May 21, 2016


News and Views


https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-on-security-alert-lockdown-after-nearby-shooting-200159100.html

White House security scare prompts Secret Service shooting
Jason Sickles
May 20, 2016

Photograph -- A Secret Service agent orders people into buildings near the entrance to the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 20. The White House was placed on security alert after a shooting on street outside. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Tweet: U.S. Secret Service ✔ ‎@SecretService, The Secret Service is confirming a police involved shooting near the @WhiteHouse complex. All Secret Service protectees are safe., 4:12 PM - 20 May 2016
Photograph -- heavily armed guard on roof; Tweet description: John Zuchelli ✔ ‎@tvzuke, #BREAKING Some sort of incident happening near the White House. WH security increased. This pic taken moments ago, 3:23 PM - 20 May 2016
Image: from Tweet, “West Wing Reports ✔ ‎@WestWingReport, Shooting at 17th & E NW is at checkpoint -- NOT on White House grounds; smaller arrow = Oval Office, 3:53 PM - 20 May 2016
Slideshow: Shooting prompts White House security scare >>>
Slideshow -- White House security scare prompts Secret Service shooting
Tweet -- Jason Sickles,Jason Sickles 3 hours ago ; A shooting on a street just outside the White House created a brief national security scare Friday afternoon.


A uniformed Secret Service officer reportedly shot an armed person on West Executive Ave. NW, a street that borders the White House to the west.

An official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to release the information, said the Secret Service officer opened fire around 2 p.m., after the person approached a White House gate with a handgun.

A Secret Service agent orders people into buildings near the entrance to the West Wing of the White House in Washington, May 20, 2016, after the White House was placed on security alert after shooting on street outside. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

The unidentified person was taken to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

No one else was injured. The White House and other federal offices were locked down for about an hour during the incident.

A White House official said “no one within or associated with the White House was injured” in the shooting incident. President Obama had left earlier in the afternoon to play golf at Joint Base Andrews, according to the White House press pool. Vice President Joe Biden was on the White House grounds, but was quickly secured inside.

The shooting occurred near the intersection of 17th St. NW and E streets.

News 4 Washington, a local NBC affiliate, spoke to a witness, Larry Samples, who said he saw a man walk toward the White House with a silver gun in his hand. According to Samples, the man ignored repeated orders from officers on the premises to drop the gun and was eventually shot when he refused to comply.

(This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.)

Yahoo News reporter Caitlin Dickson contributed to this story.

Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).



“The unidentified person was taken to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. No one else was injured. The White House and other federal offices were locked down for about an hour during the incident. A White House official said “no one within or associated with the White House was injured” in the shooting incident. President Obama had left earlier in the afternoon to play golf at Joint Base Andrews, according to the White House press pool. Vice President Joe Biden was on the White House grounds, but was quickly secured inside. …. News 4 Washington, a local NBC affiliate, spoke to a witness, Larry Samples, who said he saw a man walk toward the White House with a silver gun in his hand. According to Samples, the man ignored repeated orders from officers on the premises to drop the gun and was eventually shot when he refused to comply.”


I’m sorry if this man dies, but the guards did the right thing in this case, in my opinion. Hopefully this man will recover and then go to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for a nice long stay with medical/psychological help. Of course if he is a politically connected evil doer, then he should go to prison. Being president is a truly dangerous job, and yet so many men and women keep trying to become the head of a complex and difficult society such as ours!



https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-eating-nile-crocodiles-now-141300477.html

Man-Eating Nile Crocodiles Are Now in Florida — Because Florida
Jon Levine
May 20, 2016

[See also: http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/21/us/nile-crocodiles-florida-irpt/.]


Florida, home to giant, killer pythons, is now welcoming a new friend to the neighborhood: Nile crocodiles.

The invasive species native to eastern Africa have appeared in the Florida Everglades recently, many thousands of miles from it’s homeland, where they’re responsible for some 200 human deaths a year, CBS Miami reported.

Nobody has any idea how the creatures came to the Sunshine state, though some have speculated that it may been through the illegal exotic pets trade.

