Progressive allies of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren have approached the DNC to lobby for an unusual cause: including billionaire Mike Bloomberg in upcoming presidential primary debates.

The move, described to POLITICO by a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, reflects the desire of liberal activists to pin down the former New York mayor, who has avoided verbal combat with his opponents by waging a self-funded campaign that plays by its own rules. But the entreaty also speaks to progressives' growing unease with Bloomberg's relative success: After spending hundreds of millions of dollars, he has vaulted into double digits in national polls and amassed a giant staff of A-level operatives.

... Adam Green, of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said he approached the DNC last month to talk about including Bloomberg in future debates. Bloomberg’s polling meets the party’s criteria for inclusion, but his refusal to raise money from outside donors — even in minuscule increments — means he can’t meet the qualifying threshold. Green proposed altering the rules so that Bloomberg would be included. “Imagine a hypothetical world where Bloomberg bought himself 30 percent and he’s the frontrunner in the polls. Would you really not think voters would want to hear what he has to say and see him get some scrutiny on the debate stage?” Green asked.

... Monica Klein, a progressive consultant in New York who is unaffiliated with a presidential campaign, cautioned against the focus on the novelty of his campaign. “As mayor, Mike Bloomberg spent years keeping Republicans in power in New York — yet most voters just know him as this bizarre billionaire who gives out iPhones like candy," she said, in response to a story last week about his lavish campaign spending...Klein thinks it’s time to engage before it’s too late. “Last election, voters and pundits alike treated Trump with kid gloves because he was seen as an unelectable amusement,” she said. “There’s a word for people who keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/01/28/bloombergs-rise-sets-off-alarms-on-the-left-1256678

A Democrat in Michigan scrolled through a surge of nasty Facebook memes about Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week before fixing on one that captured his growing dislike of the candidate. It depicted her smiling face as a mask. Behind it was Hillary Clinton. Matt Walters, 64, a retired factory worker and supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), shared the image onward to eight Facebook groups and tens of thousands of potential eyeballs with a few taps on his smartphone — using a popular new mass-posting technique that allows ordinary Americans to operate with rapid-fire speed reminiscent of Russian bots and trolls in 2016.

In that small way, Walters contributed to a massive wave of hostile memes about Sanders’s Democratic rivals that both reflects the rising divisiveness in the party’s nominating contest and, in the view of social media experts, exacerbates it.

... The volume and viciousness of the memes — portraying Warren (D-Mass.) as a snake, a backstabber and a liar — reflect how Facebook identifies and rewards emotionally charged content to generate reactions from its billions of users. That serves the company’s ad-driven business model, which equates engagement with profit. But it also, in the view of experts who study Facebook’s effect on political speech, distorts democratic debate by confirming biases, sharpening divisions and elevating the glib visual logic of memes over reasoned discussion.

...The rising popularity of the tactic among Sanders supporters may help explain the scores of images bashing Sanders’s opponents that have appeared in nearly simultaneous bursts in recent weeks, pushed out by highly networked clusters of Facebook users, according to Davis’s analysis. He did not find evidence that the campaign itself was involved in this activity, focusing instead on the informal Facebook activity by supporters.

... No other Democrat’s supporters are engaged in behavior on a similar scale, which is more characteristic of the online movement galvanized by Trump. The president’s campaign aides have credited Facebook with his victory in 2016, when he poured money into advertising on the platform while also using organic posts on social media to speak directly to his followers, who responded with a torrent of posts backing him and lacerating his opponents...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/24/facebook-is-inflaming-divides-tearing-democratic-party/?fbclid=IwAR0BJgprXH53ZmcTNDTaTmICM44MlTvouMYyhQIRyqjXUpSeXU1spi604cs

https://twitter.com/DMRegister/status/1221221756716961792

Most polling in Iowa has shown voters placing Sen. Elizabeth Warren as their preferred second choice option in race, an important advantage for her in the realignment phase of caucus night. But with so many other candidates dropping out before Feb. 3, those second choice movements are already playing out in Warren’s favor beforehand.

Today, state Reps. Jennifer Konfrst and Heather Matson, both of whom were prominent Cory Booker supporters, are endorsing Warren, as are 25 other Polk County elected officials and activists. Several of them were also previously backing a different candidate, which helps Warren drive home the message that she’s the unifier of the party in the primary.

“On Feb. 3, I will proudly stand with Elizabeth Warren in my precinct caucus,” Konfrst said. “Nothing is more important to me than electing a president who has a vision for ensuring everyone in our country has a chance at the American dream.”

