Shinzo Abe's right wing government opened up for business too fast-- just as Trump is planning to do-- and bullying easily-bullied governors into doing. What's happening in Japan is what's going to happen in, for example, Florida and Texas-- both of which are eager to open up again. COVID-19 infections have been spiking in Florida like mad.
Over the weekend, you may have caught a Washington Post report by Jacob Bogage that Trump is rejecting a bailout for the U.S. Total Service. Conservatives have been trying to kill it off for years.
This morning, the IMF released its annual World Economic Outlook report, which predicts that "this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing that seen during the global financial crisis a decade ago.
Late last year, Texas progressive Julie Oliver wrote a spectacular guest post for us about universal healthcare. She was in the midst of a primary battle with another worthy challenger eager to take on crooked conservative incumbent Roger Williams in the gerrymandered 25th congressional district.
Progressive challengers-- especially in races against well-heeled incumbents who can write themselves big checks or appeal to corporate SuperPACs-- have two new handicaps: grassroots funds from small donors have largely dried up because of financial uncertainty and grassroots campaign strategies have been upended by pandemic best practices.
In the 2018 election, Democrats increased their majorities in the Massachusetts state legislature, picking up 3 seats in the state Senate and 10 in the state House. There are 4 special elections on March 31, a week from Tuesday. Tomorrow the state legislature will decide whether or not to postpone the elections. My bet is that they will. These are the vacant seats being contested:
As of the last FEC filing deadline in the TX-10 3-way primary-- February 12-- about $2 million had been spent by the Democrats' campaigns.
In December we looked at Republican congressional candidate Pierce Bush, the grandson of George H.W. Bush who was planning to run against freshman Democratic backbencher Lizzie Fletcher in gramps' old Houston seat, but switched districts when Republican Pete Olson announced he was retiring (TX-22).
Not every state holding presidential primaries Tuesday is also holding congressional primaries. But the two biggies-- California and Texas-- are. Both these states are polling strongly for Bernie. The CNN poll for California that was released Friday shows Bernie in the top slot with 35% (up 15 points since December) and Elizabeth Warren in second with 14%.
The “liberal versus conservative” political polarization has been on a massive increase over the last three decades in the United States. Where there used to be dispassionate policy discussions, debate and often some sort of compromise over policy decisions based in ideological theories, now, people of differing political viewpoints appear to be more and more “siloed” with some disturbing results. Among these is the increasing conviction that America is headed for a Second Civil War.
