a state-of-the art, cloud-based data warehouse and national voter file, which includes every registered voter in America. We have made massive investments to improve the quality and quantity of data available on the file so that our view of every possible voter is accurate as possible -- integrating key data sets, proprietary modeling, and augmenting the file in a variety of ways, like purchasing tens of millions of high quality cell phone numbers.

The DNC has also reached a historic agreement with state parties to participate in the new Democratic Data Exchange. This new data exchange allows candidates, state parties, the DNC and the progressive ecosystem to share data in real time and leverage all of the voter contact work of the entire Democratic community.

The DNC established a disinformation team to track active disinformation efforts affecting Democratic candidates, parties, and committees. We’ve built out tools to identify and combat disinformation and malicious activity and are working to analyze the massive streams of data being generated by several of the major platforms through an in-house tool built for social listening, which we’ve used to provoke hundreds of account takedowns on platforms controlled by all three major social media companies since the beginning of last year.

THE DNC WAR ROOM

The DNC War Room is a rapid response operation with significant communications, research and digital components, staffed by dozens of operatives -- many of whom are veterans of the 2016 campaign who have been tracking Trump for years — who work with hundreds of media outlets, surrogates, and online influencers to shape the narrative of the Trump presidency using reporter outreach, research, extremely localized content and disruptive online content, along with placing major stories about his record.

TRUMP RESEARCH

The DNC is home to the largest and most experienced research team in Democratic politics. They’ve built the world’s most comprehensive research file on Donald Trump - including “more than 7,000 lawsuits, volumes of Freedom of Information Act requests and thousands of hours of video footage.” This work began in 2015 and has continued without pause since the 2016 election.

MOBILIZATION

The DNC has reserved $22 million in get-out-the-vote YouTube advertising across 14 battleground states. The ads will reach voters in targeted ZIP codes beginning in September and October and generate millions of impressions. Additionally, the DNC has doubled our SMS texting lists over the past year in key battleground states to recruit volunteers and mobilize voters. And we’ve trained over nearly 7,000 individuals on digital organizing in the past few weeks alone.

VOTER PROTECTION

The DNC is building a voter protection infrastructure to protect Americans’ right to participate in a fair election– including supporting on-the-ground voter protection positions in 17 battleground states, a national voter resource hub and hotline, as well as education, advocacy and organizing resources. We have brought numerous lawsuits to protect the vote in key states.

ORGANIZING CORPS 2020

Organizing Corps 2020 is an unprecedented, multi-million dollar investment by the DNC and progressive partners that recruits, pays, and trains young people to work on the 2020 presidential cycle, with a special focus on communities of color. The program will ensure our nominee has the support of hundreds of homegrown field organizers ready to hit the ground in eight battleground states.

These DNC initiatives will help the Biden campaign scale their infrastructure quickly and enter the general election in the strongest possible position. Trump’s record of broken promises and his agenda that’s hurt hard-working Americans have disqualified him from re-election -- and these programs will help ensure Biden, along with Democrats running at every level of the ballot, secure victory in November.

April 11, 2020

President Obama's message for local leaders

(email from Bloomberg Philanthopies)

Friend,

The fight against the coronavirus is being led by mayors. To help our cities and towns, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the Coronavirus Local Response Initiative, and has worked to bring local leaders together -- virtually -- with public health experts and each other to share solutions.

This week President Barack Obama joined Mike Bloomberg and local leaders for our virtual meeting of mayors. President Obama advised mayors to be honest, compassionate, and to listen to experts above all.

Can you share President Obama's message, to show your support for local leaders on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis?

President Barack Obama's message to mayors:

This crisis is going to be solved in our cities and towns. That's why we're doing everything we can to support local leaders as they work tirelessly to find solutions and protect their communities.

We hope you'll help us share President Obama's important message.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A//bloombg.org/2RvpCGu

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=https%3A//bloombg.org/2RvpCGu

Thanks,

- Bloomberg Philanthropies

April 11, 2020

Fauci: Coronavirus immunity cards for Americans are 'being discussed'

Source: Politico

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, revealed Friday the federal government is considering issuing Americans certificates of immunity from the coronavirus, as the Trump administration works to better identify those who have been infected and restart the U.S. economy in the coming weeks.

"You know, that's possible," Fauci told CNN's "New Day," when asked whether he could imagine a time when people across the country carry such forms of identification.


Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/10/fauci-coronavirus-immunity-cards-for-americans-are-being-discussed-178784

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Brings a whole new meaning to "show me your papers"...

April 10, 2020

It seems that David Sirota still needs an audience...

(email I received)

Subscribe to TMI - Dispatches From the Dystopia

David Sirota
Apr 10

So you’re feeling bad that the campaign is over. You’re feeling angry at the state of the world. You’re feeling scared about what’s on the horizon. And you’re feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new, terrifying information hitting you every day. You’re Howard Beale — you’re mad as hell and you’re not gonna take it anymore, etc.

Yeah, OK, me too. So I’m going to try to start a little newsletter here to see if we can’t make a little sense of this garbage fire of an era on a regular basis — and I hope you’ll click here to subscribe and pitch in to help.

If you’re reading this, you probably know the kinds of things I’ve focused on in my 20+ years of a journalist and in politics. The topics vary, but the focus is the same: power — who has it, who doesn’t, and how that disparity shapes our dystopian world. That’s what I’m going to try to write about here (and hopefully I’m going to have some other journalists and writers help too).

For the last year during the presidential campaign, my writing was confined and constrained in a way it has never been — so I’m eager to start afresh.

