Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Owe The Democratic Party A Damned Thing

By Tom Cahill

Bernie Sanders brought millions of new people into the Democratic Party, including young people, independents, and first-time voters. But what has the Democratic Party done in return?

Now that all states and territories have voted (with the exception of Washington, D.C.) and Hillary Clinton has emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee, the pressure is mounting for the Vermont senator to drop out and endorse Hillary Clinton, and for his supporters to fall in line and vote for the candidate the establishment pre-selected before anyone got a chance to vote.

The media never gave Bernie a chance

Months before Bernie Sanders announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton had used the powerful connections her family has long had to Democratic Party insiders to virtually secure the nomination with an insurmountable lead in superdelegates. This led to the establishment media crowning Clinton as the “uncontested” nominee, who was “poised to win the Democratic nomination without a serious contest.”

Just as the media hammered Clinton’s inevitability into our heads, cable news networks essentially ignored the tremendous energy behind Sanders’ campaign, like his August 2015 West Coast barnstorming rallies, which drew out nearly 100,000 supporters in Washington, Oregon, and California.

However, as the GDELT Project’s 2016 Campaign Television Tracker shows, the highest number of media mentions Bernie Sanders got in a single day that week was 479 on August 13, 2015. That same day, Hillary Clinton got 693 media mentions, a relatively average number of media mentions for Clinton, despite her not holding any mega-rallies. Sanders didn’t break 1,000 media mentions until October of 2015, the day after the first Democratic primary debate. Throughout the course of the primary cycle, Clinton got nearly twice as much media coverage as Sanders.

As Vox recently pointed out, the media plays a significant role in influencing group-think. By establishing Hillary Clinton as the undisputed nominee before anyone got a chance to vote, the media influenced future media coverage of Sanders, portraying Sanders as a non-serious candidate whose chances of toppling Clinton were virtually impossible:

There’s no doubt that the media was largely dismissive of Sanders’s chances from the beginning of the race, even before the first vote was cast, and in a way that severely underestimated his potential to raise funds, stay in the race, and keep winning states long after earlier insurgent candidates had been forced to close up shop.

Even Media Matters, which is run by Clinton attack dog David Brock, published an article at the end of 2015 showing that ABC World News Tonight devoted less than 60 seconds of coverage to Sanders’ campaign throughout the entire year. The Tyndall Report, which tracks media coverage, learned that Bernie Sanders earned fewer than ten minutes of combined prime time news coverage on flagship cable news networks in 2015. CBS Evening News gave Sanders 6.4 minutes of coverage, and NBC Nightly News gave him just 2.9 minutes.

There’s little doubt Sanders’ chances of winning would have dramatically improved had the media given the Vermont senator the same amount of coverage as the former Secretary of State leading up to the first primaries and caucuses. But once Sanders started winning, the Democratic establishment and the Clinton machine (which are arguably one in the same) began working overtime to not only slander Bernie Sanders and his supporters, but to actively stack the deck against him.

The Democratic establishment actively opposed Bernie Sanders

When Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz rolled out the debate schedule for the Democratic primary, Sanders supporters were outraged that only six had been scheduled, while the Republicans scheduled ten. Three of the Democratic debates were scheduled on weekends, when Americans are least likely to be inside, watching television. On two occasions, the Democratic debates competed with major cultural events, like NFL playoff games.
Wasserman Schultz said her debate schedule was meant to maximize viewer exposure to the candidates, which Politifact rated as “False.”  The fact-checking website put two charts side by side, showing that viewership for the Republican debates (nearly all of which were scheduled at prime time, on weekdays) dwarfed viewership for the Democratic debates:

 

Democratic debate ratings

Republican debate ratings

Near the end of 2015, Wasserman Schultz unilaterally acted to remove the Sanders campaign’s access to the DNC voter files, which contains all the crucial information campaigns need to conduct effective voter outreach. The DNC claimed the Sanders campaign improperly accessed information belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and suspended access to the 50-state file with just weeks to go before the pivotal Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary until the Sanders campaign proved it had destroyed all the data improperly accessed.

Even though the Sanders campaign insisted it had informed the DNC of the security breach allowing opposing campaigns to access their opponent’s data, and that there was no visible way to prove it had destroyed data it no longer had, the DNC refused to budge until massive pressure from Sanders supporters forced the DNC’s hand.

When Sanders started beating Hillary Clinton in campaign fundraising, Wasserman Schultz and the DNC took drastic action to try and tilt the money advantage back to Clinton by repealing a rule limiting contributions from Wall Street and corporate lobbyists, originally put in place by Barack Obama.

Several months later, it was revealed that Hillary Clinton and the DNC exploited loopholes in campaign finance law to allow wealthy oligarchs to contribute far beyond the maximum allowable limit to the Clinton campaign. While the maximum amount an individual donor can give in an election cycle is just $2,700, the Hillary Victory Fund (Clinton’s joint fundraising committee) was able to solicit six-figure contributions from billionaires like Walmart heiress Alice Walton as long as the money was given back to the DNC.

While the money was ostensibly meant for state Democratic parties to spend in down-ballot races, the money often went right back to the Hillary Victory Fund after passing through the accounts of state parties. The Victory Fund spent much of this money on efforts that singularly helped Hillary Clinton, rather than the party as a whole. The Bernie Sanders campaign criticized this arrangement as a violation of federal law. As US Uncut reported in early May, 99 percent of the funds meant for state parties had been hoarded by the Clinton campaign.

And of course, Bernie Sanders’ delegates were openly disenfranchised at the Nevada Democratic Convention after Roberta Lange, the state party chair, disqualified enough Sanders delegates to give Hillary Clinton the advantage, and refused to hear appeals from those she disqualified. Additionally, the DNC never made any efforts to correct the lie from lame duck California senator Barbara Boxer — who casually mocked Bernie Sanders’ delegates from the convention floor — that she was physically threatened by Sanders’ supporters.

When looking at all of these instances, it’s hard to argue the Democratic establishment wasn’t working overtime to help Clinton defeat Sanders by any means necessary, despite claims it was neutral in the primary.

The DNC turned a blind eye to rampant voter suppression

The Democratic primary was especially rife with reports of election fraud and major irregularities in multiple contests. However, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz remained seemingly indifferent in each instance, whether it was longtime Democrats’ voter registration mysteriously changing in the Arizona primary, making them ineligible to vote, Bill Clinton violating electioneering laws in Massachusetts, mass purging of voter rolls and forged signatures on voter registrations in the New York primary, and the Chicago elections board erasing votes for Sanders and adding votes for Clinton.