...The list of new Polk County endorsers could be particularly impactful for Warren given the county’s outsized role in the Democratic caucus. Nearly 20% of Iowa’s registered Democrats live in Polk County, home to Des Moines, and the county alone accounts for 392 state delegates. The second largest count comes from Cedar Rapids’ Linn County, which has 189 delegates...

https://iowastartingline.com/2020/01/21/warren-as-unifier-two-state-reps-booker-backers-polk-leaders-endorse/

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday was endorsed by one of the state’s longest-serving and most influential Democratic leaders.

Democratic National Committeewoman and former state party chair Kathy Sullivan of Manchester threw her support behind the Massachusetts senator, telling WMUR in an exclusive interview that Warren, as president, would be a leader who would bring much-needed change to the nation.

... Sullivan, who has long been an advocate for families and, specifically, for women, said Warren is inspirational but also has the ability to “make government work – for everyone."

“No one in the race has a grasp on the intricacies of our economy more than Elizabeth," Sullivan said.

Sullivan was the second major endorsement secured by Warren on Tuesday. WMUR first reported early in the day that state Sen. Kevin Cavanaugh, who is also a Manchester alderman, backed her and was the first state senator to do so.

Sullivan has been the state’s Democratic National Committeewoman since 2008 and is recognized as a leader in the constant vigilance necessary to keep the New Hampshire presidential primary first in the nation on the DNC presidential nominating calendar...

https://www.wmur.com/article/longtime-influential-nh-democratic-leader-kathy-sullivan-endorses-elizabeth-warren-for-president/30615118

Gladys Bourdain, a longtime copy editor at The New York Times who helped kick-start the writing career of her son Anthony, the chef who became a world-famous memoirist and television host, died on Friday at a hospice facility in the Bronx. She was 85.

Her son Christopher confirmed the death. He said she had been in failing health for some time.

Ms. Bourdain began her career at The Times in 1984 and worked there until 2008, developing a reputation as a strict grammarian on the culture and metropolitan desks. She also wrote for outlets like Opera News, Musical America and The Times.

...Anthony Bourdain became a hard-living chef, and in the late 1990s he wrote an article chronicling the seamier secrets of life in the restaurant business. He was struggling to publish it in 1999 when Ms. Bourdain mentioned to him that she knew a Times reporter, Esther Fein, who was married to David Remnick, the newly minted editor of The New Yorker magazine.

“She came over, and she said, ‘You know, your husband’s got this new job,’” Ms. Fein (who left The Times in 1999) said on Monday. “‘I hate to sound like a pushy mom, but I’m telling you this with my editor’s hat on, not my mother’s hat on. It’s really good, and it’s really interesting, but nobody will look at it, nobody will call him back or give it a second look. Could you put it in your husband’s hands?’”

Ms. Fein persuaded Mr. Remnick to read the article, and The New Yorker published it under the title “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.” Mr. Bourdain later said that he had a book deal in a matter of days after that.

...Mr. Bourdain committed suicide in 2018 at 61.

Ms. Bourdain memorialized her son with a tattoo of his name on her wrist — her first and only tattoo.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/14/dining/gladys-bourdain-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Eighteen progressive groups have signed a unity pledge vowing to keep their fire trained on the “corporate wing” of the Democratic Party amid a burgeoning feud between Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that has split the left.

The signers include seven groups who back Sanders's 2020 presidential bid and two that back Warren's. The remaining nine groups are either supportive of both candidates, such as Democracy for America, or have not endorsed anyone yet.

The three-part pledge says the groups will “focus our fight for the nomination against candidates supported by the corporate wing, instead of fighting each other.” The groups say they’re committed to ensuring a progressive candidate wins the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and that they’ll join forces to ensure that candidate ultimately defeats President Trump.

...“We need a bold progressive president. In our opinion, the most inspirational and electable Democrat we could nominate is Elizabeth Warren,” the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a statement. “We are joining this effort out of a belief that it represents leaders in the progressive movement urging everyone from campaign staff to Twitter commenters to focus on defeating a corporate, establishment Democrat like Joe Biden. This effort inherently includes standing opposed to sexism and bad-faith arguments in the primary process. We look forward to working with our friends to enforce these principles."

More at https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/478533-18-progressive-groups-sign-unity-pledge-amid-sanders-warren-feud

https://twitter.com/LibertyAndTech/status/1217619544988176384