As the Democratic primary begins to kick into gear and the argument over whose ideas are dominant in the party, it’s worth considering how things got to this point and why many news accounts of the ‘battle for the Democratic party’ may be missing the mark a bit. This is what the Nation is considering, with plenty of echos from the 2016 primary in the current primary. 

Bernie-Sanders-campaign-2016-ap

An often repeated mantra in the US is how important citizenship is to almost everyone. People often take pictures and pose for getting their citizenship, basking how proud they feel to finally become an American after such a long and arduous process. In Turkey however, as the Middle Ease Eye reports, that process isn’t quite as difficult, as someone can now have enough money in a Turkish bank account and be granted citizenship after around five months. 

 

As many look at what is happening on the national stage, with a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, it’s easy to think that change is impossible. The constant gridlock and lack of progress on the majority of issues has left many feeling more dissolutioned with politics. But something that many outside of New York probably have not heard about, and what the Intercept reports, is that the 2018 election did produce some real results, and New York is proof that electing the right people can actually bring about change. 

After the first Democratic debate, and with the second one around the corner, many were looking to see how a candidates debate performance would impact their polling performance. For someone like Harris, they got a bump, but for Buttigieg, there were less visible results. Coinciding with that, as FAIR reports, is how Buttigieg’s lack of support is being sold as a win due to his higher campaign funds. 

Detroit News depiction of Pete Buttigieg at the first debates

When it comes to Trump, there are many, many understandable points to take issue with, too numerous to recount in this short paragraph. But what often gets overlooked, as Truthdig reports, is that there are in fact some good things he has accomplished. While the negotiations with North Korea have been both slow and mostly superficial, it’s undeniable that Trump has made more progress than any previous president.

20 Steps in the Right Direction

The condition at the US-Mexico border is something that almost nobody is happy about, and the conditions at border facilities aren’t what many would describe as a desired result. But the reason behind how we got to this point is not as simple as blaming Trump for everything that’s wrong with the border. As Democracy Now!reports, the situation on the border is engineered to create such a situation, with bipartisan support.  

The topic of war is something that comes up quite often in American parlance. We have a tendency to seek it out, and as is shown by the most recent provocations with Iran, isn’t something we do much to de-escalate. That is where CounterPunchtries to educate its readers on. That the constant push for the US to go to war with one country or another is not only bad for those that die in the conflict, but it does irrepressible harm to everyone but those that can profit off a perpetual state of war.

While many in the US don’t view soccer as a sport to get particularly hyped about, that is quickly changing with the recent explosion of popularity that the US Women’s Soccer team has been seeing. In part because of their spat with the White House and especially because of the multitude of television interviews by one of the teams captains, Megan Rapinoe. As the Real News Network reports, this idea of empowerment through sports is nothing new, but the most recent examples we are seeing seem to be paving the way for things to come.


 

Despite the issues that the American press run into from time to time, they are not the only country with a press that makes mistakes. Enter The Guardian. As the Grayzone reports, a recent piece on their site was removed without explanation and has many questioning what motive could be behind this kind of censoring. 

The Guardian removed article Chris Williamson letter

 

Waleed Shahid with this weeks Tweet of the Week:

Capitalism does not always produce fair results. In fact it often turns economics into a zero-sum game where only a few can be rich while everyone else loses. Other times it can produce some good in the world, but usually not on its own. This is where the Ghion Journal comes in to tell you about why capitalism has produced a plethora of bad things in our society and how the super rich continue to fleece the poor for everything they have. 


The HEADLINES:
1. Trump wages war with social media at White House summit: ‘We will not let them get away with it’ (The Independent)2. The DNC Army That Could Soon Descend on Swing States (The Atlantic)

3. ICE Plans To Launch Nationwide Raids And Arrest Thousands This Weekend, NYT Reports (HuffPost)

4. Threat level raised to ‘critical’ for UK ships in Iranian waters (BBC)

5. Labour antisemitism: 30 whistleblowers to give evidence to EHRC (The Guardian)