“They didn’t swim from Africa," University of Florida herpetologist Kenneth Krysko told CBS Miami. "But we really don’t know how they got into the wild.”

Like killer Africanized honey bees of a different era, these African crocodiles are considerably more dangerous than their locally found American cousins. In addition to generally being a more cantankerous varietal, the crocs have been known to relish preying on cattle, large mammals and yes, given the chance, it would even eat a human. Between 2010 and 2014, 354 human fatalities were reported caused by the fearsome reptile, BuzzFeed reported.

Florida has long been a haven for invasive species. In addition to the python and Nile crocodile, the state also boats such cuddly creatures as the Asiatic clam, the walking catfish, the brown basilisk and many others. The list goes on and on.



In this country there are semi-lunatic people who don’t know what the problem with buying a cute little baby version of a very dangerous animal is. In a couple of news stories down through the years it was even big cats – a pet tiger and also a puma. In this case when the crocodile or python gets uncomfortably large they just pack it off down to the Everglades.

There should be no animals of that sort available for sale in this country. Of course this article says that they are illegal. That’s what the black market if for, of course, to give people with more money than sense what they want. Just 25 or so years ago it was possible to buy baby piranhas and even fully grown specimens from pet stores. The same sort of irresponsible owners in that case also put them out in South Florida, so that one pond actually had to be POISONED because of the piranha population there. For that story, go to website: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/11/florida-piranha.html).

The net also says that a similar fish called a pacu has also infiltrated Lake Okeechobee in a July 2015 article. They’re scarier to look at, though, because they are larger and they do compete with our natural fish. The good news is that their teeth are blunt rather than being extremely sharp, so they aren’t dangerous to humans.

All of these animals from other parts of the world have no natural enemies in Florida, but they like our weather and wilderness environments just fine! There is one animal that is at least competing with the pythons. Even without Nile crocodiles, we have alligators that can be 15 or 16 feet long and capable of eating an immature python. The state of Florida does allow and even sponsor open hunting for pythons with the hope of diminishing the population, and news footage was on some months ago of several large ones stretched out dead on the ground. See http://pythonchallenge.org/ for photographs of smiling young people holding their catch and comparing stories.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/french-officials-look-at-insider-problem-of-monitoring-airport-workers/

French officials look at "insider" problem of monitoring airport workers
By MARK PHILLIPS CBS NEWS
May 20, 2016, 7:30 PM

Play VIDEO -- EgyptAir disaster raises questions about Egyptian security
Play VIDEO -- EgyptAir crash comes as TSA faces wait-time criticism in U.S.
Play VIDEO -- EgyptAir disaster raises questions about Egyptian security


PARIS -- Today, CBS News learned the Airbus A320 transmitted messages that smoke was detected on board before it crashed in the Mediterranean, killing 66 people.

There's been no evidence the Egypt Air crash had anything to do with security at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, but the French have tightened it anyway. And they've launched an investigation into whether there was a lapse here that might have allowed an explosive device to be placed on board -- if one was. This isn't the first time they've been worried.

The 5,000 union security workers at the airport were all subjected to renewed, rigorous police checks following the Paris terror attacks last year. Some had their security clearance badges revoked.

The airport sits in Paris' northern suburbs, which have a high percentage of immigrants from Muslim countries, many of whom find work here.

The new security checks look for evidence of radicalization: Where the employees have travelled, what they read, who they associate with. It's known as the 'insider' problem and is acknowledged -- here and elsewhere -- in the aviation world

"Clearly some countries are more vulnerable than others to this," said Mike Vivian, the former head of operations for Britain's Civil Aviation Authority. "And it can be surreptitious, below the radar, so to speak. It is a serious issue, it is being looked at."

The fact that the Egypt air plane had been to Eritrea and Tunisia -- both with their own security problems -- just before it came to Paris, adds to the concerns. Aviation security is an international problem and is only as strong as its weakest link.