All of these instances fed the narrative that the Democratic primary was rigged against Sanders to benefit Clinton, and the DNC has acted with little urgency to bring accountability to the process. Even though New York’s Democratic attorney general and New York City’s Democratic city comptroller both announced official investigations into the irregularities pervading the voting process, Wasserman Schultz made zero mention of it in her statement following the New York primary.

The Democratic establishment will scapegoat Sanders and his supporters for a Clinton loss in November

Bernie Sanders has, for months now, polled better against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton. Electoral college maps drawn up by RealClearPolitics, using statewide polling averages, show that Sanders leads Trump by 93 electoral votes with 139 toss-ups, while Clinton only leads Trump by 30 electoral votes, with 180 toss-ups.

RealClearPolitics’ general election map for a Trump/Clinton matchup.

RealClearPolitics’ general election map for a Trump/Sanders matchup.

As the maps above show, Sanders is the stronger general election candidate for a number of reasons. Traditionally blue states like Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon are swing states if Clinton is the Democratic nominee, while Sanders wins those states outright along with New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, both of which are perennial swing states. Meanwhile, traditionally red states like Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, and Utah are toss-ups if Sanders is the nominee. Missouri and Indiana are almost guaranteed to go Republican if Clinton is the nominee.

Despite this crucial data, the Democratic establishment will blame a Trump presidency on Bernie Sanders and his followers for not getting behind Clinton for the sake of party unity. Pundits have been arguing since May that Sanders staying in the race is harming Clinton’s chances to win in November, despite polls showing that Clinton is the riskier bet as a nominee. Public Policy Polling is already preemptively blaming Sanders supporters for a tight general election race in Pennsylvania, suggesting that a Clinton loss in the Keystone State would be Sanders’ fault.

The one way the establishment can unite the party before November

The truth is, the establishment is desperately hoping Sanders’ supporters will be bullied into supporting Clinton, as the sheer numbers behind the #BernieOrBust movement has the potential to swing the general election, given Clinton’s obvious vulnerabilities in the electoral college. But the Democratic Party has an easy solution to rally Sanders’ supporters behind their chosen candidate. All the party has to do is ban corporate lobbyists from the DNC, abolish the undemocratic superdelegate system, run on Sanders’ policy proposals like a $15/hour national minimum wage, tuition-free public college, and single-payer health care, divorce itself from Wall Street and the military-industrial complex, and actively work to remove the influence of big money in politics.

The Democratic Party establishment has proven for decades that they are willing to lie, cheat, steal, and do whatever it takes to acquire more power. When confronted on its abuse of power, the establishment assures us it will change for the better as long as we continue to enable it with our money and support. If the Democratic Party refuses to adopt the changes listed above, Sanders’ supporters have the numbers, the money, and the justification to form a new, independent political party and break the Democratic Party for good.

Stacey Dash: I Can Win The Black Vote For Donald ‘Because Black People Like To Make Money’

http://crooksandliars.com/2016/06/stacey-dash-i-can-win-black-vote-trump

FBI is now pushing for warrantless access to Internet browsing history

The amendment would apply in terrorism and national security cases, but critics warn against the expansion of powers.

By Zack Whittaker

The Obama administration is pushing to amend existing privacy law in a way that critics argue would allow the government access to internet browsing histories and other metadata -- without needing a warrant.

An amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), set to be considered by the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, will allow the FBI to subpoena records associated with Americans' online communications -- so called electronic communications transactional records - with the use of national security letters, which don't require court approval.

That would allow federal agents to access phone logs, email records, cell-site data used to pinpoint locations, as well as accessing a list of visited websites.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who introduced the amendment, said the change was necessary to prevent "needlessly hamstringing our counterintelligence and counter-terrorism efforts."

Under existing law, national security letters can get access to all kinds of metadata -- but not contents of calls, emails, and other messages. But they don't permit the collection of website addresses, or internet search queries. (That said, the FBI is said to have secret legal interpretations allowing it to collect web histories in some cases.)

That's a problem for FBI director James Comey, who called the omission of the provision in the original law a "typo," arguing that it "affects our work in a very big and practical way," he told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee in February.

Or as the EFF staff attorney Andrew Crocker explained in a blog post, "the FBI thinks it was already entitled to get these records using [national security letters], and Congress simply messed up when it drafted the law."

But the Justice Dept.'s Office of Legal Counsel found in 2008 that the FBI was wrong. That's why the FBI is making the push for a change in the law -- making it the second second such push in a decade.

Those privacy advocates are also back, and they brought with them key allies from the tech industry - including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, -- which were among dozens of signatures on an open letter to the Obama administration asking the government to drop the attempt.

"We would oppose any version of these bills that included such a proposal expanding the government's ability to access private data without a court order," says the open letter, dated Monday.
"The civil liberties and human rights concerns associated with such an expansion are compounded by the government's history of abusing NSL authorities," it adds.

But national security letters will still face some level of scrutiny, thanks to a provision in the Freedom Act, which replaced parts of the controversial Patriot Act, which allow secret demands for customer data to be periodically reviewed.

Leading senior senators have rejected the amendment, and will instead push for ECPA reforms, dubbed the Email Privacy Act, which was passed by the House earlier this year.

We reached out to the FBI for comment. 

How 107 Superdelegates Robbed 11 Million Democratic Voters

By Tom Cahill

The Associated Press (AP) has prematurely called the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton, despite some 11 million Democrats still waiting to vote in six states and one territory, based off the opinion of superdelegates who have yet to vote.

The dominant media narrative is that Sanders is asking superdelegates to thwart the will of the public in order to win the Democratic nomination. But the AP came to their conclusion by a phone survey of the 712 superdelegates, meaning Clinton was declared the winner due to private conversations between reporters and a relatively small handful of Democratic party bosses who won’t actually vote for a nominee until the end of July.

Clinton’s nomination depends on superdelegates defying their state’s voters

FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver criticized Sanders’ strategy of courting superdelegates at the convention, saying “[Sanders] can win only if a huge number of superdelegates who have committed to Clinton flip their vote against her, despite her having won a clear majority of votes and elected delegates, thereby overturning the popular will.”

Last week, the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler mocked Sanders’ battle to the finish as a “false hope,” insinuating that the Vermont senator’s Hail Mary pass to superdelegates is undemocratic by nature:

Sanders claims it would be “factually incorrect” for the media to declare Clinton the presumptive nominee once she crosses the 2,383 threshold. But he is ignoring the fact that Clinton will also win a majority of the pledged delegates. There’s not much of a case he can make to superdelegates to switch sides, especially since he has long insisted that superdelegates should follow the will of the voters.

