January 1, Sanders Hits Bloomberg for Attempting to ‘Buy the Presidency’

This Day in History | 1801

Thomas Jefferson is elected the third president of the United States. Jefferson’s election also represents the first peaceful transfer of power in the nation and establishes the two party system. 

Good morning Middle Americans, 

It was only a matter of time before the gloves came off.  Former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg appears to have Bernie Sanders attention.  Bloomberg has spent an estimated $300 million dollars on advertising, but he has not had to compete in the way a traditional candidates have in the past. That is about to change. Bloomberg is about to qualify for the debate stage. He’ll also have to get out do some retail politicking in places he would never visit if he weren’t running for president.  And now we know Bernie and his hoard of passionate supporters are going to train their ire on Bloomberg. 

There are a lot of former Department of Justice employees who are angry with Attorney General William Barr’s intervention in the Roger Stone case. They have written a letter calling on Barr to resign.  It remains to be seen if this letter represents the over all sentiment of the Department of Justice and what that means for Barr’s future. 

Alabama lawmakers are going back and forth over what Democrats call “reproductive rights”. After Republicans proposed a near-total abortion ban for the state, Democrats proposed a bill calling for all men over 50 to get vasectomies.  

Also today we have an update on the American cruise ship passengers who are finally closer to home, kinda. The ship has finally been evacuated and the American passengers are now in quarantine on U.S. military bases. But not everyone is happy about the way it went down. 

Read all about it

– Fraser Dixon 

Bernie Sanders: Bloomberg is Attempting to ‘Buy the Presidency’

(ABC News) – Sen. Bernie Sanders directly attacked former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg for attempting to “buy the presidency” at a campaign rally Sunday in Carson City, Nevada.

“Well, you buy the presidency — at least he’s going to try to buy the presidency — by spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on TV ads,” Sanders said.

The charge comes after a record-breaking month of spending by the Bloomberg campaign, which has spent more than $381 million since Bloomberg announced his bid in November of 2019. In January, less than two month into his campaign, Bloomberg spent more than $200 million on ads.

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Over 1,100 Former Justice Department Officials Call for Barr to Resign

(NPR) – More than 1,100 former Department of Justice officials are calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign after his department lowered the prison sentence recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, in a move that’s led to accusations of political interference.

In a letter released Sunday, the former DOJ officials, who have worked across Republican and Democratic administrations, wrote that Barr’s intervention in the Stone case has tarnished the department’s reputation.

“Such behavior is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice,” the former officials wrote. “In this nation, we are all equal before the law. A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President. Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies.”

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Alabama Lawmaker Responds to Abortion Ban with Mandatory Vasectomy Bill

(Yahoo News) – In response to last year’s near-total (and temporarily blocked) abortion ban in Alabama, a state legislator has introduced a bill that would require a man to undergo a vasectomy, at his own expense, “within one month of his 50th birthday or the birth of his third biological child, whichever comes first.”

House Bill 238, introduced on Thursday by Rep. Rolanda Hollis (D) notes, “Under existing law, there are no restrictions on the reproductive rights of men.”

The bill, Hollis says in a statement she shared with Yahoo Lifestyle, “is meant to neutralize last year’s abortion ban bill, and sends the message that men should not be legislating what women do with their bodies.” Further, she told AL.com, “It always takes two to tango. We can’t put all the responsibility on women. Men need to be responsible also.”

The online backlash was swift, of course, with critics calling it “wrong,” “sick,” and “Communism,” although plenty of supporters got her point, and celebrated it, saying, “Ha! Stay out of my uterus!” and “Wahoo!”

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U.S. Finally Evacuating Americans from Coronavirus Cruise

(CNN) – The US plan to evacuate Americans and their families from the Diamond Princess cruise ship appears, on its face, to be the case of a powerful government coming to the aid of its most vulnerable citizens.

But the decision has prompted anger from some exhausted passengers, who believe the move could actually set back their ability to return to normal life — just as that option was within their grasp.

Thousands of people have been stuck in their cabins under mandatory quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, which is docked off the Japanese port city of Yokohama, since February 3. With 356 confirmed cases of coronavirus on board, 70 of which were announced Sunday, the ship has the largest concentration of novel coronavirus cases outside mainland China. On February 19, the controversial quarantine period was set to finally end.

Until Saturday, the US government seemed on board with that plan. The consensus among government agencies, which had been communicated to the more than 400 Americans aboard, was that remaining on the ship for the quarantine period was the best course of action.

Most passengers weren’t thrilled but accepted the plan.