“And they've launched an investigation into whether there was a lapse here that might have allowed an explosive device to be placed on board -- if one was. This isn't the first time they've been worried. The 5,000 union security workers at the airport were all subjected to renewed, rigorous police checks following the Paris terror attacks last year. Some had their security clearance badges revoked. …. The airport sits in Paris' northern suburbs, which have a high percentage of immigrants from Muslim countries, many of whom find work here. The new security checks look for evidence of radicalization: Where the employees have travelled, what they read, who they associate with. It's known as the 'insider' problem and is acknowledged -- here and elsewhere -- in the aviation world …. "And it can be surreptitious, below the radar, so to speak. It is a serious issue, it is being looked at." The fact that the Egypt air plane had been to Eritrea and Tunisia -- both with their own security problems -- just before it came to Paris, adds to the concerns.”


Our world is getting smaller by the day. Since the 1950s when long distance passenger planes began to be more commonly used, the public fascination with flying has grown huge. Nearly all Americans have been on a plane at least once. In those days I didn’t hear of a hijacking incident. Just to check my dates I looked hijacking incidents up on the Net and found a list that stretches back to the 1930s! For a comprehensive history see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_hijackings. I hope the next update on this incident will include cockpit sounds, etc. I want to find that it was a mechanical problem rather than another radicalized killer.



https://www.yahoo.com/style/home-depot-siding-trump-supporters-175640551.html

Home Depot calls worker's hat 'inappropriate' after furious Trump supporters complain
Business Insider Thu, May 19 10:56 AM PDT

Photograph -- The hat in question; (Staten Island Advance)
Tweet -- District✪fCriminals ‎@DistOfCriminals, Hey @HomeDepot you are OK with this?👇🏻 What an insult to #Vets and ALL Americans #Vets4Trump #Trump2016
5:01 PM - 18 May 2016
Tweet -- Bikers 4 Trump™ ‎@Bikers4Trump
Time to Boycott @HomeDepot! #RETWEET & Join http://Bikers4Trump.com https://twitter.com/DistOfCriminals/status/733039707454464000 …
Tweet -- The Home Depot ✔ ‎@HomeDepot, @Bikers4Trump Agree this isn’t appropriate & we wouldn’t allow it, but the store team didn’t see it. This doesn’t represent HD’s opinion.
7:10 PM - 18 May 2016


Supporters of Donald Trump's presidential campaign are furious over a Home Depot worker who was spotted wearing a hat critical of the US.

The hat reads "America was never great" — which is a play on Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America great again."

Someone snapped a photo of the employee wearing the hat at a Home Depot in Staten Island, and shared it online.

The photo went viral on social media.

Hundreds of Trump supporters are now threatening to boycott Home Depot in response.

"This is disgusting," customer Trevor McNulty wrote on Home Depot's Facebook page. "If we do not hear what action was taken against this employee and the manager, I will never step foot in any of their stores again. You've got until Monday HD." The comment has been "liked" 54 times.

Another person wrote, "If this woman is not fired I will never shop at Home Depot again. She represents everything that is wrong with our country!"

Home Depot has swiftly responded to critics on Twitter and Facebook, saying the hat was inappropriate.

The employee who wore the hat, 22-year-old Krystal Lake, is now getting inundated with death threats, according to the Staten Island Advance.

"The point of the hat was to say America needs changing and improvement," Lake told the Advance. "I don't think it's a positive message to say, "Let's look to the past.'"

She claims that none of her managers reprimanded her for wearing the hat. She also claimed that she's not the only employee sharing a political message in stores. She says she has seen other employees wearing pins supporting Donald Trump.

Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes spokesman told Business Insider that it's against company policy for employees to wear items that reflect political statements, regardless of candidate or party.

When asked whether any action had been taken against Lake following the public outcry, he said, "The management team addressed it with her."

"I’m not going to be specific other than to say that if any associate refuses to follow any of our policies, it can lead to termination," he added.



