By Savanah Hernandez
Kounalakis says any Democrat will do a better job than President Trump and hopes that someone like Kamala Harris will bring some California style policies to the national stage.
By Chris Menahan
Published on Jun 26, 2019
“All of you on stage support a women’s right to abortion. You all support some version of a government health-care option. Would your plan cover abortion, Mr. Secretary?” asked MSNBC debate moderator Lester Holt.
“Yes it would. I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice. And what that means is just because a woman, or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community — a trans female — is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t exercise that right to choose. So I absolutely would cover that right to have an abortion,” Castro said.
Published on Jun 27, 2019
JUNE 26, 2019
Users attempting to access the forum are met with a warning message asking them “are you sure you want to visit this community?”
“The_Donald has officially been quarantined by Reddit. They waited until the election to totally suppress us,” tweeted the forum’s owner.
The forum now has much reduced functionality and its owners can only have it lifted out of quarantine by means of a successful appeal to Reddit. A quarantine is sometimes used as a pre-cursor to a total ban.
Reddit claims it shut down the forum due to “threats of violence against police and public officials.”
The quarantine was put in place after a single complaint from Vox’s Carlos Maza, the same activist/journalist who attempted to get Steven Crowder’s YouTube channel shut down earlier this month.
“Within 2 days of Carlos Maza calling for The_Donald Subreddit to be censored Reddit has taken action and quarantined one of the largest Pro-Trump forums,” commented Tim Pool.
“Reddit claims that The_Donald was quarantined because they have to spend too much time removing content on the subreddit,” tweeted the moderator of the forum. “This is a report of everything they’ve “had” to do in the last month. (Including stripping me of my ability to do the job they’re complaining about).”
The Donald is a hugely influential Internet forum with around 754,000 subscribers
A 2018 study by researchers at University College London found that the most “effectively spread memes” originated on r/the_donald.
Quarantining the forum on the night of the first Democratic presidential debates clearly represents yet another example of Big Tech meddling in the election process.
JUNE 26, 2019
Carlson explained how as soon as Trump took the White House in 2016, Big Tech began plotting to “control the election outcome in 2020” by “using the excuse of “fake news” to control the public discourse.
The Fox News host chastised the previous Republican Congress for failing to act, as well as the White House which refused to use its control of the “vast regulatory apparatus” to intervene.
“They’ve sat motionless and doing nothing,” Carlson said of the Trump administration.
Tucker praised Senator Josh Hawley, who recently introduced a bill that would strip Big Tech companies of their legal immunity as platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Act, as “the only Republican who seems interested at all in keeping Big Tech in check.”
“Passing Hawley’s bill doesn’t seem to be a priority though, no one in Congress is talking about it,” said Carlson, adding this was a “big mistake”.
“Successful political parties look out for their supporters….and protect them from harm,” said Carlson, slamming Republicans for “sitting in a stupefied fog of libertarianism doing nothing while their ideas are suppressed and their supporters are silenced.”
“One day they’ll look up and find they have no supporters at all – who will be to blame for that? Only themselves,” he concluded.
As we reported earlier, the latest example of Big Tech election meddling is Reddit quarantining of ‘The Donald’ – a hugely popular forum with over 700,000 members that was credited with being the “most effective” at spreading memes during the last presidential election.
Egyptians Mohamed Ibrahim, 33, and Mahmoud Samy Eissa, 26, and Iraqis Ahmed Ghanim Mohamed Al jubury, 41, and Mustafa Ali Mohamed Yaoob, 29, were all arrested in an unprotected area near the Nicaraguan border with Costa Rica.
“These alerts are quite frequent, and often don’t necessarily mean those mentioned will try to enter the country. They just mean that possible terrorist suspects have been identified, but do not provide any insight into their movements or destinations,” Alfonso Durazo of the Nicaraguan military police said.
All four were found to have legitimate travel visas for Costa Rica and they will be deported from Nicaragua and handed over to the Costa Rican authorities.
Costa Rican and Mexican authorities had already been placed on high alert about the possibility of three ISIS members attempting to cross through Central America to enter the US, a matter which caught the attention of Donald Trump Jr. through media reports.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had also been alerted of the presence of possible ISIS members by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Earlier this month, captured IS fighter Abu Henricki al Canadi revealed another plot targeting the US financial system, with a group of militants due to be ferried to Puerto Rico and then Mexico before crossing into the US.
By Laurie Kellman
The back-to-back Democratic presidential debates beginning Wednesday are exercises in competitive sound bites featuring 20 candidates hoping to oust President Donald Trump in 2020. The hopefuls range widely in age, sex and backgrounds and include a former vice president, six women and a pair of mayors.
The challenge: Convey their plans for the nation, throw a few elbows and sharpen what’s been a blur of a race so far for many Americans.
What to watch Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo:
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WHAT’S HER PLAN?
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s task is to harness the recent momentum surrounding her campaign to prove to voters that she has what it takes to defeat Trump. As the sole top-tier candidate on stage Wednesday, she could have the most to lose.