Fusion’s Terrell Jermaine Starr pointed out that Obama was only able to persuade superdelegates backing Clinton to switch after he started racking up more primary wins than the former First Lady, and that Sen. Sanders is going against the wishes of Democratic voters by continuing his campaign for the Democratic nomination:

It’s a big stretch to believe that superdelegates will overrule the will of the people, who have overwhelmingly voted for the former New York senator… At one point during the 2008 primaries, prominent black politicians were backing Clinton. But after Obama began winning most of the black vote (especially black women) during the primaries, they were pressured to recommit to Obama. Rep. John Lewis was among the first to switch his allegiance. Why? Because the people said so. It would have been odd for Lewis to vote for Clinton, even though his constituents backed Obama. But that is what Sanders is asking superdelegates to do: overrule the people.

All of these arguments are right in that Bernie Sanders will need to rely on superdelegates to switch from Clinton’s side to his in order to become the Democratic nominee. But all three authors neglected to report that Hillary Clinton reached 2,383 delegates only with the help of 107 superdelegates from states Bernie Sanders won, who actively thwarted the will of millions of Democratic voters in their own states.

• In Utah, where Sanders won by a 79-20 margin, two of the state’s four superdelegates are backing Clinton.
• 11 of 16 superdelegates in Minnesota are supporting Clinton, even though Sanders won the state’s March 1 caucus by a 62-38 margin.
• While Sanders blew Clinton out of the water by a 73-27 margin in Washington State, Clinton has 10 of 16 superdelegates. Sanders has zero.
• Six of Wisconsin’s ten superdelegates are supporting Clinton, while only one is backing Sanders. The Vermont senator won the Badger State’s primary by 14 points.
• All nine superdelegates in Rhode Island have committed to supporting Hillary Clinton, even though Bernie Sanders defeated the former Secretary of State by a 12-point margin.
• Sanders also has only one superdelegate in Alaska, same as Clinton, even after winning the state by an 82-18 margin. One Alaska superdelegate backing Clinton patronized and belittled a Sanders supporter who asked her to cast her superdelegate vote with how her state’s residents voted.

Comparatively, only 14 of Sanders’ 49 superdelegates have come from states Hillary Clinton won. Two of those superdelegates came from Arizona, where the US Department of Justice is conducting an official investigation due to widespread complaints of election fraud and voter suppression.

11 million Democrats still haven’t voted

It’s important to note that in 2008, media networks didn’t call the nomination for Barack Obama until after every state and territory had voted. On June 3, after Obama won the final two primaries in Montana and South Dakota, media networks declared him the presumptive nominee, after having enough pledged delegates and unpledged superdelegates to cross the threshold of 2,118 total delegates necessary to clinch the nomination. 241 of Obama’s 478 superdelegates came from the 21 states and 2 territories Hillary Clinton won.

Map of 2008 Democratic primary wins for each candidate. Purple denotes an Obama win, gold denotes a Clinton win.

This year, the key difference is that the AP declared Clinton the presumptive nominee on June 6, a full day before six more states voted. This effectively discourages nearly 11 million registered Democrats from voting (7.43 million in California, 1.79 million in New Jersey, 1.29 million in New Mexico, approximately 320,000 in Washington, DC).

To accept the AP’s declaration of Clinton’s victory as undisputed fact, it would have to be assumed that zero superdelegates will change their minds before the convention. This is highly unlikely, as 99 superdelegates changed their minds in 2008 (98 flipped from Clinton to Obama, one flipped from Obama to Clinton).

However, perhaps the most important detail the AP overlooked when crowning Clinton as the nominee was that this year, Luis Miranda, the Democratic National Committee’s own communications director explicitly told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it’s incorrect for the media to count superdelegates before they vote in July:

LUIS MIRANDA: “On superdelegates, one of the problems is the way the media reports it. Any night you have a primary or a caucus, the media lumps in superdelegates that they basically polled, because they call them up and say, ‘Who are you supporting?’ They don’t actually vote until the convention, so they shouldn’t be included in any count on a primary or caucus night, because the only thing you’re picking on primary or caucus nights are the pledged delegates based on the vote.”

JAKE TAPPER: “When we do our totals, do you think it’s okay to include them?”

LUIS MIRANDA: “Not yet, because they’re not actually voting, and they’re likely to change their minds. You look at 2008, and what happened then was there was all this assumption about what superdelegates were going to do, and many of them did change their mind before the convention, and it shifted the results in the end.”

Clinton could have lost every state and still won the nomination with superdelegates

In addition to the media’s preemptive declaration of a Clinton win, the superdelegate system itself begs the question of whether or not Bernie Sanders was ever given a fair chance at winning the nomination.

In August of 2015, for example, Bloomberg reported that Hillary Clinton had secured the commitments of some 440 superdelegates — or 61.7 percent of all total superdelegates — nearly six months before New Hampshire voters had a chance to cast a ballot in the nation’s first primary. This is inherently undemocratic, as Bloomberg also pointed out that Clinton had such a huge early advantage with party insiders that she could win the nomination outright without even winning a single state:

It’s technically possible for Clinton to win the nomination by dominating the superdelegate count even if she (narrowly) loses every state: Thanks to strict proportional allocation on the Democratic side, a candidate only gains a small delegate advantage for a small edge in primary votes.

Despite the valid concerns Sanders supporters have about the media calling the race too early or superdelegates unfairly tipping the scales in Clinton’s favor, it would take nothing short of a miracle for Sen. Sanders overcome his opponent’s lead in delegates and overall votes and win the nomination. According to the delegate calculator on Demrace.com, Sanders would need to garner 79 percent of the vote in California and at least 50 percent of the vote in every other primary and caucus to overcome his opponent’s pledged delegate lead.

Sanders would also need the votes of more than 7 million of the 11 million registered Democrats in the six states and one territory that have yet to vote in order to have the popular vote advantage. Finally, he would need to convince the majority of Clinton’s superdelegates to change their minds and back him at the national convention. While credible journalists have reported that an undisclosed number of Clinton’s superdelegates are contemplating switching to Sanders should he win the California primary, it’s highly unlikely that would be enough to put the Vermont senator over the 2,383 delegate threshold.

Regardless of how the final primaries and caucuses turn out, Sanders has earned the right to stay in the race until the end of the national convention, and his supporters have every right to question and contribute to the party’s nominating procedures and official platform.

Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact him via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com

U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela: 'Mr. Trump, you're a racist'

By Laura B. Martinez, Staff writer

U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, has penned a letter to Donald Trump calling the Republican presidential candidate a racist.

Vela also told Trump “you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.”

The congressman said he is tired of Trump’s rhetoric which he says has been bad all along but, he said Trump took it to another level on the latest racist attack on U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

“I had to do it in language that only Donald Trump could understand,” Vela said about the tone of his letter.

