March 13, 2020

The Black Crowes - She Talks To Angels

March 6, 2020

The 20-year argument between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren over bankruptcy, explained

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/6/18518381/baccpa-bankruptcy-bill-2005-biden-warren
"A clash over a 2005 bankruptcy bill — and a broader contrast in worldviews.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was the first Democratic 2020 hopeful to take a direct swing at former Vice President Joe Biden since he got into the race, accusing him of being “on the side of the credit companies” in a fight that launched her political career a decade ago.

Warren’s quarrel with Biden isn’t personal. It’s about a 2005 bankruptcy bill he supported as a senator. Warren opposed the bill so vehemently that its passage inspired her transition from a Harvard bankruptcy law professor, who studied middle-class economics, to a senator and now a presidential hopeful.

“I got in that fight because [families] just didn’t have anyone and Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies,” Warren said after an April rally in Iowa. “It’s all a matter of public record.”

The bill made it harder for individuals to file for bankruptcy and get out of debt, a legal change that credit card companies and many major retailers had championed for years. The bill passed Congress with large majorities, but most Democratic senators, including Barack Obama, voted no. Biden voted yes and was widely seen at the time as one of the bill’s major Democratic champions."

More at the link.

March 4, 2020

How Many Delegates Do The 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates Have?

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/10/799979293/how-many-delegates-do-the-2020-presidential-democratic-candidates-have

" Awarded
Candidates need 1,991 delegates to secure their nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention."

Joe Biden. 566
Bernie Sanders. 501
Elizabeth Warren. 61
Michael Bloomberg. 53
Pete Buttigieg. 27
Amy Klobuchar. 7
Tulsi Gabbard. 1

March 4, 2020

Radiohead - Creep

March 4, 2020

Super Tuesday: Mystery dark money group spends almost $1m on anti-Bernie Sanders ads across 10 state

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/super-tuesday-bernie-sanders-ads-states-dark-money-a9373601.html
"1m has been spent on political adverts attacking Bernie Sanders by a group not legally required to reveal its donors, it has been reported.

In a development that will be of intense concern to the 78-year-old Vermont senator and his supporters, it was reported that the so-called political action committee Big Tent Project Fund, had spent $868,000 on digital ads.

This follows previous expenditures on adverts attacking the progressive former mayor of Burlington.

The group had previously spent almost $5m in adverts attacking the senator during the caucus in Nevada and the primary in South Carolina. Politico said the the nonprofit organisation — commonly known as a dark money group because it is not legally required to disclose its donors — said in a filing with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday that it spent just the money in 10 states, all of which were voting today on Super Tuesday.


“Now who is funding these ads? Why are they funding these ads? Well, because we have a corrupt political system,” Mr Sanders said about the group at a news conference on Monday."

"The group is helmed by Jonathan Kott, a former senior aide to West Virginia senator Joe Manchin."

March 2, 2020

Coronavirus prevention: How to make hand sanitizer at home

https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/coronavirus-prevention-how-to-make-hand-sanitizer-at-
"Here’s what you need:
2/3 cup Isopropyl alcohol 91% (rubbing alcohol)
1/3 cup aloe vera gel
Essential oil in your choice of fragrance (optional)
A small or medium mixing bowl
A spoon
An empty container, such as a 3-ounce container from a travel toiletries kit
A small piece of masking tape for labeling
Here’s how to make it:
In a mixing bowl, stir Isopropyl alcohol and aloe vera gel together until well blended.

Add 8-10 drops of scented essential oil (optional, but nice!). Stir to incorporate.

Pour the homemade hand sanitizer into an empty container and seal. Write “hand sanitizer” on a piece of masking tape and affix to the bottle.

Note: This recipe creates hand sanitizer that contains 65% alcohol, above the 60% alcohol content that the CDC recommends."

March 2, 2020

Tom Steyer ends 2020 presidential campaign

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29/politics/tom-steyer-drops-out-2020-race/index.html
"Tom Steyer ended his presidential campaign on Saturday night after the billionaire businessman failed to gain traction in a large field of Democratic candidates.

Steyer exited the race after he failed to claim victory in South Carolina, a state he invested heavily in, hoping it would turn around his sputtering run.

"I said if I didn't see a path to winning that I'd suspend my campaign," he said. "And honestly, I can't see a path where I can win the presidency."

February 28, 2020

House of Cards How Joe Biden helped build a financial system that's great for Delaware banks and

terrible for the rest of us.

About Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/about/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/11/biden-bankruptcy-president/
"House of Cards
How Joe Biden helped build a financial system that’s great for Delaware banks and terrible for the rest of us."

Note: This is an in depth article that discusses the history and unique laws of the state Deleware and how it has impacted the banking and financial industries in this country along with Joe Biden's role in supporting deregulation and other baking related legislation.

It is worth the read.

February 28, 2020

The Americans Joe Biden Left Behind on the Bankruptcy Bill

Note: The American Prospect is an independent voice for liberal thought founded by Robert Kuttner, Paul Starr, and Robert Reich.

https://prospect.org/politics/bidens-votes-on-the-bankruptcy-bill-middle-class-joe/

The article is about the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), it impact on the middle class, and Elizabeth Warrens long fight opposing it.

."The bankruptcy bill was perhaps the most anti–middle class piece of legislation in the past century."

"In 2005 amendments to the bill, Biden voted against borrowers drowning in medical debt, seniors, servicemembers, union members, and victims of deadbeat dads."
"As the Prospect detailed Tuesday, BAPCPA made it harder for consumers to file for Chapter 7 by imposing a “means test” for Chapter 7 eligibility, and by substantially increasing the cost of filing for bankruptcy. This caused debtors’ average total out-of-pocket costs for filing for Chapter 7 to rise from $600 to $2,500. The subsequent result was a permanent 50 percent drop in Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings. BAPCPA made bankruptcy too expensive for the most broke households, making financial stress, mortgage defaults, and foreclosures more likely, particularly after the 2008 financial crisis.

Not only did the law discourage bankruptcy filings, but it made it harder to wipe out credit card debt and student loans in bankruptcy. The result was greater profits for consumer lending businesses, many of which are based in Biden’s state of Delaware. Not surprisingly, then, by lowering the risk of bad lending decisions, the Biden bankruptcy bill unleashed a glut of aggressive private student lending, which has contributed to the massive rise in student loan debt.

The bankruptcy bill was perhaps the most anti–middle class piece of legislation in the past century."

February 28, 2020

The typical US worker can no longer afford a family on a year's salary, showing the dire state of Am

https://www.businessinsider.com/america-middle-class-living-expenses-family-of-four-2020-2
"
The typical US male worker needs more than one year's salary to afford the typical costs of a family of four, according to a new report by the Manhattan Institute.

In 1985, it took him 30 weeks' pay to afford $13,227 in expenditures, versus 53 weeks' pay to afford $54,441 in 2018.

It's evidence of the dire state of the American middle class, which is struggling as living costs outpace wage increases."
"
The American economy may be booming, but its middle class is struggling.

The median male US worker now has to earn more than a year's salary to afford the annual expenses for a family of four, according to "The Cost of Thriving Index" published by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, and previously reported by The Washington Post. "