Today, Bernie Sanders showed himself once again a visionary for the United States of America. His concession speech was fullsome, personal and a powerful call to the nation, that we might pull together to defeat the most dangerous US president in modern history. Here is his inspiring speech, in full. Watch A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM BERNIE (11:45AM ET) from Bernie_Sanders on www.twitch.tv
Trump “has created an existential danger to the United States.”
Washington Post, by Ellen Nakashima , March 18, 2020 3:22 p.m. PDT
Former vice president Joe Biden participates in a Democratic presidential primary debate on March 15. (Mandel Ngan/Afp Via Getty Images)
More than 80 career national security professionals have signed an open letter of support for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, saying that President Trump “has created an existential danger to the United States.”
Most of the signatories, who include career diplomats, intelligence officers and defense policymakers, have served both Republican and Democratic administrations. They noted that their policy views cover a spectrum and as officials they “have often been in opposition, sometimes bitterly, with each other.”
But in a letter published online Wednesday, they expressed a shared belief that Trump’s approach to leadership has undermined the country’s role in the world.
“His reelection would continue this downward spiral and will likely have catastrophic results,” say the signatories, most of whom have never publicly endorsed a candidate for president.
Doug Wise, a former CIA clandestine officer and former deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, broke a career-long vow to serve in silence by signing the letter.
“We need to restore courtesy, respectability and consensus decision-making based not on the personal interests of Donald J. Trump but on the personal interests of Americans,” said Wise, who retired in 2016 after 48 years of government service.
Wise, who leans Republican, said that he has never voted for president, content to trust in the American democratic system “to produce a good president and commander in chief.” But the system has failed, he said. So this November, he said, he will cast his first vote for president — for Biden.
Larry Pfeiffer, former senior director of the White House Situation Room and a former chief of staff to then-CIA Director Michael Hayden, said he leans Republican. “If Donald Trump wasn’t running, and it was Mitt Romney versus Joe Biden, I’d be endorsing Mitt Romney,” he said. “And I probably wouldn’t be public about it.”
Pfeiffer, who served five presidents dating to Ronald Reagan, said he sees himself as nonpartisan, so much so that endorsing a candidate feels like “an unnatural act.”
Margaret Henoch, a former CIA officer who joined the agency in the Reagan administration, agreed that a public endorsement is “absolutely” unheard of for career professionals. But these are not normal times, she said.
Henoch said her endorsement is “not political.” It’s driven by a desire to restore “the stability of the country and the world and the respect for the role and function of government” in a democratic society.
Paul Rosenzweig said he was a Republican but became an independent in 2017 because “the standard-bearer for my party no longer represented the values that I think the party should stand for.”
“Even though I am sure I will disagree with much of what [Biden] does, I am also certain that the overall result will be far superior under Biden than under Trump,” said Rosenzweig, who served as a senior policy adviser at the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush and as a senior counsel to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr in the Clinton administration.
James R. Clapper Jr., a former director of national intelligence who entered government service in the Kennedy administration and retired in 2017, has voted “both ways” in federal elections. He considers himself a “Democrat domestically and a Republican in the foreign and national security realm.”
He, too, said he would vote for Biden. “I just think he would represent, if elected, a restoration of normality to the country,” said Clapper, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who served in five Democratic and five Republican administrations.
[This is an incredibly important article, with hope and sunshine beyond the muddled days of our Trumpian dystopia. Take 3 minutes and read this! – R.S.]
Dems, Want to Defeat Trump?
Form a Team of Rivals… You can win in a landslide.
If this election turns out to be just between a self-proclaimed socialist and an undiagnosed sociopath, we will be in a terrible, terrible place as a country. How do we prevent that?
That’s all I am thinking about right now. My short answer is that the Democrats have to do something extraordinary — forge a national unity ticket the likes of which they have never forged before. And that’s true even if Democrats nominate someone other than Bernie Sanders.
What would this super ticket look like? Well, I suggest Sanders — and Michael Bloomberg, who seems to be his most viable long-term challenger — lay it out this way:
“I want people to know that if I am the Democratic nominee these will be my cabinet choices — my team of rivals. I want Amy Klobuchar as my vice president. Her decency, experience and moderation will be greatly appreciated across America and particularly in the Midwest. I want Mike Bloomberg (or Bernie Sanders) as my secretary of the Treasury. Our plans for addressing income inequality are actually not that far apart, and if we can blend them together it will be great for the country and reassure markets. I want Joe Biden as my secretary of state. No one in our party knows the world better or has more credibility with our allies than Joe. I will ask Elizabeth Warren to serve as health and human services secretary. No one could bring more energy and intellect to the task of expanding health care for more Americans than Senator Warren.
“I want Kamala Harris for attorney general. She has the toughness and integrity needed to clean up the corrupt mess Donald Trump has created in our Justice Department. I would like Mayor Pete as homeland security secretary; his intelligence and military background would make him a quick study in that job. I would like Tom Steyer to head a new cabinet position: secretary of national infrastructure. We’re going to rebuild America, not just build a wall on the border with Mexico. And I am asking Cory Booker, the former mayor of Newark, to become secretary of housing and urban development. Who would bring more passion to the task of revitalizing our inner cities than Cory?