The congressman was referring to remarks that Trump referred to Curiel as a Mexican although the judge is a U.S. citizen born in Indiana.

“I think it is very disgraceful. I couldn’t think any other way to respond than to fight fire with fire,” Vela said.

Vela said he is also standing up for the 55 million Hispanics living in the U.S.

“This last week when I was home I run into constituents on the streets and Trump’s rhetoric is making them really upset that they are looking for someone to speak out for them,” Vela said.

Here is the full text of the letter:

June 6, 2016
Donald Trump
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Dear Mr. Trump,

As the United States Representative for the 34th Congressional District of Texas, I do not disagree with everything you say. I agree that the United States Government has largely failed our veterans, and those of us who represent the people in Congress have the obligation to rectify the Veterans Administration’s deficiencies. I also believe that the Mexican government and our own State Department must be much more aggressive in addressing cartel violence and corruption in Mexico, especially in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. And clearly, criminal felons who are here illegally should be immediately deported. There might even be a few other things on which we can agree.

However, your ignorant anti-immigrant opinions, your border wall rhetoric, and your recent bigoted attack on an American jurist are just plain despicable.

Your position with respect to the millions of undocumented Mexican workers who now live in this country is hateful, dehumanizing, and frankly shameful. The vast number of these individuals work in hotels, restaurants, construction sites, and agricultural fields across the United States. If I had to guess, your own business enterprises either directly or indirectly employ more of these workers than most other businesses in our country. Thousands of our businesses would come to a grinding halt if we invoked a policy that would require "mass deportation" as you and many of your supporters would suggest. That is precisely why the Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce agrees that these workers deserve a national immigration policy that would give them a pathway to citizenship.

While you would build more and bigger walls on the U.S.-Mexico border, I would tear the existing wall to pieces. No doubt Mexico has its problems, but it is also our third-largest trading partner. U.S. Chamber of Commerce has documented that this trade relationship is responsible for six million jobs in the United States. In 2015, the U.S. imported $296 billion in goods from Mexico while exporting $235 billion in products manufactured in this country to Mexico. The Great Wall of China is historically obsolete, and President Ronald Reagan famously declared, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall … " while urging the Soviet Union to destroy the barrier that divided West and East Berlin. Why any modern-thinking person would ever believe that building a wall along the border of a neighboring country, which is both our ally and one of our largest trading partners, is frankly astounding and asinine.

I should also point out that thousands of Americans of Mexican descent that you mistakenly refer to as “Mexicans” have valiantly served the United States in every conflict since the Civil War. While too numerous to list, let me educate you about a few of these brave Medal of Honor recipients:
Master Sergeant Jose Lopez, from my own hometown of Brownsville, Texas, fought in World War II.

Lopez was awarded the United States’ highest military decoration for valor in combat - the Medal of Honor - for his heroic actions during the Battle of the Bulge, in which he single handedly repulsed a German infantry attack, killing at least 100 enemy troops. If you ever run into Kris Kristofferson, ask him about Jose Lopez because as a young man Mr. Kristofferson recalls the 1945 parade honoring Sergeant Lopez as an event he will never forget.

In 1981, President Reagan presented Master Sergeant Roy Benavides with the Medal of Honor for fighting in what has been described as “6 hours in hell.” In Vietnam, Sergeant Benavides suffered 37 separate bullet, bayonet and shrapnel wounds to his face, leg, head and stomach while saving the lives of eight men. In fact, when awarding the honor to Benavides, President Reagan, turned to the media and said, “if the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would not believe it.”

You have now descended to a new low in your racist attack of an American jurist, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, by calling him a “Mexican” simply because he ruled against you in a case in which you are being accused of fraud, among other accusations. Judge Curiel is one of 124 Americans of Hispanic descent who have served this country with honor and distinction as federal district judges. In fact, the first Hispanic American ever named to the federal bench in the United States, Judge Reynaldo G. Garza, was also from Brownsville, Texas, and was appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Before you dismiss me as just another “Mexican,” let me point out that my great-great grandfather came to this country in 1857, well before your own grandfather. His grandchildren (my grandfather and his brothers) all served our country in World War I and World War II. His great-grandson, my father, served in the U.S. Army and, coincidentally, was one of the first “Mexican” federal judges ever appointed to the federal bench.

I would like to end this letter in a more diplomatic fashion, but I think that you, of all people, understand why I cannot. I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico.

But, I am sure that many of these individuals would agree with me when I say: ‘Mr. Trump, you’re a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.’

Sincerely,

Filemon Vela
Member of Congress

The Real Threat

Some Random Thoughts About The Asshole And His Followers

Import Some Steam Games to GOG

The newest feature on GOG.com lets you import some Steam games to your GOG account for free.

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Mike Malloy: 5 Insane Right Wing Moments This Week

By Janet Allon

Where does one begin when a major party nominee comes out and tells Californians that the drought they have been experiencing for several years does not exist? One place is with the woman who, if she did not start the march toward our current idiocracy, greatly accelerated it and continues to pour gasoline on its tinder pile. Sarah Palin was making the rounds for Trump this week, warming up the crowds, spewing what can only be described as some of the most moronic batshit the world has ever heard, with the possible exception of words uttered by the man himself.

Here are five absurdly evil moments from the rightward flank this week.

General Mills recalls some flours after 38 people become sick with E. coli

Flour recall

Gold Medal, Gold Medal Wondra, and Signature Kitchens flour recalled due to possible E. coli O121 contamination

May 31, 2016


MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota – General Mills is collaborating with health officials to investigate an ongoing, multistate outbreak of E. coli O121 that may be potentially linked to Gold Medal flour, Wondra flour, and Signature Kitchens flour (sold in Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel, Shaws, Vons, United, Randalls, and Acme). Out of an abundance of caution, a voluntary recall is being made.  To date, E. coli O121 has not been found in any General Mills flour products or in the flour manufacturing facility, and the company has not been contacted directly by any consumer reporting confirmed illnesses related to these products.

Consumers: Please open this page to ask additional questions of our consumer relations team, or call us at 1-800-230-8103.

State and federal authorities have been researching 38 occurrences of illnesses across 20 states related to a specific type of E. coli (E. coli O121), between December 21, 2015, and May 3, 2016. While attempting to track the cause of the illness, CDC found that approximately half of the individuals reported making something homemade with flour at some point prior to becoming ill. Some reported using a General Mills brand of flour.

Based on the information that has been shared with General Mills, some of the ill consumers may have also consumed raw dough or batter. Consumers are reminded to not consume any raw products made with flour. Flour is an ingredient that comes from milling wheat, something grown outdoors that carries with it risks of bacteria which are rendered harmless by baking, frying or boiling.

