Sanders eyes 'bigger' 2020 bid despite some warning signs

BURLINGTON, Vt. — An insurgent underdog no more, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is laying the groundwork to launch a bigger presidential campaign than his first, as advisers predict he would open the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season as a political powerhouse.

A final decision has not been made, but those closest to the 77-year-old self-described democratic socialist suggest that neither age nor interest from a glut of progressive presidential prospects would dissuade him from undertaking a second shot at the presidency. And as Sanders' brain trust gathered for a retreat in Vermont over the weekend, some spoke openly about a 2020 White House bid as if it was almost a foregone conclusion.

"This time, he starts off as a front-runner, or one of the front-runners," Sanders' 2016 campaign manager John Weaver told The Associated Press, highlighting the senator's proven ability to generate massive fundraising through small-dollar donations and his ready-made network of staff and volunteers.

Weaver added: "It'll be a much bigger campaign if he runs again, in terms of the size of the operation."

Amid the enthusiasm — and there was plenty in Burlington as the Sanders Institute convened his celebrity supporters, former campaign staff and progressive policy leaders — there were also signs of cracks in Sanders' political base. His loyalists are sizing up a prospective 2020 Democratic field likely to feature a collection of ambitious liberal leaders — and not the establishment-minded Hillary Clinton.

Instead, a new generation of outspoken Democrats such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris are expected to seek the Democratic nomination. All three have embraced Sanders' call for "Medicare for All" and a $15 minimum wage, among other policy priorities he helped bring into the Democratic mainstream in the Trump era.

Acknowledging the stark differences between the 2016 and 2020 fields, Hollywood star Danny Glover, who campaigned alongside Sanders in 2016, would not commit to a second Sanders' candidacy when asked this weekend.

"I don't know what 2020 looks like right now," Glover said before taking a front-row seat for Sanders' opening remarks. "I'm going to support who I feel to be the most progressive choice."

Maybe Glover will come around. After all, they're both lunatics.

Danny Glover Blames Haiti Earthquake on Global Warming

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Sanders eyes 'bigger' 2020 bid despite some warning signs

White South Africans lose legal fight against plans to seize their land

Cyril Ramaphosa has made land redistribution from white farmers to black disadvantaged citizens a flagship policy.

A few years from now South Africa will be on the same economic level with Mozambique.

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South Africa's High Court rejected a legal challenge today brought by a group representing white farmers against President Cyril Ramaphosa's plans for land expropriation without compensation.

Land is a hot-button issue in South Africa where racial inequality remains entrenched more than two decades after the end of apartheid when millions of the black majority were dispossessed of their land by a white minority.

Ramaphosa, who replaced scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma in February, has made land redistribution a flagship policy as he seeks to unite the fractured ruling African National Congress (ANC) and win public support ahead of an election next year.

In its legal challenge, Afriforum questioned the legality of a key parliamentary committee report which recommended a change to the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation.

President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) arriving at the G20 summit by Argentina's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Faurie, at Ezeiza International airport in Buenos Aires yesterday

'The relief sought by the applicants... is dismissed,' said Judge Vincent Saldanha.

Afriforum, which represents mostly white Afrikaners, alleged that the parliamentary committee had illegally appointed an external service provider to compile the report, and also failed to consider more than 100,000 submissions opposing land expropriation without compensation.

Around 65 percent of public submissions were against a change, according to parliamentary officials.

Parliament successfully countered Afriforum's case by saying the court action was premature, the committee had not abrogated its powers and all views had been taken into account.

'We welcome the orders handed down today particularly because we've always been of the view that the matter was not urgent,'

Lewis Nzimande, co-chair of the constitutional review committee, told reporters outside the High Court in Cape Town.

'They [lawmakers] may set aside the recommendations, they may reject the recommendations but procedurally... we can't just reject the whole work of the committee,' he said.

White South Africans lose legal fight against plans to seize their land

US agents fire tear gas at migrant vagabonds in start of border clash

The MSM:

Trump gases migrants

Meanwhile...when this occurred the MSM said nothing.

Obama administration used tear gas against border migrants at least EIGHTY TIMES as Trump comes in for hefty criticism for using it ONCE

(From The Daily Mail no less)

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 Defending the border Democrat style:

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US agents fire tear gas at migrant vagabonds in start of border clash

Mars landing: NASA's InSight spacecraft takes selfie after supersonic landing

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Minutes after touching down on Mars, NASA's InSight spacecraft sent back a "nice and dirty" snapshot of its new digs. Yet the dust-speckled image looked like a work of art to scientists. The photo revealed a mostly smooth and sandy terrain around the spacecraft with only one sizable rock visible.

Another photo taken by its robotic arm-mounted camera after it landed on the planet shows a close-up of the spacecraft itself.

This photo provided by NASA shows an image on Mars that its spacecraft called InSight acquired using its robotic arm-mounted, Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) after it landed on the planet on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018.

NASA / AP

"I'm very, very happy that it looks like we have an incredibly safe and boring landing location," project manager Tom Hoffman said after Monday's touchdown. "That's exactly what we were going for."

Images which have baffled scientists came hours later and more are expected in the days ahead after the dust covers come off the lander's cameras. These photos came from a camera low on the lander. Late Monday, NASA released a clear photo taken by a higher camera that showed part of the lander and the landscape.

"In the coming months and years even, history books will be rewritten about the interior of Mars," said JPL's director, Michael Watkins.

Mars landing: NASA's InSight spacecraft takes selfie after supersonic landing

Obama's 'car of the future' goes kaput

On a tip from Ed Kilbane

by Philip Wegmann

It came with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, churned out about 140 horsepower, and made upwards 40 mpg highway. What’s more, the Chevy Cruze was the only compact sedan to come with a presidential seal of approval. 

When a prototype of the 2011 model rolled off the assembly line, then President Barack Obama put his signature on the hood writing that the Cruze was “the car of the future.” 

But the future lasted only seven years. Responding to slumping sales, General Motors announced plans to push the Cruze out of their showrooms and off of a cliff. 

(What rhymes with cliff? Sniff...and I'm getting hints of Solyndra with notes of Fisker and Ener1)

President Obama relentlessly promoted the Chevy Volt, promising to buy one when he left office (he didn’t)

He also autographed a Chevy Cruz describing is as “the car of the future”

GM announced today they will end production for both cars in 2019 pic.twitter.com/qqgR3YdVWW

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) November 26, 2018

The Motor City has learned the hard way that what was good for Obama’s green agenda wasn’t good for GM. Fuel efficiency made the Cruze a poster child of that president’s energy legacy. If Detroit could make a car capable of making the round trip between New York City and Washington, D.C. on a single tank of gas (the Cruze comes standard with a 13.7 gallon gas tank and those cities are 220 miles apart), then the automaker could make higher fuel economy standards. 

Obama wanted higher Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, and his administration mandated a 54.5 mpg standard for cars and light-duty trucks by model year 2025. Consumers did not, however, want the Cruze. 

Sales were never stellar and more were sold in China than in the United States. And when President Trump reversed the Obama-era fuel standards, sales plummeted even further. Automotive News reports that sales of the Cruze dropped 26 percent through last March. Soon they will free-fall. 

A freshened up 2019 Cruze goes on sale in the fall for a final time. Soon after, the plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that makes them will cease production.

Obama's 'car of the future' goes kaput