MORNING MESSAGE
Since
he already issued his encyclical on the moral imperative to avert a climate
crisis back in June, it is widely assumed he will reiterate his call to a
recalcitrant Republican Congress ... But will Pope Francis go farther? ... Pope
Francis has declared that December 8 will begin a “jubilee year,” a time of
asking for the remission of sins from God. The theme will be “Holy Year of
Mercy.” ... Might the Pope use his time in America to expand the reach of
jubilee? For example, back in January the Campaign for America’s Future called
for a “student debt jubilee” that would “Liberate 41 Million Americans From
Student Loan Debt.”
Pressure For More Dem Debates
NH
Democratic Party convention heckles DNC chair. The Hill: “Democratic
National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz repeatedly attempted on
Saturday to quiet an audience of 4,000 … she interrupted her prepared remarks on
at least two occasions to address chants of ‘more debates’ and ‘we want
debates.'”
Sen.
Bernie Sanders wins crowd battle in NH. W. Post: “Presidential hopeful
Bernie Sanders drew an estimated 3,000 people to a boisterous rally here Sunday
night at the University of New Hampshire, about five times as many people as
Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton attracted to an event two days ago at
the same campus.”
But
Hillary Clinton gains in recent CNN poll: “Clinton is backed by 42% of
Democratic primary voters nationally, compared to 24% for Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders, 22% for Biden and 1% for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. That’s a
marked improvement over an early September CNN/ORC poll that found Clinton
leading Sanders, 37% to 27%, with Biden at 20% … Without the vice president in
the race, Clinton’s numbers climb by 15 percentage points, while Sanders’
increase by only 4 points…”
Spotlight Turns To Fiorina
Yale’s
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld eviscerates Fiorina’s CEO record in Politico Magazine:
“If the board was wrong, the employees wrong, and the shareholders wrong—as
Fiorina maintains—why in 10 years has she never been offered another public
company to run?”
Fiorina
questioned by Fox News for doing business with Iran. Bloomberg: “Appearing
on Fox’s Fox News Sunday, Fiorina said that despite being the CEO of HP when the
Iranian sales took place via a third party, she was unaware of them.”
Advocates
charge Gov. John Kasich with cutting people of color off welfare. Mother
Jones: “Ohio civil rights groups and economic analysts say Kasich’s
administration is using [time-limit] waivers unequally: It applies for waivers
in some regions of the state but refuses them in others, in a pattern that has
disproportionately protected white communities and hurt minority
populations.”
Shutdown Probability High
Stan
Collender puts shutdown likelihood at 75 percent in Politico Magazine:
“First and foremost, there is not enough time to reach a deal … a short-term CR
will be very difficult for any number of reasons, but the controversy over
Planned Parenthood is perhaps the biggest one … Some GOP representatives and
senators are now considering using the CR to stop the [Iran] agreement…”
Boehner
likens being Speaker to being a prisoner or sanitation worker, in Politico
interview: “Garbage men get used to the smell of bad garbage. Prisoners
learn how to become prisoners, all right? You can teach yourself to do anything,
especially if you’re committed to a cause.”
Breakfast Sides
NYT’s
Paul Krugman criticizes shifting stories from proponents of a interest rate
hike: “In 2010-2011 the Fed’s critics issued dire warnings about looming
inflation. You might have expected some change in tune when inflation failed to
materialize … The justification du jour is ‘financial stability,’ the claim that
low interest rates breed bubbles and crashes … What’s clear, however, is that
low rates are bad for bankers.”
Syriza
re-elected in Greece. Time: “Tsipras lost some of his strongest comrades …
who joined … a new party called Popular Unity. They were angry about what they
saw as Tsipras’ capitulation to Germany … But the Prime Minister’s legions of
fans remain undeniably behind him … ‘I voted for Tsipras because the others are
worse and they got us into this mess,’ said [one.]”
Bipartisan
push to loosen “small employer” requirements in Obamacare. NYT: “At issue is
a provision of the health care law that expands the definition of a ‘small
employer’ to include companies with 51 to 100 employees, subjecting them to
stringent insurance regulation … Legislation to let states keep the current
definition of ‘small employer’ has won support from 229 House members, including
43 Democrats.”
Progressive
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