Consumers are reminded to wash their hands, work surfaces, and utensils thoroughly after contact with raw dough products or flour, and to never eat raw dough or batter.

“As a leading provider of flour for 150 years, we felt it was important to not only recall the product and replace it for consumers if there was any doubt, but also to take this opportunity to remind our consumers how to safely handle flour,” said Liz Nordlie, president of General Mills Baking division.

Although most strains of E. coli are harmless, others can make you sick. E. coli O121 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration. Seniors, the very young, and persons with compromised immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness.

Any consumers concerned about an illness should contact a physician. Anyone diagnosed by a physician as having an illness related to E. coli O121 is also urged to contact state and local public health authorities.

The recall affects the following retail flour products that could be currently in stores or in consumers’ pantries. It includes six SKUs (stock keeping units or UPC codes) of Gold Medal flour, 2 SKU’s of Signature Kitchens flour and 1 SKU of Gold Medal Wondra flour. 

• If you have any of the products listed below, they should not be used.
• Consumers, please visit this page to ask additional questions of our consumer relations team or you can also call us at 1-800-230-8103
• For additional information on this recall, please visit the General Mills blog.
• Media can reach the General Mills communications team at 763-764-6364 or at media.line@genmills.com

The specific products in the recall include:

13.5 ounce Gold Medal Wondra Package UPC 000-16000-18980 Recalled Better if Used by Dates 25FEB2017 thru 30MAR2017
2 poundGold Medal All Purpose Flour Package UPC 000-16000-10710 Recalled Better if Used by Dates 25MAY2017KC thru 03JUN2017KC 5 poundGold Medal All Purpose Flour Package UPC 000-16000-10610 Recalled Better if Used by Dates 25MAY2017KC, 27MAY2017KC thru 31MAY2017KC, 01JUN2017KC, 03JUN2017KC thru 05JUN2017KC, 11JUN2017KC thru 14JUN2017KC 10 poundGold Medal All Purpose Flour Package UPC 000-16000-10410 Recalled Better if Used by Dates 02JUN2017KC,03JUN2017KC 10 pound Gold Medal  All Purpose Flour- Banded Pack Package UPC 000-16000-10410 Recalled Better if Used by Dates 03JUN2017KC, 04JUN2017KC, 05JUN2017KC
5 poundGold MedalUnbleached Flour Package UPC 000-16000-19610 Recalled Better if Used by Dates 25MAY2017KC, 27MAY2017KC, 03JUN2017KC, 04JUN2017KC
5 pound Signature Kitchens All Purpose Flour Enriched Bleached Package UPC 000-21130-53001 Recalled Better if Used by Dates BB MAY 28 2017
5 pound Signature Kitchens Unbleached Flour All Purpose Enriched Package UPC 000-21130-53022 Recalled Better if Used by Dates BB MAY 27 2017
2 poundGold MedalSelf Rising Flour Package UPC 000-16000-11710 Recalled Better if Used by Dates 23AUG2016KC

Sirius/XM suspends Glenn Beck program over threats to Trump

SiriusXM issued the following statement:

SiriusXM encourages a diversity of discourse and opinion on our talk programs. However, comments recently made by a guest on the independently produced Glenn Beck Program, in our judgement, may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office, which we cannot and will not condone. For that reason, we have suspended The Glenn Beck Program from our Patriot channel for the coming week and are evaluating its place in our lineup going forward. SiriusXM is committed to a spirited, robust, yet responsible political conversation and believes this action reflects those values.

Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck is under federal investigation for apparently threatening to repeatedly stab GOP front runner Donald Trump.



While Glenn Beck has since insisted that his murder threat Friday was actually directed at his co-host, the Secret Service appears to be taking the threat seriously and is unwilling to leave the matter up to chance, CBS11 reports. (AUDIO: Glenn Beck’s Trump Riff — ‘The Stabbing Just Wouldn’t Stop)

The radio show exchange started after Beck talked about filling the shoes of Trump’s rivals, at which point his co-host Stu Burguiere joked, “Was it gigantic shoes?”

“If I was close enough and I had a knife. Really. I mean the stabbing just wouldn’t stop,” Beck said in response.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/05/feds-investigate-glenn-beck-for-trump-threat/#ixzz4AGTWJx5U

Memorial Day Crocodile Tears From Those Who Create Wars

By Walter Brasch

A few million Americans may be thinking about it, but won’t be celebrating Memorial Day. For them, there’s not much to celebrate or to remember.

They’re the low-wage employees who may have to work all three days, without overtime; about three million workers earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Many work 30 to 35 hours a week, just low enough that their employers don’t have to pay for insurance, holidays, or sick leave. The corporate CEOs, of course, will be enjoying the long weekend at their alternate vacation homes in the mountains, or along the coasts, or at off-shore islands where they have found banks willing to hide their money and avoid U.S. taxes.

Almost 600,000 persons are homeless on any given night. They are homeless for any number of reasons, but whatever reason, the reality is they are homeless—and the wealthiest nation in the world cheers $10 million a year pro athletes, but discounts social workers who have graduate degrees and are paid an average of about $46,000 a year.

The homeless live beneath bridges, in subway tunnels, on the streets, or if the shelters aren’t filled, in protected areas with cots for beds, and grocery carts for what few possessions they have. In Atlantic City, the homeless live beneath the boardwalk, unseen by hundreds of thousands who go into casinos, buy expensive dinners, and think nothing of dropping a few hundred or a few thousand dollars at gaming tables and slot machines. In urban cities, those with jobs and families walk by the homeless, as if they are invisible, sometimes erroneously thinking that even if the homeless get a dollar or two, they’d rush off to buy beer, liquor, or more drugs.

About 50,000 of the homeless on any given night are veterans, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Overall, more than 150,000 veterans are homeless during the year. The reasons for veterans being homeless are because of “extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income and access to health care . . . lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse, which are compounded by a lack of family and social support networks,”
according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. Under the Obama administration, which has focused upon assisting veterans, the number of homeless veterans on any given night has come down from about 80,000 six years ago, but even a few dozen homeless veterans are far too many.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans won’t be able to march in Memorial Day parades, or stand and salute the flag. They don’t have limbs, their muscles have atrophied because of extensive bed confinement, or they have other debilitating illnesses. About 2.2 million American veterans were injured during their service; about 1.7 million of them were wounded in combat, according to a Pew Research Center summary and analysis. About 200,000 military personnel who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder of have major depression, according to a study done by the Rand Corp. About 285,000 of the veterans of America’s most recent wars have suffered from traumatic brain injury. Among other injuries, according to the VA are chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, fibromyalgia, hearing difficulties, hepatitis, malaria, memory loss, migraines, sleep disorders and tuberculosis.

