Monday, July 27, 2020. Joe Biden continues to run his campaign with a fatal blind spot while protesters are attacked by security forces in Iraq.
Starting in the US with the race for the president. Joe Biden has yet to be crowned the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. They will declare their nominee at their national convention in August. Until then, he's the presumptive nominee -- and he's presuming a lot.
It was stupid of him to announce months ago that he would pick a female running mate. Whatever woman is finally picked will not be seen as the best choice -- though she well may be -- but as the best female choice. Currently, various advocates are insisting that Joe must pick an African-American or Black woman. Why? He's already stated that he will put a Black woman on the Supreme Court if elected.
There is talk of Texas. The Democrats, some insist can carry Texas. With a dream ticket? The reason I ask is Texas has tried dream tickets before. Texans appear not to see it as a pie when they vote -- a pie everyone can have a slice of -- they see it as zero sum game. So if X advances, I do not.
This was most obvious in 2002 -- and times could well have changed -- when Texas Democrats had what they and the press dubbed "the dream ticket." Latino Tony Sanchez was running for governor, African-American Ron Kirk was running for the Senate and Anglo White John Sharp was running for Lt Governor.
None of them won their race. Despite the huge amount of press this ticket received -- including national coverage. In the end, Sanchez got 40% of the vote in his race, Kirk got 43% in his race and Sharp got 46% in his race. Running as a team did not benefit the group. There are many variables at pay -- including Kirk's failure to run TV ads in East Texas -- he surrendered it for some reason before the race began. Right or wrong, many political scientists concluded that the ticket failed to sell their message as lift all boats and instead voters tended to vote their own ethnicity and race. That may well be. It may not be. And that was 2002. It's 18 years later, after all.
But as Joe makes one promise after another to African-American voters, he continues to struggle to reach Latino voters.
Had he not announced that a woman would be his running mate, for example, he could run with Julian Castro. Since announcing a female running mate, the press has been demanding an African-American one -- Susan Rice, Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris (who would probably be billed Black and not African-American due to her mother's country of origin), etc.
Loretta Sanchez and her sister Linda Sanchez have both served in Congress, for example. Loretta has been close to Joe for years. Is there a reason the press is so hell bent on excluding Latinos from even consideration? Veronica Escobar not only serves in Congress, she's been a judge. There are many other who are qualified.
Joe Biden won the primary in spite of,
not because of, his efforts to turn out Latinos. Two months later,
Hispanic leaders are waiting on his campaign to deliver on its promises
to do more.
In interviews, more than 20 Latino
political operatives, lawmakers, and activists said they don’t see a
game plan from Biden to marshal Hispanic voters effectively in the fall.
They said there’s little evidence the campaign is devoting the
resources or hiring the staff that task will require — all the more
crucial during a pandemic, when reaching and mobilizing Latino voters
through in-person canvassing is nearly impossible.
The campaign has refused to release
statistics on the diversity of its staff — details many of his former
opponents shared early in the primary — and a majority of a dozen recent
high-level hires were white. And Biden has neither spoken to nor been
formally endorsed by one of the highest-profile Latino politicians in
the country, Julián Castro, since he won.
Biden had a tense
relationship with many Latino groups during the primary, stemming
largely from his connection to the Obama administration's aggressive
deportation policy. The former vice president recently acknowledged that that policy was misguided and he has moved toward progressives on immigration.
But
the campaign's disconnect with Latinos appears to be based more on lack
of execution than on policy. Cash-strapped coming out of the primary
and hemmed in by the coronavirus, its efforts to reach Latino voters
have been lackluster, critics in the community say. The fact that
Latinos weren't central to his primary strategy has meant Biden's
campaign has more ground to make up.
Yet
a look at recent polls suggests Trump is outperforming where he was
four years ago with a key part of the Democratic coalition: Hispanics.
This could have implications for what electoral strategy Biden may need
to take into the fall if he is to beat the President.