“I am asking Mitt Romney to be my commerce secretary. He is the best person to promote American business and technology abroad — and it is vital that the public understands that my government will be representing all Americans, including Republicans. I would like Andrew Yang to be energy secretary, overseeing our nuclear stockpile and renewable energy innovation. He’d be awesome.
“I am asking Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to serve as our U.N. ambassador. Can you imagine how our international standing would improve with youth worldwide with her representing next-gen America? And I want Senator Michael Bennet, the former superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, to be my secretary of education. No one understands education reform better than he does. Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna would be an ideal secretary of labor, balancing robots and workers to create “new collar” jobs.
“Finally, I am asking William H. McRaven, the retired Navy admiral who commanded the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014 and oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, to be my defense secretary. Admiral McRaven, more than any other retired military officer, has had the courage and integrity to speak out against the way President Trump has politicized our intelligence agencies.
Only last week, McRaven wrote an essay in The Washington Post decrying Trump’s firing of Joe Maguire as acting director of national intelligence — the nation’s top intelligence officer — for doing his job when he had an aide brief a bipartisan committee of Congress on Russia’s renewed efforts to tilt our election toward Trump.
“Edmund Burke,” wrote McRaven, “the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’”
If Bernie or Bloomberg or whoever emerges to head the Democratic ticket brings together such a team of rivals, I am confident it will defeat Trump in a landslide. But if progressives think they can win without the moderates — or the moderates without the progressives — they are crazy. And they’d be taking a huge risk with the future of the country by trying.
And I mean a huge risk. Back in May 2018, the former House speaker John Boehner declared: “There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
It’s actually not napping anymore. It’s dead.
And I will tell you the day it died. It was just last week, when Trump sacked Maguire for advancing the truth and replaced him with a loyalist, an incompetent political hack, Richard Grenell. Grenell is the widely disliked U.S. ambassador to Germany, a post for which he is also unfit. Grenell is now purging the intelligence service of Trump critics. How are we going to get unvarnished, nonpolitical intelligence analysis when the message goes out that if your expert conclusions disagree with Trump’s wishes, you’re gone?
I don’t accept, but can vaguely understand, Republicans’ rallying around Trump on impeachment. But when Republicans, the self-proclaimed national security party — folks like Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton — don’t lift a finger to stop Trump’s politicization of our first line of defense — the national intelligence directorate set up after 9/11 — then the Republican Party is not asleep. It’s dead and buried.
And that is why a respected, nonpartisan military intelligence professional like Bill McRaven felt compelled to warn what happens when good people are silent in the face of evil. Our retired generals don’t go public like that very often. But he was practically screaming, “This is a four-alarm fire, a category 5 hurricane.” And the G.O.P. response? Silence.
Veteran political analyst E.J. Dionne, in his valuable new book, “Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country,” got this exactly right: We have no responsible Republican Party anymore. It is a deformed Trump personality cult. If the country is going to be governed responsibly, that leadership can come only from Democrats and disaffected Republicans courageous enough to stand up to Trump. It is crucial, therefore, argues Dionne, that moderate and progressive Democrats find a way to build a governing coalition together.
Neither can defeat the other. Neither can win without the other. Neither can govern without the other.
If they don’t join together — if the Democrats opt for a circular firing squad — you can kiss the America you grew up in goodbye.
[BenIndy Editor – Below is an interesting overview on our March 3 California election. Note that March 3 is a PARTY PRIMARY for presidential candidates, but we actually ELECT our non-partisan Solano County Supervisor. Progressive Democrats of Benicia have endorsed Monica Brown for Supervisor, and will hold a presidential candidate forum on Feb. 12. Vote by Mail has already begun – everyone vote! For extensive detail see the Solano County Register of Voters. – R.S.]
Voting in state is different this year
Here’s how it may impact your ballot
Vallejo Times Herald, by Casey Tolan, BANG, Feb 7, 2020
FILE – In this Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020 file photo, from left, Democratic presidential candidates businessman Tom Steyer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
After months of campaigning, dramatic ups-and-down in the polls, and a barrage of TV ads blanketing our airwaves, California’s 2020 presidential primary is finally here.
All California counties are required by Monday to begin sending voters mail-in ballots, which means your ballot is headed to your mailbox just as Iowans gather to caucus in the first contest of the primary campaign. Most of the Golden State’s 20 million registered voters are expected to vote by mail, making California’s election day more like an election month that kicks off right now.
Unlike the past two presidential primaries, California will vote in March, just after the first four early states — giving the state with the biggest cache of delegates even more impact on the White House race. Here’s what you need to know to vote…
WHEN IS THE ELECTION, AND WHEN DO I NEED TO REGISTER?
California and a dozen other states hold their primaries on Super Tuesday, March 3. But millions of voters will cast their ballots before then, either by mail or through in-person early voting, which also starts Monday at county elections offices.
