Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire primary election


This 11 February 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders thanked New Hampshire voters for his primary win and described it as ‘the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.’ Bernie Sanders … won New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary, solidifying his front-runner status in the nominating race and dealing a setback to moderate rival Joe Biden, who appeared likely to finish a disappointing fifth.

By Patrick Martin in the USA:

Sanders wins three-way contest in New Hampshire primary

12 February 2020

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire Tuesday. The vote counting showed a close race between the top three candidates, with Sanders at 26 percent, former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg at 24 percent, and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota at 20 percent. Sanders led Buttigieg by a 4,000-vote margin, while Buttigieg was about 12,000 votes ahead of Klobuchar.

Voter turnout was up significantly compared to 2016, when Sanders won a nearly 2-1 victory over Hillary Clinton. Just under 250,000 people voted in 2016, while New Hampshire state officials said that nearly 300,000 people voted in 2020, an increase of nearly 20 percent. The total surpassed the previous record turnout of 265,000 in 2008, when Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama and John Edwards.

The state of New Hampshire, now under a Republican administration, changed its rules to make it harder for the large student population to vote, and the percentage of votes cast by young people under 30 fell significantly, holding down the total for Sanders, who won more than 50 percent in that category.

Exit polls showed significant differences in the demographic support for the three leading candidates. Sanders won a large plurality among men without a college education, a section of the working class that his campaign has targeted. As a result, Sanders carried the seven largest cities and towns in New Hampshire, including Manchester, the largest city, Nashua, the second-largest, the state capital Concord, and the port city of Portsmouth.

Support for Buttigieg was concentrated in the suburbs and rural areas rather than the cities, and he carried many of the townships along the border with Massachusetts, home to thousands who commute to work in the Boston metropolitan area. Klobuchar’s campaign had its strongest support among women with a college education, particularly in upscale suburban areas like those the Democratic Party swept in winning control of the House of Representatives in 2018.

While Sanders carried Durham, the town that is home to the University of New Hampshire, the state’s largest college, Buttigieg won in Hanover, home to the far more expensive Ivy League school, Dartmouth University.

The primary results were disastrous for the two Democrats who were regarded as frontrunners for the nomination at various times during 2019, former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren from neighboring Massachusetts. Warren received 9 percent of the vote and Biden only 8 percent. Biden, who followed up a fourth-place finish in Iowa with a fifth-place showing in New Hampshire, left the state in the afternoon and made a brief statement on the primary results at a rally in South Carolina, where his campaign may make its last stand on February 29.

New Hampshire’s 24 delegates to the Democratic national convention will be divided nine for Sanders, nine for Buttigieg and six for Klobuchar. Warren, Biden and the other candidates on the ballot failed to reach 15 percent of the vote and therefore failed to win any delegates. Three of the also-rans, businessman Andrew Yang, Senator Michael Bennet, and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who only entered the race in November, indicated they would end their campaigns.

The campaign now turns to the Nevada caucuses on February 22, followed by the South Carolina primary a week later, and then “Super Tuesday” on March 3, when voters in 14 states will elect nearly 40 percent of the delegates to the nominating convention, and where billionaire Michael Bloomberg has already poured in $250 million in advertising to promote his own candidacy to supplant the political corpse of Biden as the standard-bearer of the “moderate” wing of the Democratic Party. …

In their speeches to supporters on the night of the primary, the three leading candidates signaled their political posture going forward, with Klobuchar and Buttigieg vying with the fading Biden and the billionaire Bloomberg to become the face of the anti-Sanders campaign.

Klobuchar’s performance in last Friday’s debate was extravagantly hyped by the media, contributing to her surge in the polls from low single digits to 20 percent in a week. She sought to reprise some of these themes in her speech Tuesday night, calling for the building of a movement of “fired-up Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans,” claiming that “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare is that people in the middle … have someone to vote for in November.” ,,,

As with the debate, media pundits portrayed her “victory” speech as a tour de force and sought to boost her campaign as a potential right-wing alternative to Sanders. …

Buttigieg gave a speech full of vague platitudes, … along with suggestions of generational change, since he is 38, half the age of Biden or Sanders. He made no mention of the two factors that constitute his real credentials in the eyes of the ruling class: his role as a naval intelligence officer in Afghanistan, and his generally right-wing program, aligned with that of the Democratic Party establishment. …

Sanders repeated his declarations that health care is a human right, that the wealthy should pay higher taxes, that colleges should be tuition-free, and a litany of other liberal slogans on climate change, criminal justice reform, immigration reform, gun control and women’s right to abortion. …

There is no question that the vote for Sanders was an expression of a shift among working people and youth to the left. The first half-hour of the Democratic debate Friday night, which had a wide audience in the state, consisted of Biden, Klobuchar and other candidates bemoaning the prospect that a “democratic socialist” might win the nomination, supposedly dooming the electoral prospects of every Democratic candidate in the November election.

