January 1, A Big Night for Biden

This Day in History | 1918

U.S. Army Private Albert Gitchell reports to the hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas. He complains of a sore throat, fever and headache. By noon, over 100 of his fellow soldiers had reported similar symptoms. What would later be known as Spanish flu, would eventually kill 675,000 Americans. And an estimated 20 million to 50 million people around the world.

Good morning Middle Americans, 

Former Vice President Joe Biden has just about wrapped it up. Or so it seems.  As of this morning Biden has a 160 delegate lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders. Biden won Michigan last night, something Hillary Clinton couldn’t do.  The Democratic primary is just about buttoned up.  Also if you haven’t seen Joe Biden’s expletive filled exchange with a Detroit factory worker, we have a link for you below. 

We are also finally getting a better understanding of just how bad the coronavirus infection is going to be. Parts of New Rochelle New York are completely shut down today. NYC mayor Bill de Blasio says new confirmed cases are flooding in.  

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been arrested in Austin Texas. It’s amazing that he believe the Sandy Hook shooting and 911 are hoaxes.  Apparently he thinks Uber, Lyft and taxis are fake too. We hope he gets the help he needs. 

Read all about it. 

-Fraser Dixon

Biden Wins Hard-Fought Michigan, Deals Major Blow to Sanders

(AP) – Joe Biden decisively won Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, seizing a key battleground state that helped propel Bernie Sanders’ insurgent candidacy four years ago. The former vice president’s victory there, as well as in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho, dealt a serious blow to Sanders and substantially widened Biden’s path to the nomination.

Biden again showed strength with working-class voters and African Americans, who are vital to winning the Democratic nomination. Sanders’ narrow hopes for good news rested on North Dakota and Washington state. Washington’s primary was too early to call, and because all votes there are cast by mail or by dropping them off in a ballot box, many ballots were marked for candidates who have since dropped out of the race.

The six-state contest marked the first time voters weighed in on the primary since it effectively narrowed to a two-person race between Sanders and Biden. And the first four states on Tuesday went to Biden, a dramatic reversal for a campaign that appeared on the brink of collapse just two weeks ago. Now it is Sanders, whose candidacy was ascendant so recently, who must contemplate a path forward.

Read more here

Related: Angry Joe Biden Tells Detroit Worker ‘You’re Full Of Sh**’ 

(WWJ) –  Detroit workers will tell you that auto factory floors are tough, but Joe Biden wasn’t backing down when a worker came at him on a factory tour Tuesday morning.

Courting votes in Michigan’s very important primary — which some believe could be the final stand-off between Biden and Democratic rival Bernie Sanders — Biden wasn’t exactly jolly. 

“You’re gonna take away our guns,” the worker tells Biden as he walks by in close quarters, surrounded by workers and the media.

Biden misses no beat before responding, “You’re full of sh**.”

“Shush-shush!” Biden says to a woman who tries to interject “I support the Second Amendment.”

See the exchange here

NYC Mayo Bill de Blasio: Coronavirus Cases are ‘Coming in So Intensely Now’ 

(CNBC) – Private labs that began running coronavirus tests in New York City on Friday are reporting so many new cases that public officials are having trouble keeping up, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Tuesday. 

“They’re coming in so intensely now that being able to give you a detailed case breakdown, we’re not in that position to do that at this moment because there are so many coming forward,” de Blasio said, speaking at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. “As of 12 noon … the number of confirmed cases in New York City is 36. That’s 16 new since yesterday and 11 new even since this morning at 7 a.m. when I last spoke about this.”

Almost 2,000 New York City residents are in voluntary isolation while 30 people are in mandatory quarantine, he said. 

COVID-19 has infected more than 173 people across New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters earlier Tuesday. Of that, 108 confirmed cases are in Westchester County, just north of New York City. 

Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said local hospitals are bracing for an onslaught of COVID-19 cases, adding that local hospitals are preparing to discharge current patients to handle incoming coronavirus patients. 

Learn more here

Info Wars’ Alex Jones arrested in Texas

(CBS Austin) – Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was booked into the Travis County Jail on a charge of driving while intoxicated just after midnight Tuesday, the Travis County sheriff’s office said.

Jones, 46, was booked at 12:37 a.m., said Kristen Dark, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office. The driving while intoxicated charge is a class B misdemeanor, she said.

An arrest affidavit for Jones says a sheriff’s deputy responded at 10:10 p.m. Monday to a western Travis County residence for a disturbance reported by Jones’ wife.

His wife had told the dispatcher they were in a verbal fight that had been physical earlier in the day, the affidavit says. She said Jones left the residence in a black Dodge Charger and that he was possibly drinking, the affidavit says.

While en route to the residence, a deputy saw a dark Dodge leaving the neighborhood. The vehicle was traveling 45 mph in a 40 mph zone.

Learn more here