DES MOINES — For many political candidates, the size of the media entourage following them around Iowa in the months leading up to the caucuses is a measure of their success.

By that benchmark, the Republican National Committee mused, Iowans might be “witnessing the beginning of the end” of Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s 2020 presidential dreams.

But O’Rourke said he wasn’t discouraged that the media horde following him on his recent four-day, 15-event tour of Iowa was smaller than that during his initial trip to the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

“That first morning in Keokuk, if there were 60 people in the room, half of them were members of the press,” O’Rourke said last Sunday after a rally at University of Iowa in Iowa City. “I like that the ratio has changed a little bit as we’ve moved on.”

https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/beto-o-rourke-says-iowa-visits-help-him-improve/article_b46d5f48-e35a-50a6-a8e1-4d0f4a96e5ce.html

It is nice to have a candidate who listens to people and crafts policy with their input instead of lecturing them about their own 1960's ideology.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a subtle jab towards Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her alleged dependency on Twitter for public support, insinuating that the freshman lawmaker is neglecting to do work required pass the Democratic agenda into laws.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez has almost 4 million followers on Twitter and has often used Twitter as a tool to rally public support for her progressive proposals including the Green New Deal.

Ms Pelosi, 79, told USA Today on Monday that she is running into issues of leading a House caucus while freshman Democratic lawmakers are pushing the party further to the left. She accuses them of prioritising symbolic gestures over actual legislative achievements.

“While there are people who have a large number of Twitter followers, what’s important is that we have large numbers of votes on the floor of the House,” the California Democrat said.


https://news.yahoo.com/nancy-pelosi-once-again-mocks-172945586.html

Bernie Sanders is (finally) going to release his tax returns. But questions over how he handles his wealth in the context of his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination remain. And the early returns should be concerning to Sanders' backers.
In an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, Sanders said that "April 15 is coming," adding, "We wanted to release 10 years of tax returns. April 15, 2019, will be the 10th year, so I think you will see them." (Sanders, despite effectively running for president without pause since 2015, has released only a single, two-page summary for one year of his tax returns.)


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Reminded by the Times reporter that he is now someone of considerable means, Sanders retorted: "I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too."

Uh, what? Sanders got a pass on some of his acerbic-ness during the 2016 presidential campaign because a) most people didn't think he could win and b) others found it part of his cantankerous but righteous personality. But let's think about that campaign for another minute. Close your eyes and imagine if Hillary Clinton, who beat Sanders for the Democratic nomination, when asked about the extent of her wealth, said "I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too."


https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/politics/bernie-sanders-taxes-millionaire/index.html

Source: CBS News

A suspected rhino poacher in South Africa was killed by an elephant before his body was apparently devoured by lions, authorities said. A search team in Kruger National Park was only able to recover a skull and a pair of pants.

South African National Parks said Friday that the victim and four accomplices were trying to poach a rhino Tuesday evening. The accomplices called the victim's family and said he had been killed by an elephant.

An initial search party was unable to locate the body. During a search Thursday morning, authorities found the few remains of the suspected poacher. "Indications found at the scene suggested that a pride of lions had devoured the remains," the park service said.

The South African Police Service said two of his alleged accomplices were arrested with rifles and ammunition in their possession.



Amazing story -- I wish all the poachers suffer the same fate.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suspected-rhino-poacher-killed-by-elephant-eaten-by-lions-in-kruger-national-park-south-africa/

Washington (CNN)Former President Barack Obama said on Saturday he worries about the far-left, progressive wing of the Democratic party being unwilling to compromise and creating a "circular firing squad" against allies over policy and issue differences.

"One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States, maybe it's true here as well, is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I'm sorry, this is how it's going to be,' and then we start sometimes creating what's called a 'circular firing squad,' where you start shooting at your allies because one of them is straying from purity on the issues," Obama said a town hall in Berlin, Germany, hosted by the Obama Foundation.

The Democratic former president argued that this party infighting usually leads to "the overall effort and movement weaken(ing)."

"You have to recognize that the way we've structured democracy requires you to take into account people who don't agree with you, and that by definition means you're not going to get 100 percent of what you want," Obama said.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/06/politics/obama-progressive-party-democrats/index.html


Obama is absolutely right. Some candidates' "my way or highway" rhetoric is detrimental to our winning prospects.

UK will see the end of May before the end of April.