More than 120,000 Americans won’t celebrate Memorial Day; they died in combat during the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq/Afghanistan wars.

During this three-day weekend, Americans will grill steaks, burgers, and hot dogs; they will travel to relatives’ or friends’ houses, or take mini-vacations. The nation’s politicians—from small town council members to presidential candidates—will go from picnic to picnic, from rally to rally, and deliver poignant speeches about how much they care about the veterans who were injured or died for their country, and how much veterans mean to the country, while delivering the underlying message to vote for them in the coming election.

But, it is these politicians who, without hesitation, will quickly send American youth into war, and claim that killing people a half-world away somehow protects American citizens. And once Americans are in combat, these same politicians will complain about the cost of war, and vote against providing adequate funds for decent medical and psychological treatment for those who come home damaged.

Dr. Brasch, an award-winning journalist and the author of 20 books, is co-founder of the Northeast Pennsylvania Coalition for the Homeless. His latest book is Fracking America: Sacrificing Health and the Environment for Short-Term Economic Benefit.

Even more primary phenomena

Trump Exposes The GOP's Dirty Secret: They Build Everything By Nurturing White Rage

By Carol Anderson

For decades, GOP has used the war on drugs or voter ID laws as cover for race-baiting. Trump just blew their cover.

Paul Ryan is angry with Donald Trump, not so much for failing to espouse conservative values, as for exposing America’s dirty little secret—white rage: that deep-seated determination to block black progress in this country. For years, conservative politicians have relied upon the cover of high-minded principles and slogans—“protecting the integrity of the ballot box,” or waging a “war on drugs” — in order to cloak their determination to restrict African Americans’ citizenship rights. The racism fueling Trump’s campaign and his followers, however, is so overt, that it is undoing decades of hard covert work by the GOP.

When Trump didn’t immediately disavow an endorsement from Klansman David Duke; when the GOP front-runner condoned the beatings African Americans endured at his campaign rallies; and when 20 percent of his followers insisted that the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery, was bad policy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s carefully stitched plan of “racism with plausible deniability” began to unravel.

Shortly before he died, Reagan’s strategist Lee Atwater explained the game plan of the Southern Strategy in a matter-of-fact clinical policy. “By 1968 you can’t say ‘nigger’—that hurts you, backfires,” Atwater emphasized. “So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. And you’re getting so abstract now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.” But Donald Trump doesn’t do abstract, and that is what has sent the GOP into a tizzy.

Nixon and Reagan mastered this by adapting to the new racial terrain carved out by the Civil Rights Movement. As Nixon aide John Ehrlichman explained to Harper’s Dan Baum in 1994, “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be against black[s], but by getting the public to associate ... blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing” the drug “we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said.

“We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

But that lie was infinitely effective in driving policy. In 2008, the NAACP reported that “five times as many whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites.” Consequently, blacks comprising just 13 percent of the U.S. population made up “59% of those in state prison for a drug offense.” Packaged and sold as keeping neighborhoods and families safe, the Nixon administration’s well-targeted lie, which was expanded upon by Ronald Reagan, and taken up by Democrats such as Bill Clinton to prove that they could be “tough on crime, too,” has worked masterfully. Because many states disfranchise those with felony convictions, the Sentencing Project reports that 2.2 million African Americans or 7.7 percent of black adults have been legally stripped of their voting rights; as compared with 1.8 percent of the non-African American population.

The trick to pulling this off was subtlety; to mask overt racism with sincere concern for community safety. Nixon did it with “law and order,” Reagan with “the war on drugs.” But Trump’s jugular racism has no subtlety. In November 2015, Trump sent out a tweet to his 6.23 million followers that 81 percent of white homicide victims were killed by African Americans. Of course, it’s a lie; the same lie that drove Dylann Roof to get his country back by gunning down nine black people during Bible study. In fact, 84 percent of white murder victims are killed by whites. But to drive home his misbegotten point, the mogul placed a picture of a gun-toting black thug next to the statistics.

Trump’s take-no-prisoner style exposes in ways that no legitimate Republican front-running presidential candidate has in decades the racial lies behind the policies. That’s the problem the GOP really has with him.

The Republicans’ current crusade to “protect the ballot box” is a case in point. According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 89 percent of the GOP is white. As the Pew Research Center reported, minorities make up more than 30 percent of voters nationwide, a figure that is only growing. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham admitted, “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.” Republicans have, therefore, tried to handle their demographic apocalypse by disfranchising African Americans and other minorities but doing so under the guise of stopping (virtually non-existent) voter fraud, using in-defense-of-the-nation language.

Todd Allbaugh, former chief of staff for Wisconsin state Sen. Dale Schultz (R), confessed that stopping voter fraud was not the point. “I was in the closed Senate Republican Caucus when the final round of multiple Voter ID bills were being discussed. A handful of the GOP senators were giddy about the ramifications and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters.” Another Republican, this time in Florida, admitted that the plan to significantly trim early voting in 2012 was racially-targeted: “I know that the cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves” and bring busloads of African American voters to the polls.

The results of the GOP’s ballot box shenanigans have been devastating. A recent study in 2016 by political scientists at the University of California-San Diego found the voter suppression laws throughout the United States dramatically decreased minority participation in elections because blacks and Hispanics are the least likely to have the types of identification the state requires. As a result, “turnout among Democrats in general elections dropped an estimated 7.7 percentage points, while Republican turnout dropped 4.6 percentage points.” More than that though, the study found “For strong liberals the estimated drop in turnout in strict photo identification states is an alarming 10.7 percentage points. By contrast, the drop for strong conservatives is estimated to be only 2.8 points.” Clearly, the plan is working just as effectively as “law and order” and the “war on drugs” did.

And similarly, Republicans have taken umbrage at the charge that these new voter laws are racially targeted.

So, when Trump says that he doesn’t want people and these “illegal immigrants” to just “walk in off the street” and “sneak through the cracks” to cast a ballot, and that “You have to have—and whether that’s an ID or any way you want to do it. But you have to be a citizen to vote,” he’s parroting contrived Republican strategy but being far too obvious about it. Just about as obvious as when he maligned Mexicans in the United States as drug mules, criminals, and rapists.

And that’s the problem. What the GOP is really mad about is that Donald Trump has made visible what many have tried so hard to hide.

Happy Memorial Day? 5 Times Republicans In Congress Screwed Veterans

By James Woods

This weekend, Americans will celebrate Memorial Day, and politicians will pay lip service to U.S. military veterans. It’s important to note that Memorial Day was originally started by freed black slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, who reburied Union war veterans killed in the Civil War, holding a special ceremony thanking them for their service. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an official declaration of Memorial Day as a national holiday in 1966.

