Hillary and Bernie Clash, Testimony by Smirk
Friday, February 5, 2016
Vol. 5, No. 36
Debatable: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton clashed last night over money in politics after Sanders criticized Clinton for being funded by a super pac that takes Money from Wall Street. Clinton, who’s been taking a beating on the issue, struck back saying, “I really don’t think these kinds of attacks by insinuation are worthy of you. And enough is enough. If you’ve got something to say, say it directly.” She added, “I think it’s time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out.”
Sanders was a bit staggered, but defended himself saying Wall Street deregulation, uncontrollable drug prices, and the Republican denial of climate change are all the result of money in politics. “There is a reason why these people are putting huge amounts of money into our political system. And in my view, it is undermining American democracy and it is allowing Congress to represent wealthy campaign contributors and not the working families of this country.”
Sanders made the unusual pledge that as president, he would not appoint a Supreme Court justice who wouldn’t vote to overturn the Citizens United decision on campaign donations that opened the floodgates of political money.
Poll-iticks: Heading into the new Hampshire Primary Hillary Clinton appears to have an age problem — not her age, but the age of her voters. Her 73-yer-old opponent Bernie Sanders is coming on like the new kid with a youth following.
In the Iowa caucuses last week, Sanders won 84 percent of the voters 29 and under. In 2008 Barack Obama, who wears a suit much hipper, won just 43 percent of that same bracket of Iowa voters.
That’s the good news for Bernie. The bad news is there aren’t enough young voters to carry him to a nomination and Clinton does much better with older voters.
Advise and Consent: Financial sociopath Martin Shkreli smiled and smirked his way through a congressional hearing yesterday during which he refused to speak, invoking his 5th Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. Florida Republican Rep. John L. Mica of the House Committee on Oversight said later, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the committee treated with such contempt.”
Shkreli, who’s now under indictment for securities fraud, is the drug company executive who bought the rights to a life saving drug and increased the price 5,000 percent. The committee is studying the high price of prescription drugs. Shkreli later tweeted, “Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.”
Nation: The hunt for a couple described as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde has ended in a shootout in Florida, with “Clyde” dead and “Bonnie” wounded. Blake Fitzgerald and Brittany Harper were suspects in a four-state crime spree.
>Six people, including a child, were found dead in a home in the Gage Park neighborhood of Chicago. The victims appeared to have been stabbed, but so far there’s no explanation for what happened.
>Florida’s governor has declared a state of emergency in five countries to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The state has 12 reported cases, all of them contracted by people travelling outside the country.
The Obit Page: Maurice White, the founder of the 70s band Earth, Wind & Fire, has died in Los Angeles at age 74. He had Parkinson’s disease. It was an R&B band with a popular beat. Their hits included “Shining Star,” “September,” “That’s the Way of the World” and a cover of the Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life.”
White wrote on the group’s website, “We were coming out of a decade of experimentation, mind expansion and cosmic awareness. I wanted our music to convey messages of universal love and harmony without force-feeding listeners’ spiritual content.”
Political Corrections: Brown University has re-named Columbus Day “Indigenous People’s Day” because it so easily rolls off the tongue.
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