January 1, Can Biden & Sanders Find a Truce ?

This Day in History | 1865

Gen. Robert E. Lee commanding general of the Confederal Army surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. 

Good Morning Middle Americans, 

So how about a change of pace and a focus back on what we’d be talking about if this whole Coronavirus pandemic wasn’t a thing. 

The 2020 Presidential Race. It’s now as offically over as it can be. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced yesterday that he was suspending his campaign. Many our touting the influence of Sanders on the Democratic party’s platform. But here’s the rub – Bernie’s influence on the Dems is the mirror image of Trump’s on the GOP. Both populist party outsiders seeking to destroy the status quo. The difference is Trump’s “revolution” is actually real. More specifically, the people who showed up to his rallies also showed up to the polls.  That’s something that didn’t happen for Bernie Sanders. But beware of his ghost campaign. There are plenty of hangers on, like AOC and the rest of the “justice democrats” who are all really just Sanders socialist — who think the state control of everything — is the answer to every problem. Our question – why do “real” Democrats put up with Sanders and his Bernie Bros? 

OK – so back to COVID-19. 

Heres a story to scare the crap out of you – and we’re not big on conspiracy theories. We feel the need to throw that out there because this story is wild. – White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can accommodate them, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. WTF?

Biden, Sanders Work Toward Truce on Big Issues

(Axios) – Joe Biden isn’t about to become Bernie Sanders, but he’s signaling that there’s potential for more common ground on issues such as health care, student debt, climate change and more in the weeks ahead.

As Biden courts Sanders’ endorsement, their teams will hold policy discussions in the next few weeks with the expectation that Biden will incorporate some elements of Sanders’ agenda, a person familiar with those plans tells Axios.

Sanders ended his campaign Wednesday with kind words for Biden but no formal backing. He’ll try to use that leverage — and the delegates he still holds — to get concessions from Biden and the Democratic Party ahead of the nominating convention in August.

There’s no chance Biden will adopt Medicare for All as part of those discussions. But he could at least move in Sanders’ direction on big issues like health care and climate change, as well as others like labor and corporate responsibility.

Biden’s already moved toward Sanders on making college free, and toward former rival Elizabeth Warren on bankruptcy reform.

The trick will be to figure out how much Biden can credibly give him so Sanders can satisfy his supporters that he had an impact before giving Biden his endorsement.

The two men spoke Wednesday by phone, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

The coronavirus pandemic could create new, limited opportunities for the men to join forces, including on health care.

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Kushner’s Team Seeks National Coronavirus Surveillance System

(Politico) – White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can accommodate them, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.

The proposed national network could help determine which areas of the country can safely relax social-distancing rules and which should remain vigilant. But it would also represent a significant expansion of government use of individual patient data, forcing a new reckoning over privacy limits amid a national crisis.

Find out more

Linda Tripp, Whistleblower in Monica Lewinsky Scandal, Dies at 70

(The Daily Mail) – Linda Tripp died this morning with her husband and daughter at her bedside, DailyMail.com has learned.

Tripp, whose taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky nearly brought down the Clinton presidency, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer less than a week ago when she took herself to hospital suffering from stomach pains.

Husband Dieter Rausch and their daughter Allison Foley were the only relatives allowed to be in Tripp’s room in the ICU due to coronavirus protocols.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Diane Spreadbury, one of Tripp’s closest friends for more than two decades, described her as ‘a wonderful person’.

Read more here

ANALYSIS/OPINION

Mandatory Vaccines? 

(The Washington Examiner) – Anthony Fauci, America’s most-listened-to medical professional on the coronavirus, and apparently on all the political, economic, cultural and social precautions every man, woman and child in the nation should take on the coronavirus, has just warned what cooler-head coronavirus watchers have suspected all along: that this country may never, no never, go back to normal.

Never, that is, Fauci suggested, until a vaccine is developed. And by logical extension, that’s to say — never, until a vaccine is developed that must then be included on the required list of shots for all children to attend school.

What great news for Big Pharma.

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