January 1, Iranian Police Shoot Protestors, Blackout Internet

This Day in History | 1968

Johnny Cash performs at Folsom Prison. 

If the stark differences between Iran and the US are still lost on you, think about what it would be like to not have the internet. And also  – have your government shoot people in the street for protesting. Those are are just two of the harsh realities facing the Iranian people today.  

Here in the U.S., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on the defensive after her decision to hold on to the articles of impeachment. This means several of the Democratic presidential candidates, who are also Senators, will be off the campaign trail right be fore the Iowa caucuses. Democratic Establishment candidate Joe Biden, who is currently trailing Sen. Bernie Sanders in the polls will not be one of those senators stuck in an impeachment trial to nowhere. 

Meanwhile, things are not looking good for Elizabeth Warren. Her poll numbers continue to swoon. And now, she’s going on the offensive. And things are getting testy between here and Sanders. 

And according to Census data, the trend of Americans fleeing blue states for red states is gaining momentum. 

Read all about it!

– Fraser Dixon

Video: Iran Police Shoot at Those Protesting Plane Shootdown

(AP) — Iranian security forces fired both live ammunition and tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting against the Islamic Republic’s initial denial that it shot down a Ukrainian jetliner, online videos purported to show Monday.

Videos sent to the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran and later verified by The Associated Press show a crowd of demonstrators near Azadi, or Freedom, Square fleeing as a tear gas canister landed among them. People cough and sputter while trying to escape the fumes, with one woman calling out in Farsi: “They fired tear gas at people! Azadi Square. Death to the dictator!”

Another video shows a woman being carried away in the aftermath as a blood trail can be seen on the ground. Those around her cry out that she has been shot by live ammunition in the leg.

“Oh my God, she’s bleeding nonstop!” one person shouts. Another shouts: “Bandage it!”

Photos and video after the incident show pools of blood on the sidewalk.

See the video here

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Trump ‘Projecting’ His Craziness Onto Me

(The Daily News) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi donned a shrink’s hat Sunday, saying President Trump only calls her crazy because “he knows that he is.”

Asked about a tweet that morning in which the president used his favorite epithet for the speaker — “crazy” — Pelosi said, “he has to know that every knock from him is a boost.”

She went on to recount how she hadn’t thought Trump was “worth” impeachment but said he crossed a constitutional line when he withheld military aid to Ukraine while pressuring the country to investigate the Bidens.

“I don’t like to spend too much time on his crazy tweets, because everything he says is a projection,” the speaker said on ABC’s “This Week.” “When he calls someone crazy, he knows that he is. Everything he says you can just translate it back to who he is.”

Learn more here

Bernie Sanders Slams Warren as Candidate of the Elite

(Politico) – The nonaggression pact between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren is seriously fraying.

Sanders’ campaign has begun stealthily attacking Warren as a candidate of the upper crust who could not expand the Democratic base in a general election, according to talking points his campaign is using to sway voters and obtained by POLITICO.

The script instructs Sanders volunteers to tell voters leaning toward the Massachusetts senator that the “people who support her are highly-educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what” and that “she’s bringing no new bases into the Democratic Party.”

Read more from Politico here

The Blue-State Exodus Gains Momentum

(The Hill) -According to an Election Data Services analysis of the Census Bureau report, “The population projections point toward a ten [congressional] seat change over 17 states across the nation by year 2020.”

Seven states are projected to gain one or more congressional seats after the 2020 election; 10 states are projected lose one seat.

The red-state leader is Texas, with a projected pickup of three congressional seats following the 2020 census — and that after gaining four congressional seats after the 2010 election. Florida will pick up two seats, and Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one, according to the analysis.

Find out more about the blue state exodus here