Bernie is third?

Quinnipiac

Former Vice President Joe Biden still commanded a sizeable lead, earning 38% of support among respondents. 

Second place went to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who enjoyed a light surge to earn 12% in the poll. 

Sanders earned 11%, just enough to place third, according to the poll published by Quinnipiac University Tuesday.

Harvard, two days later.

Forty-four percent of Democratic voters surveyed said they are most likely to vote for Biden in the 2020 Democratic primaries. 

Sanders comes in second place at 14 percent, while Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) places third with just 9 percent, the poll found. 

She knows she's lying, right?

Both the Tories and Labor took a pasting in the local elections while the Lib Dems and Greens gained many seats.

The final English councils have declared their results and the results are worse for the Conservatives than even the most pessimistic predictions. 

The party lost 1,351 seats; a net loss of 1,269.

But Labour did not profit hugely from their rivals’ disastrous day, losing 307 of their own seats; a net loss of 63. 

The Lib Dems, the Greens and independent candidates were the big winners, seeing net gains of 676, 185 and 242 seats, respectively.

Polls continue to show majorities for staying in the EU.

Hell, May opposed it before the referendum.

All which May reportedly chose to spin thus.

"Yes, we had challenging results, but Labour were predicting that they were going to gain seats. In fact, they made net losses of seats.

"But I think a message has been given to both main parties from the public – I think people are saying to us: ‘We’re sending a strong message, just get on and sort Brexit out and do it’.

"I welcome the fact that Jeremy Corbyn has said today that he sees the time is now to get a deal and to deliver on Brexit – it’s what I’ve been saying for some time. 

"It’s what we want to do, it’s what we’ve been working for, so now we must get on and do that."

Corbyn, the pro-Brexit leader of a mostly anti-Brexit party, echos her lie.

The parties of two leaders trying to do a Brexit both lose heavily to parties opposing Brexit, so the two leaders see this as a very clear message to do Brexit?

God, what ghastly liars.

Asked about the results, in which the Conservatives suffered much bigger losses, Corbyn told ITV: “I think it means there’s a huge impetus on every MP, and they’ve all got that message, whether they themselves are leave or remain – or the people across the country – that an arrangement has to be made, a deal has to be done, parliament has to resolve this issue. I think that is very, very clear.”

Automation, AI, and the vanishing need to employ humans for anything at all

Kurzgesagt has a YouTube video on automation that considers these matters, and briefly the possibility that the capitalists who own the machines of the all-machine economy might abandon the rest of us, or put us on some subsistence dole, or something.

But, since the number of capitalists, relative to the total population, is slight, the machine economy could very well produce only for them without completely gobbling up the world's resources.

Assume that, since the AI led machine economy can do any job a human can cheaper and better, humans not among the (metaphorical) 1 % cannot lay hands on any currency with which to buy anything produced by that economy.

But this means both the need and the capacities exist for the 99 % to have their own well-functioning economy in which they are paid in human-economy currency good for buying the products of the human economy.

Products made with machines as advanced as you like, but not AI driven and not so advanced as to make anyone willing and able redundant.

Still, everything produced in the human economy costs more than it would if produced in the AI machine economy, so there is no currency exchange rate, since it is never worthwhile for the capitalists who own the machine economy to buy anything made in the human economy.

Two societies that never touch, economically, though they coexist.

Grist for a sci-fi movie?

Giuliani, for Trump, solicits foreign oligarchs and leaders to do him favors. For favors.

This is An Insanely Big Deal

Just try to get the newly corrupted American Justice Department or the long corrupted Republican Party to do anything about this, or the even more repulsively corrupt Trump voter base to regard this with anything but delight.

Do we need to call this "Ukrainegate"?

Must we?

I need to return to the fact that the country’s biggest paper reported this week that the President’s personal lawyer is conducting unofficial diplomacy abroad, apparently mixed with his own private business and investments, in which he offers friendly treatment from the President of the United States in exchange for those governments targeting the President’s political enemies. 

This was reported and it wasn’t the biggest story of the week. 

This is a far, far bigger deal than any other fears about future tampering in a US presidential election using Facebook ads. 

The stakes are much higher, the danger much greater, when the colluding candidate is also the President of the United States.

Steve Bannon's School for Populists in Italy

From WAPO, 3/29.

Dans les montagnes italiennes, Steve Bannon crée une école pour apprentis populistes

Subtitle: Dans la charteuse de Trisulsti, près de Rome, l’ancien conseiller de Donald Trump Steve Bannon et son acolyte Benjamin Harnwell sont en train de monter un projet unique. Transformer un monastère en une école pour politiques populistes.