“Supporters of Donald Trump's presidential campaign are furious over a Home Depot worker who was spotted wearing a hat critical of the US. The hat reads "America was never great" — which is a play on Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America great again." Someone snapped a photo of the employee wearing the hat at a Home Depot in Staten Island, and shared it online. …. Hundreds of Trump supporters are now threatening to boycott Home Depot in response. "This is disgusting," customer Trevor McNulty wrote on Home Depot's Facebook page. "If we do not hear what action was taken against this employee and the manager, I will never step foot in any of their stores again. You've got until Monday HD." The comment has been "liked" 54 times. Another person wrote, "If this woman is not fired I will never shop at Home Depot again. She represents everything that is wrong with our country!" …. "The point of the hat was to say America needs changing and improvement," Lake told the Advance. "I don't think it's a positive message to say, "Let's look to the past.'" She claims that none of her managers reprimanded her for wearing the hat. She also claimed that she's not the only employee sharing a political message in stores. She says she has seen other employees wearing pins supporting Donald Trump.”


The hat did make an obvious point against Trump because he’s been saying “make America great AGAIN,” which of course means that Obama in particular has ruined America. I don’t agree with the Trumpites and their vociferously stated views, and I have said some unpleasant things about Trump myself, but I would not make death threats over speech. I do fear and distrust a mood of violent patriotism which is what Trump is trying to do, and seems to be succeeding. I love America and I am proud of her, but she does indeed need a LOT more work!! I’m one who is pragmatic, and to me lynchings and police shootings really are not acceptable. If we members of white society don’t keep our skirts clean so that we aren’t a nation of bullies, I will inevitably be less proud of what we have done. To me having more machines and houses and technology and bombers simply isn’t all there is to being great. Being great requires a heart.



http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/21/politics/bernie-sanders-debbie-wasserman-schultz/index.html

Sanders says he's backing DNC chair's primary opponent, wouldn't reappoint her to DNC
By Eugene Scott and Jake Tapper, CNN
Updated 5:27 PM ET, Sat May 21, 2016

RELATED: Sanders campaign manager: DNC chairwoman 'throwing shade' on Bernie

Washington (CNN)Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday said he supports Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Democratic opponent in her August 30 primary, adding that if he is elected president, he would effectively terminate her chairmanship of the DNC.

Sanders, whose campaign has engaged in an increasingly bitter feud with the DNC chairwoman during his presidential bid, said in an interview set to air on CNN's "State of the Union" that he favors Tim Canova in Florida's 23rd congressional district. Canova is supporting Sanders.

"Well, clearly, I favor her opponent," Sanders told Tapper. "His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Shultz's."

Sanders added that if he's elected president, he wouldn't reappoint Wasserman Schultz to head the DNC.

In a response to Sanders on Saturday afternoon, Wasserman Schultz insisted she would remain neutral in the Democratic presidential race despite the Vermont senator's endorsement of her primary opponent.

"I am so proud to serve the people of Florida's 23rd district and I am confident that they know that I am an effective fighter and advocate on their behalf in Congress," Wasserman Schultz said. "Even though Senator Sanders has endorsed my opponent, I remain, as I have been from the beginning, neutral in the presidential Democratic primary. I look forward to working together with him for Democratic victories in the fall."

Sanders' campaign has long been critical of Wasserman Shultz's performance as head of the committee, claiming that the DNC has favored his presidential primary challenger, Hillary Clinton. Sanders and his supporters have complained about the nomination process and ways they believe it has helped Clinton, including debates held on Saturday nights, closed primaries in major states such as New York, and the use of superdelegates -- essentially free-agent party and union stalwarts who are overwhelmingly backing Clinton.

Canova, who teaches at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law in Fort Lauderdale, was asked in 2011 to serve on Sanders' Wall Street reform advisory panel.

"I'm so proud to know that Bernie Sanders favors our campaign for progress for all. Like Sen. Sanders, I'm running a campaign that's truly backed by the people, not big corporations -- one that stands up to Wall Street interests instead of cozying up to them," Canova told CNN in a statement Saturday. "Together, I feel confident that our campaign of nurses, teachers, students, seniors and working-class Floridians can work together to demand accountability from our leaders, and offer a more positive path forward to the people of Florida's 23rd district."

