Image 01 Image 03

July 2019

Health care took center stage at the Democratic debate on Tuesday night. The loudest voices, mainly Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, yelled for Medicare for All while demonizing private insurance companies. A few of the other candidates attempted to remind them that private insurance has satisfied many people. Warren and Sanders refused to listen, but David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, cautioned the Democrats that most people oppose Medicare for All along with a few other radical talking points.

A rat in West Baltimore has become an unexpected media star, after running through a local Fox TV reporter's live shot as she discussed President Donald Trump labeling the city a "rat and rodent infested mess" in a recent Tweet.
Fox 45 Baltimore reporter Maxine Streicher was engaged in a live broadcast from the city's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood on Monday when the camera panned over to an alley just as a rat scurried out from under trash and along a wall. The live shot prompted widespread mockery from supporters of the president who touted the video as "proof" the president was correct in telling Maryland's 7th District Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings via Twitter to "clean up this very dangerous & filthy place."

Another Democratic Debate took place tonight, and it was all so predictable, with the exception of Marianne Williamson. She certainly raised her profile with an aggressive endorsement of reparations, speaking out against the 'dark psyche' of Trump, and other concerns about healing the nation. I would not be surprised if she got a bounce.

In April, former Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) launched the One Country Project. They developed this project as an effort to help Democrats win back the Senate and White House in 2020.  The focus of the project is on rural America and its "forgotten" voters who turned out in droves for President Trump in 2016. They are now sounding the alarm and warning Democrats that winning the Senate in 2020 is an uphill battle.  And they're not wrong.

A leaked internal report implicated top officials from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in a major corruption scandal including sex crimes and abuse of power. The UN agency's ethics office described the charges as "an extremely grave and significant reputational, operational and security risk to the agency." The senior UNRWA officials were involved in "sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives," copy of the report obtained by the AFP news agency said.

Politico has exposed the chaos within the Democratic Congressional Committee (DCCC) over the lack of diversity within the leadership ranks. Many members from the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus have expressed frustration with Chairwoman Cheri Bustos. Now the DCCC, the primary fundraising arm for Democrats in Congress, has lost six of its tops aides.