The political class thought both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders couldn’t win … 🤔
But I think that fact alone makes the case for Bernie Sanders — Donald Trump very much did win the President. He appealed to his base, he got people excited about him by saying proactive things and not shying away from criticism. Americans are well settled into their base camps now, there are few swing voters, only voters to be mobilized to show up on election day. Candidates that create a buzz by saying new and unusual things and dominating the news cycle are stronger, they are able to take the social media by storm. Boring, centrist candidates can’t do that.
Do I think Bernie Sanders will be a particularly successful or good president? Probably not, he doesn’t have a strong relationship with the business community, and I doubt he can work across party lines in Congress. I don’t see him helping many candidates get elected down ticket, and his election may very well create a backlash that delivers congress into the hands of his Republicans in 2022. But heis a good match to Donald Trump. His style is that of Trump, he excites the base, he is pure. In an era when there is no swing voters, Bernie Sanders is the Democrats best hope for winning back the White House.
I think President’s Day should be replaced with a new holiday – Black Panthers Day.
Why? While some presidents like John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama were exceptionally talented and smart individuals, many other were really bad. The president, while the executive figure in our government, really is just one person, a mere mortal in time, not a citizens movement empowered for change.
In contrast, the Black Panthers were dedicated to making their communities better, following the law, and protecting themselves from the violence of the state. The Black Panthers took on the American ethos far more any president – self-reliance, community engagement, looking out for one and another. Few movements have ever been as truly American as that of the panthers.
Our country should celebrate individual empowerment and what communities can do to protect themselves working together, and not relying on the often corrupt state that is disconnected from local communities’ own needs.
We don’t need another holiday like President’s Day celebrating monarchy and the rich and powerful in our country. We need holidays that celebrate the people, especially those who work so hard to improve our communities. That’s why I think we should replace Presidents Day with a Black Panthers Day.
In an extraordinary ruling, a state supreme court judge has ordered the developers of a nearly completed 668-foot block of flats in New York to remove as many as 20 or more floors from the top of the building.
The decision is a major victory for community groups who opposed the project on the grounds that the developers used a zoning loophole to create the tallest building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A lawyer representing the project said the developers would appeal the decision.
When I was in college, I used to spend a lot of time poking around the back roads up here, taking in the vistas, the hills, the mountains and the farms. I’ve always liked the rural country with all its beauty, always been more than a little jealous of the folks that live out here. It really is God’s Country.
Many plastic items that Americans put in their recycling bins aren’t being recycled at all, according to a major new survey of hundreds of recycling facilities across the US.
The research, conducted by Greenpeace and released on Tuesday, found that out of 367 recycling recovery facilities surveyed none could process coffee pods, fewer than 15% accepted plastic clamshells – such as those used to package fruit, salad or baked goods – and only a tiny percentage took plates, cups, bags and trays.
The findings confirm the results of a Guardian investigation last year, which revealed that numerous types of plastics are being sent straight to landfill in the wake of China’s crackdown on US recycling exports. Greenpeace’s findings also suggest that numerous products labeled as recyclable in fact have virtually no market as new products. Recycling isn’t working – here are 15 ways to shrink your plastic footprint Read more
While the report found there is still a strong recycling market for bottles and jugs labeled #1 or #2, such as plastic water bottles and milk containers, the pipeline has bottomed out for many plastics labelled #3-7, which fall into a category dubbed “mixed plastics”. While often marketed by brands as recyclable, these plastics are hard for recyclers to repurpose and are often landfilled, causing confusion for consumers.
