With a launch of the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign on the near horizon, efforts to block his trajectory to the Democratic presidential nomination are intensifying. The lines of attack are already aggressive -- and often contradictory.

One media meme says that Bernie has made so much headway in moving the Democratic Party leftward that he’s no longer anything special. We’re supposed to believe that candidates who’ve adjusted their sails to the latest political wind are just as good as the candidate who generated the wind in the first place.

Bloomberg News supplied the typical spin in a Feb. 8 article headlined “Sanders Risks Getting Crowded Out in 2020 Field of Progressives.” The piece laid out the narrative: “Sanders may find himself a victim of his own success in driving the party to the left with his 2016 run. The field of Democratic presidential hopefuls includes at least a half-dozen candidates who’ve adopted in whole or in part the platform that helped Sanders build a loyal following . . .”

Every day in the U.S., women fight to break the glass ceiling and rise to the top of companies and industries that were predominantly held by men. Forbes magazine published the Power Women 2018 edition showcasing women from around the globe who are changing the look of the future for young women and girls. Taking a look at these forerunners can inspire true feelings of inspiration.
 

Whether they are joining the Women’s March to leverage the political power of diverse women in their communities to fight for social change or are running a small business, women everywhere are advancing themselves into power positions. Sometimes, this includes heading into jobs that men are leaving, such as animal agriculture in the American West.
 

The best place to start to understand the undemocratic nature of U.S. elections is to search “Paul Weyrich” and “Goo Goo” online. Weyrich, who states in the speech that “…I don’t want everybody to vote,” is co-founder of the Moral Majority, a religious right organization and ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is infamous for writing oppressive and anti-democratic “model” legislation – much it followed by Ohio’s Republican-dominated state legislature.

After the 2016 presidential election, a New York Times editorial pointed out that North Carolina’s “…Republican Party issued a news release boasting that cutbacks in early voting hours reduced black turnout by 8.5% below 2012 levels, even as the number of white voters increased by 22.5%.” A North Carolina federal appeals court struck down one of their most outrageous voter suppression laws noting that it targeted black voters “with almost surgical precision.”

Ohio’s former Secretary of State Jon Husted used similar racist voter repression tactics in our state. He cut back on early voting hours and eliminated voting centers in urban areas where minority voters are concentrated.

Recently I wrote an article explaining how you could defeat, using nonviolent strategy, the US coup attempt that is taking place in your country. See ‘A Nonviolent Strategy to Defeat the US Coup Attempt in Venezuela’.

I would like to complement that article by now briefly explaining how you can also defeat a military invasion by the United States and any collaborating invaders by using a strategy of nonviolent defense as well.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's junta-appointed Election Commission
disqualified a princess from running for prime minister in next
month's polls, after her surprise candidacy displeased her powerful
brother King Maha Vajiralongkorn and dangerously divided this country.

"All members of the royal family must abide by the king's principle of
staying above politics, maintaining political impartiality, and they
cannot take up political office," the commission said February 11.

The coup-installed military government meanwhile was investigating an
allegedly forged official document which appeared on social media
claiming Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha fired Army Chief Gen. Apirat
Kongsompong and other armed forces officers.

"Rumors. We are investigating. Fake news," Mr. Prayuth told reporters
February 11, referring to the alleged document which sparked Twitter
to trend #coup February 10 night.

Tanks rumbling through Lopburi city's streets tried to calm the public
by pasting pieces of paper saying "For Training" on the tanks' metal