. . . .

Dans l’enceinte du monastère de Trisulti [situé dans les montagnes à deux heures au sud-est de Rome], des moines ont vécu paisiblement à l’écart de la société. 

Ils priaient, lisaient et concoctaient des remèdes à base de plantes, cueillies dans la forêt voisine. Aujourd’hui, après plus de huit siècles, il n’en reste plus qu’un, âgé de 83 ans. 

Un cuisinier-jardinier vit toujours là, ainsi que plusieurs dizaines de chats sauvages. 

L’autre habitant est un nouvel arrivant : c’est un Britannique âgé de 43 ans, l’un des plus proches alliés de Steve Bannon en Europe, et il espère transformer le monastère en une “école de gladiateurs pour guerriers culturels”.

. . . .

Sous peu, affirme-t-il, le monastère accueillera de nombreux étudiants souhaitant maîtriser les outils de la politique populiste. 

Les grandes salles, où sont alignées de très anciennes peintures à l’huile, serviront de classe, où des étudiants pourront apprendre “les faits” ; c’est-à-dire : la vision du monde selon Bannon, qui, depuis son éviction de la Maison-Blanche, s’emploie à développer le populisme de droite en Europe et au-delà.

. . . .

Ce lieu où des moines faisaient autrefois vœu de silence donnera-t-il naissance à des responsables politiques de la trempe de Matteo Salvini et Viktor Orbán ? 

Si tout va bien, affirme Harnwell, une nouvelle génération de dirigeants passera du temps ici, puis repartira sur la route de montagne vers Rome, d’autres capitales européennes ou Washington, pour faire en sorte que la révolte selon Bannon puisse continuer pendant des décennies

. . . .

“Nous ne faisons rien à court terme, affirme Bannon, qui finance personnellement l’école et conseille des partis nationalistes par le biais de son cabinet-conseil bruxellois, Le Mouvement [voir encadré]. Ça va plus loin, il s’agit de transmettre quelque chose.”

Le monastère a été mis à disposition, car les moines étaient de moins en moins nombreux et n’arrivaient plus à en assumer la maintenance. 

Le gouvernement italien a publié un appel d’offres. 

Harnwell y a répondu, proposant de verser un loyer annuel de 100 000 euros. 

Il a déclaré que le monastère resterait un espace consacré à des “activités culturelles”. 

Des cours seront organisés sur les idéologies de Bannon et du cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, connu pour son combat féroce contre l’euthanasie, la peine de mort et l’IVG.

. . . .

Harnwell reconnaît que, lorsque le gouvernement italien a annoncé qu’il avait remporté l’appel d’offres, les réactions ont été “négatives en majorité”. 

Les critiques se sont apaisées depuis, précise-t-il, car l’Italie a formé un gouvernement populiste dont la composante d’extrême droite, la Ligue, entretient des liens étroits avec Bannon.

The failed coup in Venezuela. Trump vs. Putin.

From WAPO.

In this matter, anyway, Trump hardly appears Putin's puppet.

Au Venezuela, le plan de l’opposition a raté

“Depuis des semaines, raconte The Washington Post, l’opposition vénézuélienne travaillait à un plan d’ensemble pour chasser enfin du pouvoir le président Nicolás Maduro. 

"Elle aurait convaincu plusieurs figures du régime, militaires et civiles, de changer de camp, tandis que d’autres responsables auraient été autorisés à quitter le pays. 

"Maduro lui-même semblait prêt à partir de façon pacifique pour La Havane.”

Toutefois, ajoute le quotidien américain, ce plan n’a pas fonctionné. 

Venezuela : Moscou met en garde Washington contre toute ingérence militaire

From its high horse in Ukraine, no doubt.

Pour le site Gazeta.ru, le Venezuela se trouve aujourd’hui à “un pas de la guerre civile”. 

Le ministre russe des Affaires étrangères, Sergueï Lavrov, a eu, le 1er mai, un entretien avec le secrétaire d’État américain Mike Pompeo au sujet de la tentative de prise de pouvoir menée à Caracas par le leader de l’opposition, Juan Guaidó.

Selon ce qu’en a rapporté le service de communication du siège de la diplomatie russe, après la “tentative de coup d’État réalisée par l’opposition vénézuélienne avec le soutien évident des États-Unis”, la Russie a rappelé avec insistance que “toute ingérence de Washington dans les affaires intérieures d’un État souverain, ou menace à l’adresse de ses dirigeants, constitue une grossière violation du droit international”. 