Clinton crushed Trump with Hispanic registered voters in the final 2016 preelection polls. She led by 61% to 23%. (I use the preelection polls for an apples-to-apples comparison for current polling.) Biden, on the other hand, holds an
average 58% to 33% lead among Hispanic registered voters in an average
of eight live interview polls
taken over the last two months. These eight polls were ones for which I
could procure a breakdown among white, Hispanic and black voters. All
told we are looking at somewhere around 700 to 800 Hispanic voters
total. If
we examine polls conducted over the last three months (so that we're
looking at 15 polls and well over 1,000 interviews), it's Biden 58% to
Trump's 32%.
Doing the math,
Biden's margin of about 25 points is more than 10 points lower than
Clinton's. This is more because Trump is doing better without third
party candidates than Biden taking a lower share of the vote, though
both seem to be occurring to some degree.
Over 90 field organizers for the Florida Democratic Party signed a
scathing letter Friday to the party’s leadership, claiming among other
things that the campaign is “suppressing the Hispanic vote” in Central
Florida.
The seven-page internal letter, obtained by the Miami
Herald, contains eight allegations from field organizers about what they
say is a lack of a “fully actionable field plan” from the Biden
campaign as it transitions into the Florida party to coordinate voter
outreach efforts.
This letter comes 100 days out from the general election and as recent polls show enthusiasm about voting among Latinos in battleground states like Florida could be waning in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article244480437.html#storylink=cpy
Among the claims: mistreatment of field organizers, relocating
trained staff members without explanation, lack of organizing resources
and taking on volunteers who are then left in limbo.
In a
battleground state where elections are historically won by thin margins —
and as presidential campaigns ramp up outreach efforts in Florida’s
Hispanic communities — organizers claim that the Coordinated Campaign
lacks key infrastructure and perpetuates a “toxic” work culture that is
hurting morale among on-the-ground staffers.
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article244480437.html#storylink=cpy
If you're an undecided Latino voter watching this unfold, you're not getting the message that we're all in this together. You are getting the message that your needs are not going to be addressed and that while Joe is happy to put an African-American woman on the Supreme Court and to entertain dozens of African-American and Black women for his running mate. Lationas can wait outside the big tent because they're not welcome.
That's not a winning strategy.
It's not my job to help Joe Biden, or any candidate, win an election. I will note what I see here and, on the above, I also made it very clear to a friend with Joe's campaign. He's in danger of alienating Latinos, especially the closer we get to the election.
He has taken them for granted. He has failed to grasp the burden he already has having served eight years under the deporter-in-chief -- Barack deported more immigrants than any other president.
This needs to be immediately addressed. And, yes, we are hearing about it in the online meet-ups we're currently doing. Latinos feel ignored by the campaign.
It's not my job to elect Joe or any candidate. It's also not my job to cover your fake ass campaigns. Joe's running a real campaign, I'm not talking about him. But there are e-mails insisting that now that Dario is running as an independent, I have to cover him.
In 2008, I covered Dennis Kucinnich and John Edwards -- both of whom I loathe When Dennis revealed -- in Iowa -- that he wasn't a real candidate (as I always knew), I no longer covered him. I don't have to waste my time on nonsense.
Dario Hunter is nonsense. He's not going to be able to get on ballots. He waited too long and even now, when he's claiming he's trying to run as an independent, he's failed to update his website (which still notes his failed run for the Green Party's presidential nomination) and he doesn't have the money to pursue serious efforts to get on the ballot. All the deadlines are about to come up and he's not going to be on those ballots.
It's not my job to waste my time and cover his b.s. We do have a lengthy article on him that will go up at THIRD. The delay this edition is we did a collage and we had to wait for it to dry -- I checked it this morning, it's almost dry. (While it was wet, you couldn't see Joe or Donald Trump's faces.)
After that piece on Dario goes up, I think we're done with him for 2020.
At least two protesters have been killed in Iraq's
capital, Baghdad, during renewed overnight demonstrations against
corruption, unemployment and poor public services.