The deadline to register to vote in California is Feb. 18, although voters who miss that can still register and vote conditionally at any polling place in their home county during early voting or on election day, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Voters will choose legislative and congressional candidates in the state’s top-two primary, setting up showdowns in November for those races between the top two finishers, regardless of their parties. But the Democratic presidential primary will be by far the biggest spectacle on the ballot.
WHO GETS TO VOTE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY?
You don’t have to be a registered Democrat. No party preference voters — the fastest-growing segment of the electorate — can participate too. If you vote in person, just ask for a Democratic presidential ballot at your polling place.
Independents who vote by mail, however, were supposed to request a Democratic ballot in advance — if you forgot to do that, you can still ask for a ballot from your county by email or phone. You can also go to your polling place on election day, surrender your mail-in ballot, and get a new Democratic presidential ballot there.
“You’ll have somewhat over 5 million independent voters who, if they don’t fill that out, they’ll have a blank presidential ballot,” said Paul Mitchell, the vice president of the nonpartisan California voter data firm Political Data, Inc.
The GOP only allows registered Republicans to participate in their primary — but independents probably won’t be missing much, as none of Trump’s little known primary challengers have gotten much traction.
WHAT ELSE WILL BE NEW THIS TIME?
Several of the state’s counties, including Santa Clara, San Mateo, Napa, Los Angeles, and Orange, are using a new system that will mail a ballot to every voter, expand in person early voting, and let voters cast their ballot at any vote center in the county. San Mateo piloted the new procedures — called the Voter Choice Act — during the 2018 midterms.
Voters in those counties can mail in the ballot they received or go to any vote center — in Santa Clara County, for example, there will be 22 locations open starting 10 days before the election and 88 locations opening the weekend before election day. Other Bay Area counties will continue to only send mail-in ballots to voters who request them.
Because of the changes, there will likely be more votes cast by mail in California than ever before — Mitchell’s firm estimates that about 15 million of the state’s more than 20 million registered voters will be getting vote-by mail ballots sent to them next year. About 5 percent of voters in the state will cast their ballots by the time of New Hampshire’s Feb. 11 primary, 25 percent by Nevada’s Feb. 22 caucus, and more than 40 percent by South Carolina’s Feb. 29 primary, according to his predictions.
WHY ARE WE VOTING SO EARLY THIS YEAR?
The state legislature and former Gov. Jerry Brown moved up the primary from June to March in 2017. The point was to win California more influence after several presidential primary elections in which the largest state was little more than an afterthought.
So far, however, Californians hoping that the presidential contenders would trade Iowa diners and New Hampshire pubs for Los Angeles taquerias and San Francisco wine bars can be sorely disappointed.
Yes, contenders who may have previously only come to California for fundraisers tacked a rally or public meet-and-greet onto their schedule. And several high profile Democratic conventions in the state last year turned into presidential candidate cattle-calls.
But the four early states have still eclipsed California in their influence on the race so far — even though we have more than double all their delegates combined.
WHO’S LEADING IN CALIFORNIA?
On average, the most recent California polls have put Sen. Bernie Sanders on top, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Vice President Joe Biden. A second tier of candidates — former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and former San Francisco hedge fund chief Tom Steyer, have found themselves in the mid-to-high single digits.
The primary rules will make it hard for any single candidate to win a big majority of the state’s 495 delegates. Most delegates will be allocated based on how candidates do in each congressional district, and only contenders who get at least 15 percent of the vote in a district will win any delegates there.
But if only a couple candidates get over that 15 percent hurdle and there’s little geographic variation in the California results, the lower tier contenders could be all but shut out of delegates. Unless some candidates do better in certain regions of the state, “this system magnifies the advantage the leader in the statewide polls has,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll.
IS THERE A WILDCARD IN THE RACE?
The biggest one in the primary is Bloomberg, who’s dumping millions of dollars of his own fortune into television ads. The former mayor is taking the unusual strategy of skipping the first four early states and putting everything on California and other Super Tuesday states. That means that whether Californians embrace a billionaire businessman who was once a Republican will be key to his campaign.
No presidential candidate has made a blow-off-Iowa-and-New-Hampshire strategy work before. But there’s also never been a serious contender who’s been willing to spend at the scale Bloomberg seems prepared to — and his team has vowed to build the biggest California presidential primary operation in history.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO KNOW WHO WON?
Some political junkies still have PTSD from the nail-biting vote counts after the 2018 midterm elections. In a half-dozen closely watched congressional races, the tallying process stretched on for weeks, with several candidates seeing wide leads evaporate as more ballots were counted.
The bad news is that it could take just as long or longer to finish counting votes this time around, because of the growth in mail-in voting and new rules that make it easier to vote early and register on election day. State leaders say it’s a sign of how California is making it as easy as possible to vote.
But while the results may change a few points after election day, experts say it’s unlikely that there’ll be as wide a swing in the presidential primary as in the 2018 congressional photo finishes. “You’re not going to see big, almost double digit shifts from election night to the final results,” Mitchell predicted.