Et que la “poursuite de telles menées agressives risque d’avoir des conséquences extrêmement lourdes”.

. . . .

Selon Moskovski Komsomolets, la porte-parole du ministère, Maria Zakharova, a quant à elle qualifié de “fake news” l’information divulguée par Mike Pompeo selon laquelle “dès le 30 avril au matin, Nicolás Maduro était prêt à lâcher le pouvoir et à fuir à La Havane, mais ses conseillers russes l’en auraient dissuadé”.

And Russian threats.

Fin mars, l’atterrissage à Caracas de deux avions des forces aéronautiques russes ainsi que le débarquement d’une centaine de spécialistes militaires et de 35 tonnes de matériel avaient suscité des interrogations et des protestations de la part de Washington. 

Le Kremlin avait précisé qu’il s’agissait de la mise en œuvre de contrats techniques signés entre les deux pays, une présence par conséquent tout à fait légale.

Cependant, cette présence militaire russe prend une dimension inquiétante dans un contexte où le gouvernement Trump évoque la possibilité d’une intervention militaire américaine au Venezuela. 

À ce titre, l’expert cité plus haut reconnaît avoir changé d’avis quant à la position russe : “Si au début de l’année je pouvais affirmer sans hésiter que la Russie ne se lancerait pas dans un conflit armé, je dirais aujourd’hui que Moscou ne peut pas rester en dehors.”

En effet, selon lui, si les Américains interviennent militairement, “une réponse russe n’est pas exclue. La situation en Syrie apparaîtra alors à toutes les parties comme une promenade de santé.”

Somebody needs a union. Or an OSHA.

En Indonésie, au moins 296 employés chargés du dépouillement sont morts d’épuisement

296 : c’est le dernier nombre en date d’employés de bureaux de vote morts d’épuisement après avoir participé à l’organisation des élections indonésiennes qui se sont tenues le 17 avril 2019, indique le quotidien national indonésien Kompas. 

Ce jour-là, près de 193 millions d’électeurs ont voté à la fois pour élire leur président, les membres de l’Assemblée nationale et ceux des Parlements régionaux. 

Ce mardi 30 avril, le bilan grimpe à 296 morts et 2 151 personnes blessées ou malades, selon Kompas. 

Avec 810 329 bureaux de vote répartis sur les dizaines de milliers d’îles du plus grand archipel du monde, à raison de 7 employés par bureau, c’est plus de 5,6 millions de citoyens qui ont travaillé des heures durant à surveiller le scrutin puis à dépouiller les bulletins. 

La simultanéité de ces élections présidentielle et législatives, une première en Indonésie, aurait conduit “ces héros de la démocratie” à l’épuisement physique et mental, causant leur décès.

Joe is running against Bozo and the Republicans while Bernie is running against Joe and the Democrats

Sanders and Biden Circle Each Other, Using Different Rules of Engagement

With just as much populist outrage, he runs on Trump's protectionism and anti-globalism.

On his first trip to Iowa in his third bid for the presidency, Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday accused President Trump of coddling white supremacists, called former President Barack Obama “an extraordinary man” and vowed fidelity to longstanding Democratic priorities like Medicare and increasing the minimum wage.

He ignored his rivals for the Democratic nomination completely, not even hinting at any policy differences.

Senator Bernie Sanders, Mr. Biden’s closest competition in the polls, is taking a very different approach. 

Mr. Sanders went on CNN on Monday night to attack Mr. Biden for his history of supporting free trade measures, a deeply divisive issue in the party.

“I helped lead the fight against Nafta, he voted for Nafta,” Mr. Sanders said, before ticking off other trade pacts that he opposed and Mr. Biden backed. 

For good measure, Mr. Sanders added, “I voted against the war in Iraq, he voted for it.”

It was Mr. Sanders’s third broadside against Mr. Biden since he entered the race last week — and it marked a preview of the coming clash between the two septuagenarians that is likely to shape the early contours of the primary.

The competing strategies — Mr. Sanders targeting Mr. Biden while Mr. Biden wraps himself in the Obama legacy and excoriates Mr. Trump — illustrate the starkly different wagers the two candidates are making in the outset of the 2020 contest.

Mr. Biden’s bet is that his party’s rank-and-file consider the Obama years as a success and are animated chiefly by ejecting Mr. Trump. 