However, in recent years, Memorial Day has become the ONLY form of gratitude that our veterans can count on as the GOP has spent the last decade chipping away at the benefits and support afforded to our veterans when they return from deployment, while paying lip service to their struggles and heroism.

So this weekend, as members of the GOP stand behind podiums giving speeches in their home districts about the need for more funding to pay military contractors and to give missiles to Israel as part of their plan to continue the growth of “American exceptionalism,” please remember these instances of “gratitude” the GOP showed to our veterans by placing partisan politics above caring for our veterans.

1. Veterans Affairs Funding Bill (2015)

The House Appropriations Subcommittee, met with VA Secretary Bob McDonald to remove more than $1.4 billion in veteran services from President Obama’s proposed 2016 budget. Included in those cuts was more than $690 million earmarked for direct VA medical care and $582 million in VA construction projects.  As a result of the cuts, it was estimated that 70,000 fewer veterans would be able to receive needed care.

2. Women Veterans and Families Health Services Act (2014)

This bipartisan bill would have provided fertility treatment and counseling for severely wounded veterans and their spouses. However, the bill was killed before making it out of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee after Republicans proposed an amendment to prevent any involvement with Planned Parenthood.

The author of the bill, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), took to the floor of the Senate and made the following statement:

“Don’t take something that should be above politics, our sacred duty to our veterans, pull it down into the muck of petty politics. It is not fair to veterans and their families who have been hoping and praying for the opportunity to have children.”

3. Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act (2014)

This bill, proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, was a piece of sweeping legislation that would have expanded healthcare and education for veterans. After clearing a procedural vote by a 99-0 margin, the bill was hijacked by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans who attached an amendment to the bill which would have levied sanctions on Iran.

While arguing over the proposed amendments, other Republicans took to the floor to raise concerns over the cost of the bill, and it was ultimately defeated with 41 of 45 Senate Republicans voting against the bill.

4. Veterans Jobs Corps Act (2012)

Originally submitted by democratic Representative Bruce Braley of Iowa, this bill would have established the Veteran’s Jobs Corps to provide gainful employment to more than 20,000 veterans through public works projects in their own communities at a cost of $1 billion over 5 years.

Ultimately, Senate Republicans blocked the bill because it was unpaid for…while simultaneously proposing a bill to increase military spending with no way to pay for it.

“We Republicans remain resolute in our commitment to deny the Democrats anything that looks like an accomplishment in an election year,” said Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

5. Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act (2010)

Originally proposed to expand assistance for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children, as well as increasing funding for federal grant programs to address the issues surrounding homelessness amongst veterans, this bipartisan bill made its way through the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee with strong support from members of both parties.

However, the bill was promptly killed as Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, on behalf of Senator Tom Coburn, objected based on the cost of the program.

“If we don’t start paying for new programs and continue on our path to bankruptcy we’ll have a homelessness problem beyond imagination,” Coburn spokesman John Hart told HuffPost. “The old Washington excuse that it’s too hard to cut spending is undermining our troops, our veterans and our future.”

Pelicans Guard Bryce Dejean-Jones Killed While Reportedly Breaking Into Apartment

By Daniel Politi

Bryce Dejean-Jones #31 of the New Orleans Pelicans drives to the basket during the first half of a game against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Smoothie King Center on February 4, 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 
New Orleans Pelicans guard Bryce Dejean-Jones died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen early Saturday morning. The Dallas Police Department said that the NBA player “kicked open the front door” to a Dallas apartment at 3:20 a.m. on Saturday morning and the man sleeping inside shot him.

According to the police statement:

The resident, who was asleep in the bedroom, heard the individual enter and retrieved a handgun. He stated he called out to the individual, but was not answered. As the individual kicked the bedroom door, the resident fired his gun. The individual left the apartment and collapsed in the breezeway. The individual was transported to a local hospital where he died from his injuries.

The Pelicans also issued a short statement confirming the news of the 23-year-old player’s death. "It is with deep sadness that the Pelicans organization acknowledges the sudden passing of Bryce Dejean-Jones," the statement said. "We are devastated at the loss of this young man's life who had such a promising future ahead of him. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bryce's family during this difficult time."

Dejean-Jones signed a three-year contract with the Pelicans in February. He played 14 games in the NBA, and averaged 5.6 points, according to Sports Illustrated.

Health Providers Spill Patient Secrets On Yelp

The vast majority of reviews on Yelp are positive. But in trying to respond to critical ones, some doctors, dentists and chiropractors appear to be violating the federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA.

 https://www.propublica.org/article/stung-by-yelp-reviews-health-providers-spill-patient-secrets

Trump turns down debate!

By roguevalley
 

Here is what happened. A Dem with a spine challenged a Nazi to a debate and dared him to step forward. HRC at the same time was home hiding because the Inspector General's report showed she was lying for over a year on her server fiasco.

The only grown up in this mess challenged Trump and showed him to be a coward, a blowhard and a sissy.

Bernie did that, not HRC who is still trying to absorb her 9% trustworthy rating v NINETY ONE PERCENT untrustworthy rating in the last poll.

Consider in that total that EVEN HER SUPPORTERS DON'T TRUST HER! Among the 91% who said she's untrustworthy were her 'supporters'.

Bernie showed what a DEMOCRAT looks like. HRC is still counting her fingers.

Donald J. Trump Statement on Debating Bernie Sanders

Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher. Likewise, the networks want to make a killing on these events and are not proving to be too generous to charitable causes, in this case, women’s health issues. Therefore, as much as I want to debate Bernie Sanders - and it would be an easy payday - I will wait to debate the first place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be.

Copabanana again among Philly eateries asked to close by health dept.

By Sam Wood, STAFF WRITER

The health department usually inspects a Philadelphia eatery once a year. At Copabanana on South Street, however, sanitarians have dropped in six times since January and asked it to shut down twice.

The margarita and burger joint has a chronic problem with keeping food at safe temperatures. When perishable items are stored between 42 and 165 degrees Fahrenheit, toxic bacteria - the types that can cause food poisoning - can multiply quickly. On May 18 a sanitarian found calamari and coleslaw stored at 46 degrees, 5 degrees warmer than is considered safe. On April 18, Copabanana was cited for failing to reheat food items to 165 degrees for at least 15 seconds; raw chicken was found in the lukewarm danger zone. On Feb. 22, the list of improperly refrigerated foods included spinach dip, sour cream and octopus.

At other eateries asked to shutter their doors to fix health violations, the two most common violations included rodent infestations and not having a food-safety certified person present.

The eateries listed below were inspected between May 17th and 27th. Each inspection is generally regarded as a "snapshot in time" and is not necessarily a reflection of day-to-day conditions at the business. Most violations were corrected on site.