Canova has called for greater regulation of Wall Street, writing on his campaign website that "we are now in a new Gilded Age." Like Sanders, he also opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

"Time and time again, (Wasserman Schultz) has voted to protect the pools of dark money in politics," Canova recently told the New Times newspaper of Broward-Palm Beach.

While Sanders has a strong ability to raise money and thus could impact the race, he did not fare well in Wasserman Schultz's congressional district during the March Florida presidential primary, scoring 30.1% of the vote compared with Clinton's 68%.

On Wednesday, Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, slammed Wasserman Schultz after she told CNN the Vermont senator did not do enough to condemn his supporters' behavior at the party's raucous Nevada convention last week.

"We can have a long conversation about Debbie Wasserman Schultz just about how she's been throwing shade on the Sanders campaign from the very beginning," Weaver told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day."

"It's not the DNC," Weaver added. "By and large, people in the DNC have been good to us. Debbie Wasserman Schultz really is the exception."

Wasserman Schultz has pushed back against Sanders' accusation that the party had rigged the system against him.

"We've had the same rules in place that elected Barack Obama. These rules were adopted for state parties all across the country in 2014," she said earlier this week.

Asked about the "throwing shade" line on Wednesday, Wasserman Schultz told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "My response to that is hashtag SMH (shake my head)."



“Canova is supporting Sanders. "Well, clearly, I favor her opponent," Sanders told Tapper. "His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Shultz's." Sanders added that if he's elected president, he wouldn't reappoint Wasserman Schultz to head the DNC. …. Canova, who teaches at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law in Fort Lauderdale, was asked in 2011 to serve on Sanders' Wall Street reform advisory panel. "I'm so proud to know that Bernie Sanders favors our campaign for progress for all. Like Sen. Sanders, I'm running a campaign that's truly backed by the people, not big corporations -- one that stands up to Wall Street interests instead of cozying up to them," Canova told CNN in a statement Saturday. "Together, I feel confident that our campaign of nurses, teachers, students, seniors and working-class Floridians can work together to demand accountability from our leaders, and offer a more positive path forward to the people of Florida's 23rd district." Canova has called for greater regulation of Wall Street, writing on his campaign website that "we are now in a new Gilded Age." Like Sanders, he also opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. "Time and time again, (Wasserman Schultz) has voted to protect the pools of dark money in politics," Canova recently told the New Times newspaper of Broward-Palm Beach.”


I’m glad to see yet another Democrat with boldly liberal leaning views rather than centrist, and who is more like Sanders in integrity than Clinton. No matter what she says these days about her beliefs and views, I just don’t think she has the kind of sincerity that Sanders does. She’s like Joe Lieberman. She isn’t really for what I would call reform, and wobbles around so much that it makes me think she has indeed been “bought.” She has been one of my favorites since the Clinton presidency, so I am personally sorry to have to say that.



http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/dnc-to-offer-sanders-platform-input-washpost-689354819792

Video -- DNC to offer Sanders platform committee seats: Washington Post
Rachel Maddow relays a new breaking report from The Washington Post that the Democratic National Committee plans to offer Bernie Sanders seats on a platform committee as a concession. Duration: 1:09


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dnc-to-offer-sanders-a-convention-concession/2016/05/19/99706b54-1df4-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html

DNC to offer Sanders a convention concession
By Abby Phillip and Anne Gearan
May 19, 2016

Photograph -- Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at the Nevada State Democratic Party’s convention in Las Vegas. Tension erupted between organizers and supporters. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)


In an attempt to head off an ugly conflict at its convention this summer, the Democratic National Committee plans to offer a concession to Sen. Bernie Sanders — seats on a key convention platform committee — but it may not be enough to stop Sanders from picking a fight over the party’s policy positions.