With a substantial lead in early polls, Mr. Biden is trying to remain above the intraparty fray, promising a new era of good feeling after the Trump interregnum and invoking his White House experience at every turn.

“We got plenty of time to respond, I’m not going to get in a debate with my colleagues here,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday at an ice cream shop in eastern Iowa, gripping a chocolate-and-vanilla-swirl cone. 

He declined to directly answer Mr. Sanders’s critique, but did call himself “a fair trader” and, notably, said he did not regret his vote for Nafta as a senator.

Later, at a rally in Dubuque, the former vice president joked that there were scant policy differences among the large field of Democratic candidates. 

“We agree on basically everything, all of us running — all 400 of us.”

Oooooh, there's a big Pinnochio.

Mr. Sanders, the leader in early polls until Mr. Biden joined the race, feels less urgency to unify the country or even the Democratic Party and has taken a far more aggressive posture toward the front-runner than any other contender. 

In targeting the former vice president, he is hoping to elevate himself as the leading progressive alternative in a 20-person field filled with candidates hungry for attention.

Mr. Sanders is running on the assumption that Democratic voters not only want to defeat Mr. Trump but also seek to shed the incremental, within-the-system politics of Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton.

He never wants to recall that Hillary got the suffrage of nearly 4 million more Democratic primary voters than he did.

He never wants to recall that just as he isn't really a Democrat and openly despises the party the feeling is entirely mutual and Democrats who actually are Democrats don't want him, his socialism, or his foolish protectionism.

Maybe he didn't see this poll.

It would have made the matter clear as a bell.

A new national poll of Democratic primary voters helps illustrate why Mr. Sanders is so eager to pick a fight with Mr. Biden: 

The former vice president has gained ground since entering the race and enjoys the support of 39 percent of his party’s voters while Mr. Sanders is in second place with 15 percent.

CNN

Former Vice President Joe Biden's announcement of a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination earned him an 11-point polling bounce, leaving him head and shoulders above the rest of the Democratic candidates.

A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS after Biden's announcement on Thursday shows 39% of voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents saying he is their top choice for the nomination, up from 28% who said the same in March.

That puts Biden more than 20 points ahead of his nearest competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- who holds 15% support in the poll -- and roughly 30 points ahead of the next strongest candidate, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (8%).

Corbyn lets his undies show

Labor is not going to run for the EP with a visible commitment to remaining in the EU or a serious commitment to a plebiscite allowing the voters to choose between remaining in the EU or leaving with a definite deal in place, if and when parliament agrees on a deal the EU is willing to accept.

So, if you forget, Corbyn as an individual is further left than his party and wants out of the EU because that would allow the government of the UK to take the country further left than it could within the EU.

Just as the right wingers who started it all (remember Euro-skepticism?) back under Thatcher were convinced the government of the UK could take the country further to the right out of the EU than within.

So, a voter who really wants to remain in the EU needs to vote for a party committed to that: Liberal Democrats, Greens and Change UK.

On the other hand, this really isn't a surprise, at all, is it?

Revealed: populists far more likely to believe in conspiracy theories

They live in the Fox News, Alex Jones universe, after all.

Even Trump was publicly pushing anti-vaxx bullshit before the news started covering the current measles outbreaks.

Wait. This is a global study.

Populists across the world are significantly more likely to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccinations, global warming and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a landmark global survey shared exclusively with the Guardian.

The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project sheds new light on a section of the world population that appears to have limited faith in scientific experts and representative democracy.

. . . .

The World Health Organization and other public health bodies have embarked on major campaigns to remind the public of the importance of vaccination as anti-vaccine propaganda and conspiracy theories have flourished on social media.

Unicef recently revealed that measles cases had risen 300% in the first three months of this year compared with the same time last year. In 2017, approximately110,000 people died of the illness, most of them children. 

About 169 million children under 10 worldwide are unvaccinated, the UN agency said.

In the YouGov survey, people with strongly held populist views were on average almost twice as likely to believe that supposed harmful effects of vaccines were being deliberately hidden from the public. 

They were similarly more likely to believe that the US government knowingly helped the 9/11 terrorist attackers, and that manmade global warming was a hoax.

Two in five populists in the survey agreed that regardless of who was officially in charge of governments, “there is a single group of people who secretly control events and rule the world together”, compared with just under a quarter of the overall survey respondents.

Wait.

So 25% of the general population think “there is a single group of people who secretly control events and rule the world together”?

The Illuminati?

The Elders of Zion?

Jeez.

Read the Guardian story.

Lots more in the Guardian on the new populism around the world.