Included with each listing is an edited selection of infractions noted by health department sanitarians. Click on the restaurant's name to see a detailed report. Visit Philly.com/cleanplates for a searchable database of inspection reports.

If you suspect you've contracted food poisoning at a Philadelphia eatery or have a sanitation complaint, contact the health department at (215) 685-7495.

Manakash Cafe & Bakery
4420 WALNUT ST 19104
14 violations, 8 serious.
Food safety certified person not present; employee had open beverage container in food prep area; black residue, pink slime in ice machine; Windex stored with syrup for beverages; evidence of insect activity, roach and numerous flies; employees not wearing hair restraints. Inspected May 26.

Ed's Buffalo Wings
3513 LANCASTER AVE 19104
35 violations, 14 serious.
No person in charge present; food not protected from contamination; improper hand washing procedures; employee with dirty fingernails touched ready-to-eat food with bare hands; empty paper towel dispenser; food held at unsafe temperatures; employees not wearing hair restraints; general cleaning needed throughout facility. 17 violations addressed on site. Inspected May 26.

Gonzalez Grocery
1400 N 7TH ST 19122
19 violations, 7 serious.
Food safety certified person not present; empty paper towel dispenser; deli meats uncovered and unprotected from possible contamination; food held at unsafe temperatures; facility does not protect against entry of insects, rodents and other animals; cleaning needed in restrooms. 13 violations addressed on site. Inspected May 26.

Sunshine Food Market
4261 LANCASTER AVE 19104
26 violations, 8 serious
Food safety certified person not present; no soap and no sign in toilet room reminding employees to wash hands; 8 jars of expired baby food and 5 boxes of baby cereal; pink slime and black residue in ice machine; walk-in cooler holding food at unsafe temperatures; live cockroaches and evidence of vermin in basement. Inspected May 24.

New Good Brother Chinese Restaurant
2768 N 24TH ST 19132
15 violations, 3 serious.
Food safety certified person not present; thermometers not available; mouse droppings along floor perimeters. Inspected May 23.

Almonte Mini Market
883 N 5TH ST 19123
14 violations, 7 serious.
Food safety certified person not present; food residue in hand wash sink; 12 expired containers of baby food; food residue on slicer. Inspected May 23.

Dim Sum Garden Philly
1020 RACE ST 19107
25 violations, 5 serious.
Mouse infestation, droppings on floor perimeter, shelves, in bowls and canned goods; kitchen hand wash sink blocked by buckets; bean sprouts stored under raw chicken; food held at unsafe temperatures; frozen chicken thawing at room temperature in sink; inaccurate thermometer on display case; clean and sanitize shelves and work table in food prep area. 48 hour closure ordered May 19.

The Bakeshop on 20th
269 S 20TH ST 19103
Food safety certified person not on premises. Patron observed with a dog at cashier ordering station. Inspected May 19.

George's 9th St. Lunch
1007 S 9TH ST 19147
10 violations, 3 serious.
Evidence of rodent activity in kitchen, mouse droppings in storage area, on floor throughout kitchen area, on slicer, under sinks; employee observed touching bread and cooked eggs with bare hands; no soap at hand wash sink; person in charge didn't use gloves while working with ready-to-eat foods; cigarette butts in kitchen under hand sink and trash can. Inspected May 18.

Copabanana/Hurricane
342 SOUTH ST 19147
12 violations, 6 serious.
Employee consuming drink at food prep station; calamari, raw shrimp and coleslaw at unsafe temperatures; hand wash sink blocked by trays; employees not wearing effective hair restraints. Previously asked to cease and desist on Feb. 22. Inspected May 17.

Almonte Family Grocery Store
1770 MASCHER ST 19122
21 violations, 5 serious.

No hot water; improper hand washing procedures; no soap at sink; accumulated residue on slicer; foods held at unsafe temperatures; customers in kitchen food prep area; cat in basement; overflowing garbage in trash container; restrooms need to be cleaned. May 17.

samwood@phillynews.com
215-854-2796 @samwoodiii

No Consoles For Old Men - Ageism In The Game Industry

In this timeless blog, veteran developer David Mullich writes how, after a long career encompassing many highly-regarded games, "no game studio or publisher seemed willing even to give me a phone interview."

The great Trump overload

Hello Pot, Meet Kettle.

By Juanita Jean

I gotta tell you something. Republicans are smoking way too much weed. I have proof.

Newt Gingrich is calling Mitt Romney incompetent. Yeah.

Newt says that Romney’s attempt to derail Trump was “pathetic” and “not particularly effective.”

“It’s pathetic… I don’t know what happened to Mitt, but it is weird; it is bizarre,” Mr. Gingrich said in an interview with reporters and editors of The Wall Street Journal, commenting on the 2012 presidential nominee’s attacks on Mr. Trump. “Having a guy like that go berserk in public makes you wonder what his problems are.”

As I recall, Gingrich was one of the original candidates in 2012 and was also the first or second to drop out. That was pathetic – joyful for me – but pathetic nonetheless.

Gingrich wants to be Trump’s vice presidential candidate. That means they will have 7 wives between them, which is kinda amazing since they are running in the Jesus First political party.

Admit it, you’re enjoying watching these grown men line up to kiss The Donald’s butt.

I do. Boy howdy, I do.

Crossposted at juanitajean.com

Sanders Ahead of Trump by 15 Points, Hillary Just by 3

By Alexandra Rosenmann

 

A major national poll has some surprising numbers in it. 

 

A shocker. A new NBC News/Wall St Journal poll has Bernie up 54 to 39 over Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, according to the same poll,  Hillary Clinton no longer has a double digit lead over Donald Trump like she did just a month ago - her lead over Trump is just 3 points.

On the other hand, while less than a quarter of likely Republican voters backed Trump a month ago, he’s since gained 14 points. Only 66% percent of Sanders supporters say they’d vote for Clinton in November, which her supporters say will rise if Sanders drops out. After all, that’s what happened on the Republican side. But 17% of Sanders supporters have already vowed to vote for Trump if Clinton is the nominee - a greater margin than Clinton had of Republican voters when Cruz and Kasich remained in the race.

Hillary Clinton wins with all the demographics that Trump loses with painfully. In a general election, she would win African American voters 88% to Trump’s 9%. Still, with other demographics - such as women and young people - Sanders would defeat Trump by a greater margin.

Just last week, Bernie Sanders told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell he was the stronger candidate to defeat Donald Trump. “The case we’ll make [with the super delegates] is that I am the stronger candidate. It’s not just the polling. Our campaign is the campaign bringing in working class people,” Sanders said.

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