April 15, 2019

Warren Buffet on Bernie Sanders

I apologize for the age of this article. Pneumonia paid me a visit recently. I also realize this exceeds the recommended length for a quote. I do believe both MSN and Mr. Buffett would give me permission, if asked.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/buffett-wants-to-ask-2020-presidential-candidates-one-question/ar-BBVNN0F?li=BBnbfcL

Buffett wants to ask 2020 presidential candidates one question

Tom Huddleston Jr.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is once again wading into the topic of politics.
Buffett, who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and has previously weighed in on whether or not executives like Michael Bloomberg or former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz would make good candidates, said in a recent interview that there is one question he would want to ask the field of candidates planning to run for the White House in 2020.

"I want to hear what they tell people who disagree with them," Buffett told Yahoo Finance on Monday. "I would like to ask a candidate: 'What are you for that the majority of your followers are against?'"
That's the best way to be sure that a candidate really believes in a particular issue, according to Buffett. "That's really the test," he says in the interview.

Those comments from Buffett came in response to a question about whether the billionaire would ever ask a candidate what they think about the economy or other issues. Buffett laughs and points out that any candidate would probably just "tell me what I want to hear" to win his support, which is not what the billionaire would want.
...snip

Meanwhile, Buffett identifies Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as one presidential candidate who would not be afraid to answer Buffett's question about unpopular views he holds. Buffett tells Yahoo Finance that Sanders' followers see him as "authentic," adding: "if you asked him you what he was for, that most people might be against, he would tell you."
...snip

April 14, 2019

Ilhan Omar has become the target of a dangerous hate campaign

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/14/ilhan-omar-republicans-silence

Ilhan Omar has become the target of a dangerous hate campaign

Moustafa Bayoumi

Fox News, New York Post and Donald Trump are contributing to a climate of vigilantism that threatens every Muslim in America today.
…snip
But the attacks continue. That’s why you could be forgiven for thinking that Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress, has said these – or even much worse – things. By now, she is accused so often of various speech and thought crimes that she almost seems like a figure in the Two Minutes Hate, the daily ritual used to whip party members into a frenzy in George Orwell’s novel 1984. In Orwell’s dystopia, the enemy of the people was the very Jewish-sounding Emmanuel Goldstein. If you believe some pundits, today’s enemy of the people is the very Muslim-looking Ilhan Omar.

Think I’m exaggerating? Consider how Ronna McDaniel, the head of the Republican National Committee, recently labeled Omar as “anti-American” on Twitter. Or then there’s Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade, who questioned Omar’s loyalty, saying “You have to wonder if she’s an American first.” (Kilmeade has since walked back his statement a tad.) A few weeks earlier and also on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, Jeanine Pirro questioned not just Omar’s loyalty to her country but really any hijab-observing woman’s allegiance to the United States. “Omar wears a hijab,” Pirro said, accusingly. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States constitution?”

The allegations are baseless, but the attacks continue. The latest manufactured outrage derives from a speech Omar gave last month to the Los Angeles branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. As the Washington Post noted, Omar’s 23 March speech was broadcast live (including on Fox News Online), but became controversial only days ago. In one phrase of her 20-minute talk, which was focused on Muslim Americans and civil rights, Omar says “some people did something” when referring to the September 11 attacks. It’s abundantly clear by the context of the talk that Omar was saying that the actions of a few have distressingly enabled the threat to the civil rights of so many. To allege that Omar was minimizing the horrors of September 11 is to deliberately misconstrue the point of her comments.
...snip

April 14, 2019

British climate group Extinction Rebellion heads to US

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/13/extinction-rebellion-heads-to-america-climate-change-protest

'Shut the country down': British climate group Extinction Rebellion heads to US

…snip
“I told a 72-year-old volunteer that he will probably be targeted by police,” said Ruiz, who is based in Eureka, California and is helping organize the first US rollout of Extinction Rebellion, a group founded in the UK that has grabbed attention through disruptive protests leading to mass arrests.
Extinction Rebellion calls on protesters to block London streets
Read more
“He paused and then said: ‘OK, yes.’”
Following a foray into New York in January, several thousand protestors will aim to cause similar mischief in dozens of US cities next week.

“This is a coordinated rebellion that targets industry and government indefinitely, to shut the country down,” Ruiz said. “In my 30 years plus of activism I’ve never seen so many everyday people worried in such a visceral way, for themselves, their children, their grandchildren. It’s unprecedented.”
..snip