DNC to Change Debate Rules as Tulsi Gabbard Reaches Delegate Requirement

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) affirmed on Tuesday that the requirements to participate in upcoming Democrat debates will go up — a sign that the DNC will forgo the rule that allowed a candidate to participate in a debate if he or she had a single pledged delegate. The news coincides with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) gaining a delegate from American Samoa on Super Tuesday. “We have two more debates– of course the threshold will go up,” DNC Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa said on Tuesday. “By the time we have the March debate, almost 2,000 delegates will be allocated. The threshold will reflect where we are in the race, as it always has,” she added.

The announcement drew heavy criticism on social media, with several users accusing the DNC of shutting Gabbard out of the race. “God forbid Tulsi gets back on the debate, right?” one asked. “Funny how you waited, then, to make this change until after Tulsi earned a delegate,” another observed. “I’m not sure which I hate more, the DNC for this continued primary/debate rigging, or the voters who will just be good little sheep and vote for your corrupt party anyway.” Another called the move “utterly corrupt,” and another mused, “Translation: We have to do everything we can do keep Tulsi off the debate stage.” Gabbard has battled the Democrat establishment over the course of her presidential bid. She told reporters in January that CNN never gave her an explanation as to why it excluded her from its series of town halls with Democrat candidates — candidates including Deval Patrick, whose performance fell below Gabbard’s in the national polls.

The lawmaker also took aim at Karl Rove and Dana Perino on Tuesday over a Fox News segment featuring former President George W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff suggesting that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was the only woman left in the Democrat primary race. “.@DanaPerino I’m not quite sure why you’re telling FOX viewers that Elizabeth Warren is the last female candidate in the Dem primary,” she said, taking a shot at Warren. “Is it because you believe a fake indigenous woman of color is ‘real’ and the real indigenous woman of color in this race is fake?” she asked.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/04/dnc-to-change-debate-rules-as-tulsi-gabbard-reaches-delegate-requirement/

https://twitter.com/XochitlHinojosa/status/1235009904634728448

https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1234962318045278208

Vatican Praises UK Jesuits’ Divestment of Fossil Fuel Stocks

ROME — The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has held up British Jesuits as an example of an effective commitment to combating climate change, which it calls “the most urgent challenge” we face. As Breitbart News reported, in late February the UK Jesuit order announced they were dumping all fossil fuel stocks from their half-billion-dollar investment portfolio because of the fuel companies’ complicity in the “climate crisis.”

“Our trustees took the decision to completely divest from oil, gas and coal-producing companies because they felt these companies were not making enough progress towards better solutions,” declared Jesuit Brother Stephen Power, the order’s British Province Treasurer. The Jesuits in Great Britain — the country’s largest male religious institution — have decided to give up investing in companies whose main source of income comes from the extraction of fossil fuels, the Vatican newspaper noted Wednesday, as a means of responding to the clear moral imperative to act to safeguard our planet for future generations.”

The paper cited Father Damian Howard, the order’s provincial superior, insisting that “climate change is the most pressing challenge the world faces as climate disasters wreak more and more destruction, hitting poorer countries the hardest — despite them having done the least to cause them.” Since several scientific studies show that “the entire planet is facing a serious climate emergency,” Father Howard calls on “all institutions to react to this ecological crisis and take courageous actions to reduce energy consumption and switch to renewable sources,” the article adds. Large investors, in particular, are called to do “everything possible to help avoid the serious consequences that could result.”

The Jesuits have been part of a group of institutional shareholders in Barclays who have pressured the bank to phase out all its financing of fossil fuel companies. A resolution drawn up by the group, which accounts for some £130 billion in investments at the bank, would oblige Barclays to draft a plan to stop providing financial services to companies in the energy sector “that are not aligned with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.” “The world must respond to the enormous challenges and opportunities of climate change with far greater urgency,” said Paul Chitnis, Director of Jesuit Missions. In addition to Great Britain, the Jesuits in Canada, Italy, and Australia, along with the Jesuit European Social Centre in Brussels and the Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA) in Kenya have also decided to divest themselves of investments in coal, the article notes.

https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2020/03/04/vatican-praises-uk-jesuits-divestment-of-fossil-fuel-stocks/

https://www.jesuit.org.uk/jesuits-support-resolution-barclays-put-climate-crisis-centre-stage