Sometimes I’ll write shit you don’t like. Sometimes I’ll curse, like I just did right there. Sometimes it will be super serious and dour. Other times it will be fun and frivolous. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and all that — but all the time I’ll try to unearth and spotlight truth and facts that need more attention in this noisy moment.

Now for some details:

What the hell is this?

It’s a regular newsletter. By regular, I’m not sure what the publishing schedule will be — at times it may be daily, at other times it may be once a week. Hell, I even may go dark for a few weeks if I am working on something long-form, or if I am overwhelmed home schooling the kids during a lethal pandemic. I plan on making this a part of a larger set of projects, including other writing/reporting, podcasting and some film stuff.

How can you help?

You can click here to subscribe — you can be a free subscriber, or if you want, you can pitch in as a paying monthly subscriber and/or a founding subscriber, which would help support my larger journalism work. Paying subscribers will be able to add comments and get a bit of exclusive content, etc. I’m not committing to any specific publishing schedule, and who knows — if this fails, it may be short lived. But the more subscribers that end up supporting this, the more time I can devote to it.

Who the hell am I?

I was Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign speechwriter and senior adviser, and on that campaign I wrote the Bern Notice. Before working on the campaign, I was an award-winning investigative journalist and radio host, and I also worked on a bunch of underdog political campaigns that simultaneously sapped my soul and made me feel alive because they were all fighting the good fight. If you’re really bored or masochistic, you can read my full bio here.

Is this gonna be some Bernie thing?

Working for Bernie was one of the great honors of my entire life. He’s been a hero and an inspiration to me for literally 20 years. So yeah, I may begin by writing a tad about the campaign in this newsletter, because a lot of people seem interested in that right now, and I have a whole lot of thoughts about this past excruciating year. And yeah, the themes, issues and policies that defined the campaign will obviously be a huge part of this — but sorry, no, the Bernie 2020 campaign won’t be the long-term focus here.

I’m already overwhelmed by the Internet’s glut of content, is this gonna overwhelm me?

Right now, lots of people are spamming the Internet, and I find I’m spending as much time figuring out what to read or watch or listen to as I am actually reading, watching or listening. We’re all searching for the signal in the noise, and it feels like there are 500 billion channels and nothing’s on.

So yeah, I’m going to try to write with respect for your time. Lots of times this is going to be short — because, as the TMI name implies, there’s too much information out there, and things need to be boiled down. Sometimes it will be long — and if it’s too long, you should yell at me.

Some of you may already be ready to yell at me because this is already too long. So with that, I’m going to end this by saying: subscribe, and then go annoy your friends to subscribe.

More soon,

Sirota

April 10, 2020

MLB considering radical realignment for 2020 season: Grapefruit and Cactus leagues

Source: USA Today


Major League Baseball, assessing myriad proposals, has discussed a radical plan that would eliminate the traditional American and National Leagues for 2020, a high-ranking official told USA TODAY Sports, and realign all six divisions for an abbreviated season.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal is one of several being discussed.

The plan would have all 30 teams returning to their spring training sites in Florida and Arizona, playing regular-season games only in those two states and without fans in an effort to reduce travel and minimize risks in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5128935002

April 10, 2020

'Saturday Night Live' will be back this weekend

CNN

Live from various homes, it's Saturday night!

After going dark because of the coronavirus pandemic, "Saturday Night Live" will be back this weekend with new original content that will be produced remotely, NBC said on Thursday. "SNL" will air in its normal time slot on Saturday at 11:30 PT ET.

Original content will include "Weekend Update" as well as "other original content from 'SNL' cast members," NBC said in a statement.

The network did not say how long the episode would be or if it the new content will air live or be taped in advance.

April 10, 2020

This weekend is the Alaska Primary...

Moved from April 4 and switched to 100% vote by mail (with ranked choice voting in case a voter chooses a candidate who doesn't meet the 15% threshold). Ballots due by Saturday; results will be announced on Sunday.

April 9, 2020

NYC could ease coronavirus restrictions in late May, but hampered by lack of testing

Source: Politico

New York City could begin to ease some coronavirus restrictions in late May or June — but it will require widespread testing of residents for the virus, which the city does not yet have the ability to do.

Even as the death toll continues to surge — reaching 5,150 on Thursday, according to state data, with more than 84,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 — the city has begun to plan for a gradual return to normalcy down the road, Mayor Bill de Blasio said
“People have been following the rules, and that’s why we’re starting to see some improvement. And we are far from out of the woods,” de Blasio said, citing hopeful signs like a stabilization in hospitalizations. “If we really work hard, we have a chance of seeing change in May or June.”

The de Blasio administration has in recent weeks downplayed the importance of testing for the virus, telling New Yorkers not to get tested unless they’re sick enough to be hospitalized and shutting down its own walk-up testing sites at public hospitals.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/04/09/nyc-could-ease-coronavirus-restrictions-in-late-may-but-hampered-by-lack-of-testing-1274364

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I imagine Gov. Cuomo will override any such decision.

April 9, 2020

The American public transportation system appears to be crumbling...

I've been monitoring what's going on in with our peer systems for work. Here in NY, it's a continuing struggle to find enough subway crews and bus drivers, so even with elimination of duplicate routes, we're reducing some subway lines to 15-20 minute service.

In Washington, 19 stations have been closed and trains are running every 15-20 minutes; as of this week, all rail service shuts down at 9 PM.

San Francisco eliminated all but 11 core bus routes yesterday because of lack of crews.

Philadelphia introduced a "lifeline" service with six commuter rail lines suspended, and 20 subway and light rail stations closed

Most other systems have reduced service to Sunday levels. Can't imagine how everyone will keep service operating through May.