The Massachusetts senator and former Harvard professor is known for her many policy plans and a mastery of classical, orderly debate. But presidential showdowns can be more “Gladiator”-style than the high-minded “Great Debaters.” This is no time for a wonky multipoint case for “Medicare for All,” student debt relief or the Green New Deal.
So, one challenge for Warren, 70, is stylistic. Look for her to try to champion her progressive ideas — and fend off attacks from lesser-known candidates — with gravitas, warmth and the brevity required by the format.
“Preparing for the debates is trying to learn to speak in 60 seconds or less,” she said in Miami, ahead of a visit she live-streamed to a migrant detention center in Homestead, Florida.
Another obstacle is to do so without alienating moderates any Democrat would need in a general election against Trump.
Being the front-runner on stage conveys a possible advantage: If the others pile on Warren, she gets more time to speak because the candidates are allowed 30 extra seconds for responses.
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WHO’S THAT?
There may be some familiar faces across the rest of the stage, such as New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, 50, or former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, 46. But a few names probably won’t ring any bells at all.
These virtual strangers to most Americans may be enjoying their first — and maybe last — turn on the national stage, so they have the least to lose.
Take John Delaney, 56, a former member of the House from Maryland. Look for him to try to make an impression by keeping up his criticism of Warren’s plans.
Or Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, 45, who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He has likened the Democratic primary to “speed dating with the American people.”
BREAKING OUT, GOING VIRAL
For several of the candidates onstage Wednesday, the forum is about finding the breakout moment — a zinger, a burn — that stays in viewers’ minds, is built for social media and generates donations, the lifeblood of campaigns.
In 2015, Carly Fiorina won applause and a short surge for her response to Trump, who had been quoted in Rolling Stone as criticizing Fiorina’s face.
“Look at that face,” Trump was quoted as saying. “Would anyone vote for that?”
Asked on CNN to respond, Fiorina evenly replied: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”
For candidates such as O’Rourke, a breakthrough moment on Wednesday is critical to revitalizing a campaign that has faded. The 10 White House contenders have two hours on stage that night and up until the curtain rises on the star-studded second debate the next day to make their mark. Former Vice President Joe Biden, 76, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 77, headline Thursday’s debate and are certain to take up much of the spotlight.
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BREAKING OUT BADLY
An “oops” moment can be politically crippling to any presidential campaign.
Just ask Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who, in a 2011 debate, blanked on the third agency of government he had said would be “gone” if he became president.
“Commerce, Education and the, uh, what’s the third one there?” Perry said.
“EPA?” fellow Republican Ron Paul offered. Yep, Perry said, the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Oops,” he finished. Perry’s campaign, already struggling, never recovered.
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WHAT ISSUES?
There’s simply no time for an in-depth discussion of issues. But the migrant crisis would be an apt topic, even in shorthand. Dominating the news in the hours before the showdown were vivid reports and images of the toll of the administration’s policy on children, especially.
Expect at least a mention, or perhaps the appearance, of a bracing photo of the bodies of a migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter face-down along the Rio Grande.
In addition to Warren, other candidates, such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, were visiting the migrant center.
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TRUMP
This is the Democrats’ night.
But Trump has dominated the political conversation since that escalator ride four years ago, and he loathes being upstaged. It’s worth asking: Will he tweet during the debates? And if he does, will NBC and the moderators ignore him or respond in real time?
NBC News executive Rashida Jones said the focus will be on the candidates and the issues.
“Beyond that, it has to rise to a certain level,” she said.
During Wednesday’s debate, Trump will be on Air Force One on his way to the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan. The plane’s cable televisions are usually turned to Fox News, which is not hosting the debates. For the second debate, Trump will be beginning meetings at the G-20.
Trump told Fox Business Network on Wednesday that he’d watch because “it’s part of my life” but that “It just seems very boring. … That’s a very unexciting group of people.”
By Nate Church
“ICE raids targeting 10 cities start Sunday. Know your rights,” the subject read. Appended to the e-mail were two graphics — one in English, the other Spanish — describing immigrant rights via guidance by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“It’s not strictly on point when it comes to building out a presidential campaign [to use campaign data] for the purpose other than running for president,” Ruthie Epstein, the ACLU deputy director of immigration policy, said. She reportedly claimed that the organization “played no role” in the e-mail alert.
The e-mail came from Sanders’ Press Secretary Belén Sisa, an undocumented immigrant through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. According to Vox, it read:
Multiple news outlets are reporting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning deportation raids against immigrant families in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco starting early Sunday morning.
Whether or not you are an immigrant, please share this “Know Your Rights” information widely to help those who might fall victim to the cruel and inhumane policies of the Trump administration.
Sisa stood by her actions. “It is no longer enough to talk about issues like immigration, but we must take real action to fight back and protect our undocumented community, like we did on Saturday,” she told Vox. “There isn’t much else that anybody can do other than stand up in unity.”
And Sanders has pivoted hard into this issue for his 2020 campaign, though he has deliberately stopped short of advocating for open borders. “What we need is comprehensive immigration reform,” Sanders said at a town hall in Iowa.
“If you open the borders, my God, there’s a lot of poverty in this world, and you’re going to have people from all over the world,” he continued. “And I don’t think that’s something that we can do at this point. Can’t do it. So that is not my position.”
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