Allies of both Clinton and Sanders have urged Democratic leaders to meet some of Sanders’s more mundane demands for greater inclusion at the Philadelphia convention. Their decision to do so is expected to be finalized by the end of the week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. But growing mistrust between Sanders supporters and party leaders have threatened to undermine that effort.

Even with the committee assignments, Sanders plans an aggressive effort to extract platform concessions on key policies that could prompt divisive battles at a moment when front-runner Hillary Clinton will be trying to unify the party. Among other issues, he plans to push for a $15 national minimum wage and argue that the party needs a more balanced position regarding Israel and Palestinians, according to a Sanders campaign aide who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Much like their view that the economy has been “rigged” to benefit the wealthy more than the middle and working classes, Sanders supporters have become increasingly convinced that national Democrats have stacked the political deck with rules that have made it difficult for Sanders to win enough delegates to threaten Clinton’s nomination.

Party leaders, meanwhile, have grown more frustrated with Sanders, who they say has unfairly fueled that perception.

“I don’t think they’ve handled it very well and I think they’ve lost the moral high ground on this,” said Ken Martin, chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer Labor Party. “It’s very clear now that the longer they stay in this race the more damage they’re doing.”

The mistrust hit a boiling point in Nevada over the weekend, when a ruckus caused by Sanders supporters prompted security officials to cut short the state party convention. The incident worried party leaders impatient with the prolonged Democratic primary and looking to avoid drama in Philadelphia. Their impatience spread to Sanders when he issued a defiant statement accusing Nevada Democrats of preventing a “fair and transparent process.”

Separately, the composition of three convention committees — platform, rules and credentials — has become key. Earlier this month, in a letter to DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Sanders threatened to bring the fight to the floor of the convention if she did not appoint more of his loyalists to the each of the three committees.

Martin and other Democratic chairmen urged national leaders to give Sanders the concessions he seeks — especially when it comes to the platform, which in the long run does not have a material impact on Democrats’ electoral chances in November.

“There are other chairs who probably feel that way and feel like this is my party and f--- Bernie Sanders,” said Martin, a Clinton supporter. “I’m not one of those.

“I feel very passionately that we have to open up that party and make sure that those voices are heard,” he said.

One of Sanders’s demands was the composition of the 15-person drafting committee, whose members are appointed at Wasserman Schultz’s discretion and write the party’s platform.

One Democratic Party official requesting anonymity said Wasserman Schultz asked for recommendations from both campaigns in an effort to be inclusive.

But Sanders had sought to split the committee evenly between his and Clinton’s allies — plus one “neutral” appointment from Wasserman Schultz.

Highlights from Bernie Sanders’s campaign, in pictures
View Photos The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clinton’s rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Weeks of negotiations followed, and the DNC eventually agreed to add more Sanders representatives. According to two people familiar with the conversations, the DNC and the campaigns will reach a final agreement — probably less than Sanders wanted but more than the DNC originally offered — by the end of the week.

A spokesman for the DNC declined to comment on the negotiations.

Sanders’s aides have also publicly and privately complained about the appointment of two Clinton loyalists — former congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts to head the Rules Committee and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy to lead the Platform Committee — as chairmen of two of the convention’s standing bodies.

Tad Devine, a senior adviser to the Sanders campaign, said this week that they may yet seek to have Frank and Malloy removed from their posts.

In an interview with CNN Thursday, Clinton noted pointedly that she believes Sanders no longer has a shot at the nomination. She also said that Sanders will need to encourage his supporters to unify behind her, just as she did in 2008 when running against Barack Obama.

“I have every confidence that we’re going to be unified,” Clinton said. “I think what brings us together is Donald Trump.”

That hasn’t happened yet. A Sanders spokesman disputed Clinton’s assertion that the nomination is hers. And Sanders has ramped up the rhetoric in recent days, saying after Clinton won Kentucky that he still intends to win the nomination despite an overwhelming disadvantage in delegates.

Sanders 'getting to like' West Coast after victory in Oregon
Play Video1:34

In front of a boisterous crowd in Carson, Calif., Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called on the Democratic party May 17 to "open the doors; let the people in." Sanders vowed to continue fighting rival Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Even if he doesn’t, he still intends to pick a platform fight at the convention, according to a campaign aide who requested anonymity to discuss strategy.