Those who voted for Sanders clearly rejected this type of thinly disguised red-baiting. The New York Times quoted one young voter, employed at Dartmouth, saying, “In my world, there’s more support for the word socialist than billionaire.”

Forbes magazine—a bible of Wall Street—published this weekend a remarkable commentary under the headline, “Why Young Voters Are Embracing Bernie Sanders And Democratic Socialism.” It concluded, as a matter of obvious fact, “Younger people face the frightening realization that they may be the first generation to have a lower standard of living than their parents.”

The column went on to point out the impossible economic circumstances confronting the younger generation, including “a combination of crushing student loan debt, low-wage jobs and escalating home and rental costs.” It concluded, “In light of their situation, it’s not surprising that Bernie Sanders is surging in the polls and the idea of socialism is gaining traction among young people.”

New Hampshire boos Buttigieg for attacking Sanders


This 9 February 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

CAMPAIGN 2020: Pete Buttigieg BOOED after knocking Bernie Sanders at New Hampshire Democratic event

At the 61st Annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg received a harsh reaction to knocks against Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden.

This 9 February 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

What is the Buttigieg campaign’s biggest weakness? It might have something to do with wine caves & campaign finance. John Iadarola and Alex Sammon break it down on The Damage Report.

“It took almost 23 hours of Democratic debates, across six months and 20-plus candidates, for the first real punch to land.

“Most of the people on this stage run a traditional campaign. And that means going back and forth from coast to coast to rich people,” began Elizabeth Warren in Los Angeles in late December. “So the mayor [Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Indiana] just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine … We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States. Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.”

The audience burst into applause. The debate circuit, which has been such a maddening display of shadowboxing and mutual non-engagement that it’s been hard to differentiate the candidates, had finally stumbled upon a substantive disagreement.

Buttigieg responded to Warren. “We need the support from everybody who is committed to helping us defeat Donald Trump. So to denounce the same kind of fundraising guidelines that President Obama went by, that Speaker Pelosi goes by, that you yourself went by until not long ago, in order to build the Democratic Party and build a campaign ready for the fight of our lives, these purity tests shrink the stakes of the most important election.”

Then Bernie Sanders interceded, pointing out that former Vice President Joe Biden “received contributions from 44 billionaires” during the campaign, while Buttigieg “only got 39 billionaires.” Biden demurred, insisting that said billionaires only provided the maximum $2,800 donation. … The absentee mega-billionaire floating over the exchange, Mike Bloomberg, was unavailable for comment.”

Read more here.

Bernie Sanders rally in New Hampshire, USA


This 19 January 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

MANCHESTER RALLY WITH NAOMI KLEIN AND JOHN CUSACK

OUR CAMPAIGN SCARES TRUMP: In case you haven’t noticed, Trump and the Republican Party have been attacking our campaign. It looks like the most dangerous president in modern history is getting nervous, and he should be. Join us for our rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Bernie Sanders on military-industrial complex, global warming


This 12 March 2019 video from the USA says about itself:

Sanders: “To Military Industrial Complex We Are NOT Going To Continue to Spend $700 Billion A Year!”

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) hosted a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, his first visit to the state since announcing his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Topics included universal health care, getting rid of tax breaks and loopholes for corporations, enacting a working living wage, and addressing climate change.

United States veterans refuse Donald Trump bribe


This video from the USA says about itself:

24 December 2015

Here comes Republi-Claus, full of goodwill and bearing gifts “for each boy and girl, and mommy and daddy, too: AR-15s and a gun lobbyist for you!”

Poking a little holiday fun at the GOP (as well as the Democrats) and taking the edge off an already feisty election cycle, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore has brought these animated good tidings to add a bit of cheek and a dash of spark to your holiday season.

From the Daily Beast in the USA:

COURAGE NOT FOR HIRE

02.07.16 3:25 AM ET

Exclusive: Trump Tried to Pay Vets To Be Props

Trump’s campaign asked a small veterans’ charity to stand on stage with the mogul at a rally to receive a six-figure check. The charity took a pass.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Donald Trump wanted a small veterans‘ charity to be his political prop. They said no.

Liberty House is a scrappy veterans group in New Hampshire, with a small, $300,000 annual budget—one of the 22 organizations chosen to benefit from Trump’s multimillion-dollar fundraiser for vets.

On Friday, Liberty House executive director Keith Howard received a call from a Trump campaign staffer, who conveyed that Trump would like to publicly present them with a six-figure check at a Londonderry rally on Monday, right before the Granite State primary.

It’s an enormous amount of money for a small charity. But Howard said he wouldn’t do it—risking the entire, substantial donation on a point of principle.

