January 1, MLK Jr. Day 2020: Is America More Divided than Ever?

This Day in History | 1980

Moments after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Teheran, Iran, are released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.

Good Morning Middle America. 

On this national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., we always wonder what the late civil rights leader would have thought about American in 2020.  Most of the establishment media seem to think the country is falling apart from the racial divisions, we have a story today talking about just that. But we also wonder how much of that racial division is stoked by the media’s coverage of it. 

President Trump’s legal team hit the Sunday show airwaves this weekend, outlining his defense before the Senate impeachment trial starts this week.  Their defense strategy can be summed up by saying…. “nothing to see here.” This will set up a stark contrast between the Republicans and Democrats during the trial. Democrats will continue to try and make us think they are taking this seriously. Republicans will try convince America this whole thing is a joke. 

Also today, we have an interesting story about 2020 presidential campaign fundraising. You’ve probably heard a lot about President Trump’s crazy cash haul so far. It’s a lot. But according to analysis by CNBC, when you combine the entire Democratic field they’ve out-raised the president. And it’s not even close. That money’s been spread around the field. But it is a good way to measure voter enthusiasm on the left. Also, as CNBC points out, this is a first for an incumbent Republican president, at least in the last 40 years. 

Finally today, we’ll be keeping our eyes on Richmond Virginia. Gun rights activists and left-wing Antifa nut jobs are expected to clash at the commonwealth’s capital. The original intent of the gun right’s rally was peaceful protests of the Democratic controlled legislature’s new anti-Second Amendment laws. But extremists from both sides are trying to leverage the event for their own benefit. And by benefit, we mean cause Charlottesville style carnage. 

Read all about it. 

– Fraser Dixon

US Marks King Holiday Amid Fears of Deep Racial Divisions

(CBS News) – As the nation marks the holiday honoring King, the mood surrounding it is overshadowed by deteriorating race relations in an election season that has seen one candidate of color after another quit the 2020 presidential race. 

Two black candidates — U.S. Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker — and the lone candidate of Hispanic ancestry, former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, have dropped out of the Democratic race for the White House.

“That scares me a lot,” said Deja Hood, 21, of Chicago, a senior at Eastern Michigan University. “Who is going to really back our voicing? You can’t understand a minority if you’ve never been in a minority situation. Even though you can advocate for us all day, you could never understand the issues we go through on a daily basis.”

Read more here

Crimes? Impeachment Prosecutors, Defense Lay Out Arguments

(AP) — President Donald Trump’s defense team and the prosecutors of his impeachment are laying out their arguments over whether his conduct toward Ukraine warrants his removal from office.

Trump’s lawyers on Sunday previewed their impeachment defense with the questionable assertion that the charges against him are invalid, adopting a position rejected by Democrats as “nonsense.”

The trial resumes on Tuesday with what could be a fight over the ground rules. By then, both sides will have submitted briefs and four Democratic presidential candidates will have been forced back to Washington from the early nominating states to join every other senator in silence, sans phones, on the Senate floor.

Learn more here

The 2020 Democratic Field is Outraising Trump by a Huge Margin

(CNBC) – President Donald Trump has one more distinction he can add to an unprecedented White House tenure.

The president has blown past individual Democratic presidential campaigns in fundraising for his 2020 reelection bid. But the crowded primary field together more than tripled his 2019 cash haul, according to a CNBC analysis of Federal Election Commission filings and campaign statements.

No incumbent president this century has been so thoroughly outraised by a field of challengers in the year before a reelection contest. The main Republican challengers to President Barack Obama in 2012 barely took in more than the incumbent in 2011.

Find out more here

Virginia Gun Rally: What’s Behind the Battle Over Gun Control Descending on Richmond

(USA Today) – Thousands of gun owners, many of them armed and some members of out-of-state militias and hate groups, plan to descend on Richmond on Monday amid a fierce battle over Virginia’s gun laws.

Gov. Ralph Northam and Democrats in the state General Assembly have promised to pass a host of gun control measures, sparking far-reaching outcry and threats of violence.

Northam declared a state of emergency in Richmond through Tuesday evening after he says law enforcement received credible threats of extremist groups with “malicious plans.” 

Fearing violence similar to that of the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Northam banned all weapons, including firearms near the state capitol under the emergency order, which Supreme Court of Virginia upheld after legal challenge.

Read more here