Clinton aides have said that on a slew of issues, Sanders is not far from the party. But the issue of U.S. policy toward Israel — which a Sanders adviser said “absolutely, legitimately will be a point of conversation” — has made some of Clinton’s backers nervous.

Sanders is seeking a more “even-handed” U.S. approach to Israeli occupation of land Palestinians claim for a future state. The current platform does not address the nearly five-decade occupation directly, but it endorses “a just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian accord, producing two states for two peoples.”

Speaking last month during a contentious debate with Clinton, Sanders — who declared himself “100 percent pro-Israel” — said that Israel’s 2014 military assault on the Gaza Strip was “disproportionate” to the threat posed by Hamas rockets launched from the Palestinian territory into Israel.

Behind his words is a long debate among U.S. and international policymakers — one that divides the Democratic base and could pose a challenge for Clinton when she must bring her party together: how to weigh Palestinian interests when dealing with Israel, and whether resolute U.S. backing for Israel diminishes leverage to promote peace and fair treatment of Palestinians.

“On one hand there is not an enormous amount of difference between them. They are both pro-Israel, they are both pro-peace,” said one longtime Clinton supporter. “But in the context of the campaign terms like ‘even-handed’ can come to mean that the United States is signaling a shift” — and Clinton would oppose that.

anne.gearan@washpost.com

Abby Phillip is a national political reporter for the Washington Post. She can be reached at abby.phillip@washpost.com. Follow @abbydphillip



EXCERPTS -- “Even with the committee assignments, Sanders plans an aggressive effort to extract platform concessions on key policies that could prompt divisive battles at a moment when front-runner Hillary Clinton will be trying to unify the party. Among other issues, he plans to push for a $15 national minimum wage and argue that the party needs a more balanced position regarding Israel and Palestinians, according to a Sanders campaign aide who requested anonymity to speak candidly. …. Martin and other Democratic chairmen urged national leaders to give Sanders the concessions he seeks — especially when it comes to the platform, which in the long run does not have a material impact on Democrats’ electoral chances in November. “There are other chairs who probably feel that way and feel like this is my party and f--- Bernie Sanders,” said Martin, a Clinton supporter. “I’m not one of those. “I feel very passionately that we have to open up that party and make sure that those voices are heard,” he said.One of Sanders’s demands was the composition of the 15-person drafting committee, whose members are appointed at Wasserman Schultz’s discretion and write the party’s platform. One Democratic Party official requesting anonymity said Wasserman Schultz asked for recommendations from both campaigns in an effort to be inclusive. But Sanders had sought to split the committee evenly between his and Clinton’s allies — plus one “neutral” appointment from Wasserman Schultz.” …. In front of a boisterous crowd in Carson, Calif., Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called on the Democratic party May 17 to "open the doors; let the people in." Sanders vowed to continue fighting rival Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post). Even if he doesn’t, he still intends to pick a platform fight at the convention, according to a campaign aide who requested anonymity to discuss strategy.”


There is no final agreement on the DNC’s proposed assignment of Sanders supporters to the Platform Committee, but it is still under consideration. Sanders hasn’t agreed to throw in the towel yet, and is expected to make a fight at the Democratic convention. Throwing him a little piece of meat isn’t enough, I suspect. Read this article for the half dozen or so differences between the Sanders and the Clinton groups. I am relieved to see that Sanders is bringing up the unmentionable issue -- Israel vs Palestinian territories and the US position blindly beside them. Our traditional position as the power behind Netanyahu and Israel as a whole is weakening our position in other parts of the world, as more radical Islamists take over local governments. Netanyahu's insistence on giving no ground, which could create a real peace with Palestine, is destroying all hope of even a little bit of peace.

The excerpts in the paragraph above summarize most of the Sanders / Wasserman fight, but the whole article is the best summary of the Democratic Party fissure that I have seen.