Howard, a 57-year-old Army vet, objected to the use of veterans for political purposes. He doesn’t believe that his charity—which clothes the homeless, feeds the needy, and provides housing to 10 formerly homeless vets—should be presented with money by a political candidate at a political rally.

“This is not directed at the Trump campaign,” Howard said. “This is about any campaign.”

Plus, Howard believed appearing at a political rally could jeopardize his group’s nonprofit status—something a call to an expert in the state attorney general’s office confirmed. And he found it strange that the call was coming from a Trump campaign staffer, rather than someone related to the foundation that raised money for veterans.

One campaign legal expert said the interaction between Trump’s campaign and the Donald J. Trump Foundation was a serious issue.

“The campaign utilizing the foundation to help support and promote campaign events is a potential legal problem for both the campaign and the Trump Foundation,” said Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center.

The value of the work the foundation did to assist the campaign event could be considered an illegal campaign contribution. And the foundation is barred from getting involved in political activity, such as supporting a campaign rally, he continued. “Neither the foundation nor other charities should be working hand-in-hand with the campaign to promote Trump’s campaign events.”

Howard called the Trump staffer back Friday afternoon: “This is not the right thing to be doing,” he said. Howard suggested that someone to drop by the house for a lower-key check dropoff, or even mail the check.

Now, to be clear, Howard has no problem taking money from Trump’s fundraising.

“After we said that we would take the money, I got between 15 to 20 emails calling me a whore, a prostitute, and saying that I had sold out. I feel very comfortable with what we’re doing, with taking money to help homeless veterans.” Howard said. “But I’ll be god damned if I, in any way, support a political candidate or make a campaign appearance with any candidates. We stand for doing the right thing.”

On Saturday afternoon, the Trump campaign relented.

Trump supporter and New Hampshire State Rep. Al Baldasaro called Howard, telling him the mogul would present the check to Baldasaro, himself a vet. …

Howard speaks from experience, as a recovering alcoholic and vet himself who has struggled with homelessness.

Ultimately, Howard is willing to put money on the line, challenging one of America’s most powerful political figures and businessmen, to stand for what he believes in.

During a debate Saturday night in New Hampshire, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, billionaire Donald Trump, backed the use of waterboarding and even more severe methods of torture as part of the US government’s “War on Terror”: here.

US Republican Jeb Bush has to beg for applause


This 3 February 2016 video is about an election meeting in New Hampshire, where there will be a primary election on 9 February. One of the nine Republican party presidential candidates, Jeb Bush, fantasizes about what he would do with the armed forces if he would become president and commander-in-chief of the USA.

He stops, expecting applause, but his audience does not do it. Bush has to beg his followers to please applaud.

In the Iowa caucuses a few days ago, only 2,8% of Republican voters voted for Bush. Even though he had spent far more money than all other candidates.

Bye-bye Jeb Bush. Unless some miracle or some very dirty tricks happen.

You won’t get the chance of your elder brother George W to start a bloody war like in Iraq.

You won’t get the chance of your elder brother George W to preside over and support torture (which you, Jeb Bush, recently advocated).

So, bye-bye for George W’s little brother Jeb after another defeat, this time in New Hampshire? Unfortunately, that still wouldn’t be a the end for all candidates, both Republican and Democratic, with unsafe policies on war and human rights.

English osprey’s autumn migration


This video from the USA is called Osprey Migration: New Hampshire to The Amazon.

From Rutland Ospreys in England:

She’s off – 1000km in two days!

By Tim on September 2, 2014

As Kayleigh reported earlier today, things have been turning distinctly autumnal at Rutland Water in the past few days. One by one the Ospreys have been heading south, and we now know that our satellite-tagged bird, 30(05) is one of them. The latest data from her satellite transmitter shows that at 6am this morning, 30 was in northern Spain, 20 kilometres to the east of San Sebastiàn having set-off from Rutland on Sunday morning.

We don’t know exactly what time 30 left the Rutland Water area on Sunday, but it must have been fairly early because at 10am her transmitter showed that she was in northern Buckinghamshire, midway between Banbury and Milton Keynes, flying purposefully south at an altitude of 550 metres. She made excellent progress over the next four hours, continuing south through Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire at altitudes of between 500 and 1000 metres. By 2pm she had flown 151 km in four hours and was 1230 metres above the Isle of Wight with the English Channel in her sights. She made light work of the crossing to France and by 6pm GMT she was flying south through Lower Normandy. She eventually settled to roost for the night on the edge of a small wood, 55km west of Le Mans after a day’s flight of at least 520 kilometres.