The deaths reported on Monday by human rights
monitors and officials were the first during anti-government rallies
since Iraq's new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi was sworn into office
in May.
Al Jazeera's Simona Foltyn, reporting from Baghdad,
said dozens of people were also wounded late on Sunday after
"plain-clothed officials" opened fire using live ammunition towards the
demonstrators who were gathered in Tahrir Square.
Protests continue in Iraq. Deeba Shadnia Tweets:
Some graphic content coming out of #Baghdad, #Iraq this evening as anti-government protests have resumed over socio-economic conditions. Several videos circulating show protesters wounded. Unclear what sort of ammunition is being fired by security services. #ساحة_التحرير
Now wave of protests arrives to #Karbala in #Iraq demanding electricity and basic services, after protesters in Tahrir Square in #Baghdad expanded their protests to other streets within the capital city.
#IraqProtests #العراق
Protests near An Najaf International Airport Iraq
Quote Tweet
#HappeningNow
July 26—Najaf, S #Iraq
Locals have taken control of the boulevard leading to the city airport. Protesters are demanding the governor & all other officials who have links to #Iran's regime to resign immediately.
Show this thread
there are currently protests that have been going on for 10+ months in iraq, the people want what every human NEEDS, clean water, electricity, a good government, but the response from iraqi government to their peaceful protesting is brutally murdering them in the streets?
Let me emphasize this: security forces' use of tear gas, live fire, & snipers against peaceful protestors is taking place under the watchful eye of PM Kadhimi who insists that he supports the #IraqProtests
So, if he didn't support the protests, what would he be doing now?
#Iraq
Worth noting that PM Khadimi launched a “fact-finding” investigation in June to provide justice for the hundreds of people killed, wounded or kidnapped during the protests in October 2019
Yesterday Iraqi PM Kadhimi tweeted that they are in the last stages of revealing the names of the killed protesters during October 2019 protests in #Baghdad and other southern provinces in #Iraq. However, tonight more protesters will be added to the list.
#IraqProtests #العراق
We're covering the protests via Tweets because the press is ignoring what's going on.
A nationwide protest movement in Iraq over government corruption and
incompetence threatens to erupt again after two demonstrators were
killed in Baghdad early on Monday after being shot with tear gas
canisters during clashes with security forces.
On Sunday, rallies were staged in the capital and across several
southern cities as anger mounted over power outages while temperatures
exceeding 50 degrees overwhelmed electricity generators.
In Baghdad, dozens clashed with security forces in Tahrir square, the
epicentre of the protest movement that began in October but died down
in recent months as measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic came
into force.
An AFP correspondent saw the burnt remains of tent structures in the square on Monday morning.
"Two protesters died this morning. One was shot with a tear gas
canister in the head, and another in the neck," a medical source told
AFP on Monday.
The two victims are the first since Prime Minister Mustafa
al-Kadhimi, who had promised a dialogue with protesters, took office in
May.
In a statement overnight, his office acknowledged "unfortunate events"
in protest squares, but insisted security forces had been instructed not
to use violence unless absolutely necessary.
He's prime minister, does he have any power or not? Equally true, this isn't the first time this month that security forces have killed protesters. His strategy earlier this month was to deny, deny, deny that there were any deaths. There were deaths. But let's pretend that there were no deaths, there were still protesters injured from being attacked by security members. He never addressed that reality while issuing his denials of death.
Prior to joining office Mr Al Kadhimi vowed to meet protester demands
by holding early elections and investigating protester deaths. Yet the
new prime minister has had to deal with a catastrophic economic crisis
triggered by a decline in oil prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ali Al Bayati a member of the Independent Iraqi Human Rights Commission told The National that the government must hold the perpetrators to account and should urgently respond to protester demands.
“We
condemn the violence used by the Iraqi Security Forces and remind the
government about its commitments to the constitution on protecting
citizens and the right of freedom of expression,” Mr Al Bayati said.