Next morning 30 was on the move at first light because at 7am local time (6am GMT) she was already 46km south of her overnight roost site, and was flying due south at 31kph. She paused briefly on the edge of a small copse at 8am, but by 9am she was on the wing again, passing over the River Loire soon afterwards. Four hours later she was passing just to the west of La Rochelle at an altitude of 1500 metres. She had already covered 210 kilometres but was showing no signs of letting-up. Using the west coast of France to guide her, 30 flew another 290 kilometres during the afternoon and by 7pm she was just north of the town of Capbreton in the south of France. On Google Earth the area around Capbreton looks good for fishing and by 9pm 30 had settled for the evening in a forested area just north of Ondres having almost certainly caught a fish in one of the nearby lakes. Over the course of the day she had flown another 510 kilometres; another excellent day’s migration.

This morning 30 was on the move early again. Like the previous day, she had already flown another 40km by 7am local time, passing Biarritz and then across the Spanish border. By this evening she may well be close to Madrid. It will be fascinating to see how far she has flown when the next batch of data comes in.

Don’t forget that you can also view 30′s migration on your own version of Google Earth. To find out how, click here.

Exxon fined for pollution


This video says about itself:

Worker Safety Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Alaska 1989

More than one in ten oil spill cleanup workers were injuried or became ill from the work cleaning up after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Exxon told to pay up £154m for polluting

Wednesday 10 April 2013

A US jury ordered oil giant Exxon Mobil to pay $236 million (£154m) to the state of New Hampshire on Tuesday to clean up groundwater contamination from fuel additive MTBE.

Jurors sat through nearly three months of testimony in the longest trial in New Hampshire history.

They said Exxon had been negligent in adding MTBE to petrol, saying it was a defective product.

And they found the company liable for failing to warn distributors and consumers about its contaminating characteristics.

The state says that more than 600 wells in New Hampshire are known to be contaminated with MTBE and an expert witness estimated the number could exceed 5,000.

The jury was shown exhibits dating back to 1984 in which Exxon researchers warned against the additive.

Industry analyst Fadel Gheit said the fine amounted to roughly two days of profit for the oil behemoth – which plans to appeal against the verdict.

Exxon’s climate lie: ‘No corporation has ever done anything this big or bad’, by Bill McKibben. The truth of Exxon’s complicity in global warming must to be told – how they knew about climate change decades ago but chose to help kill our planet: here.

Exxon Mobil Investigated in New York Over Possible Lies on Climate: here.

Romney’s unimpressive New Hampshire victory


This video from the USA is about Mitt Romney flip flops.

By Patrick Martin in the USA:

Romney wins New Hampshire Republican primary

11 January 2012

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, giving him a significant lead in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. Romney was projected as the winner by the television networks as soon as the final polling stations closed at 8 p.m. His share of the vote was estimated at 37 percent.

Right-wing libertarian Ron Paul finished second with 24 percent, and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman was third at 17 percent. Trailing with 10 percent apiece were former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, the co-leader with Romney in the first Republican contest, the Iowa caucuses.

Voter turnout was modest despite the intense campaigning by five candidates, mild weather, the lack of any contest in the Democratic Party, and primary rules allowing independents and registered Democrats to cast ballots in the Republican race.

Paul’s campaign benefited in particular from self-described independent voters, whose support for the candidate was based on Paul’s denunciation of war and attacks on civil liberties, which he combines with opposition to the Federal Reserve, absolute defense of property and calls for immediate cuts of $1 trillion in government spending.

While there were initial predictions of a record turnout, this apparently did not materialize. Romney could actually receive fewer total votes as the winning candidate in 2012 than he did in finishing second to John McCain in 2008.

Romney’s victory came despite a last-minute barrage of attacks on his record as the CEO of Bain Capital, a private equity firm specializing in the takeover and restructuring of financially struggling companies, many of which resulted in bankruptcy, closure and mass layoffs. Romney headed the company from 1984 to 1999, amassing a fortune estimated at more than $250 million in the process.

A devastating analysis published Monday in the Wall Street Journal examined 77 deals in which Bain invested in a company during that period, including 22 cases in which the takeover ended in bankruptcy or the takeover target went out of business. Overall, Bain reaped phenomenal profits, reporting $2.5 billion in gains for its investors on about $1.1 billion invested, with annual profit rates averaging between 50 percent and 80 percent.

While these numbers place Bain Capital in the second or third tier in terms of the size of its operations, the rate of profit typifies the completely predatory role of takeover firms, corporate raiders, hedge funds and other financial “innovators,” as they are so diplomatically described in the business press.

Mitt Romney, Bain Capital and American capitalism: here.

Romney’s Bain Made Millions as South Carolina Steelmaker Went Bankrupt: here.

Barely a week after presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s role as former head of the private equity firm Bain Capital erupted as an issue in the Republican primary campaign, there is a concerted effort by the media to bring an end to the discussion: here.