New York Primaries: Make or Break

On Tuesday April 19, the much anticipated New York primaries will finally occur. Every news media  outlet are focusing on polls, pundits making predictions, and candidates getting heated over hot topics. But it's also a make or break primary state, as candidates on each party are fighting for delegates that they desperately need.

Three candidates are embracing their New York love, as Bernie Sanders who was born and raised in Brooklyn, or Donald Trump who grew up in Manhattan, and Hillary Clinton trying to appeal to voters as her "adopted home."

Sanders needs this win, as he's spending $7 million on the state primary compared to Hillary's $3.7 million. The latest poll conducted today (Sunday) has Clinton leading by 10 points to Bernie, and Trump leading by a remarkable 33 points to Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

It's no secret this delegate heavy state can make or break Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz. Although there are many primaries to go, this primary can show the momentum that Sanders is building and if Cruz can even make it a close race to Trump (probably not). Let's see on Tuesday who truly embraced the "New York values" with a win.

The Panama Papers: A Quick Summary

The Panama Papers is the biggest leak of documents, ever. That's right, it beats Edward Snowden's scandalous NSA leak. With 2.6 terabytes worth of data compiled of 11.6 million confidential documents. But what is this leak and why should it matter?

The leaked documents came from Mossack Fonseca, which is a Panama-based law firm, hence, the Panama Papers. According to the firms website it says it offers, "research, advice and services for the following jurisdictions: Belize, The Netherlands, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Malta, Hong Kong, Cyprus, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Panama, British Anguilla, Seychelles, Samoa, Nevada, and Wyoming (USA)." But some of these jurisdictions serve as tax havens and that’s where it gets juicy.

The documents were leaked to a German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung,

about a year ago and they worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to research the documents.

These documents exposed leaders of countries, billionaires, drug lords, and terrorist organizations who used the Panama tax haven to store millions and billions of dollars. It’s not illegal to store money in tax havens, but what is illegal is not claiming the money as your asset for taxation (it may also raise suspicion of the amount of money).

The Prime Minister of Iceland already stepped down after protests for his resignation when his name was included in the Panama Papers. World leaders and famous people include (just to name a few):

- President of Russia, Vladimir Putin (who denies the allegations and called it a plot by the U.S.)

- President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri

- Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif

- King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud

- President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko

- President of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

- Soccer player for F.C. Barcelona, Lionel Messi (who’s facing tax evasion charges in Spain)

- Soccer player for Leicester City, Leonardo Ulloa

There have been 200 people with U.S. addresses revealed, but not any familiar names. Whether those addresses belong to U.S. citizens is unknown.

Super Saturday Results

The Super Saturday primary elections showed the presidential race narrowing down. Texas Senator Ted Cruz is catching up to Donald Trump after winning the caucuses in Kansas and Maine, only trailing Trump by 83 delegates (378-295). Bernie Sanders won two out of three states on Saturday (including Maine on Sunday), but is still behind by 203 delegates, excluding super delegates.

The race for the Republican nomination is starting to narrow down to Trump and Cruz while Rubio and Kasich are struggling to be a threat. In order to clinch the Republican nomination, a candidate must have 1, 237 delegates. Rubio currently has 151 delegates, and Kasich has 37.

Bernie Sanders had a successful turnout on Super Saturday. Pundits are predicting that this momentum can reenergize his campaign as he didn't do too well on Super Tuesday. In order to clinch the Democratic nomination, the candidate must have 2, 838 delegates.

Nevada and South Carolina Primaries: Could Trump Be Our Next President?

This weekends primaries began to narrow down the candidates in this election cycle. Business mogul Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary by 32.5 percent, and Senator Marco Rubio barely overcoming Ted Cruz by 22.5 to 22.3 percent in a tight race for second place. In the Nevada caucus, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won by 52.6 percent to Senator Bernie Sanders 47.3 percent.

The race for the Democratic nomination is still really close to call, but on the Republican side, Donald Trump may win the nomination. An interesting observation by USA Today noted that since 1980 Republican candidates that won both New Hampshire and South Carolina end up winning the nomination. Out of the three candidates that became the nominee, two became president (Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush). This begs the questions; could Trump be our next president?

Trump doesn't seem to be getting much competition from Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as they're struggling to catch up. Jeb Bush has suspended his campaign and John Kasich and Ben Carson are trailing too far to be a credible threat. This election cycle has proven to be unpredictable in both parties, and it just might be possible that Trump could win the presidency.

Bernie Sanders Landslide Win in New Hampshire - Political Revolution?

Bernie Sanders once again proved not to under estimate him in this election. A landslide is an understatement, beating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 22.4 percent in the New Hampshire primary. Sanders is also the first Jewish candidate to win a primary in New Hampshire.

What does this major win mean for his political revolution? For starters, it goes to show the momentum Sanders is building. His campaign is proud that his coalition isn't built from wealthy campaign contributors, but from everyday Americans. Sanders has also received three million individual contributions in donations, a record in American history.

It could be that Americans are feeling the Bern, considering that he's closing the gap between Clinton nationally by 7 percent. We'll see how far his political revolution can go with the upcoming primaries.

Flint's Water Crisis

We've all seen the pictures of the brown turd-like water from Flint, Michigan, but what really happened there?

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was elected into office in 2011, and he immediately gave multi-billion dollar tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations. It's too long of a story to explain how this neoclassical theory, or "trickle down economics," or "neoliberalism" doesn't work, but basically cutting taxes for the rich does not benefit the poor or middle classes. There's 40 years of data of this failed economic policy. (If you're interested in this topic I suggested the book "The History of Neoliberalism" by David Harvey.) Anyways, if the state government cuts taxes for the wealthy, that's a loss of revenue, therefore, the government must compensate by cutting benefits, programs, and other "cost saving" methods that essentially affect the poor and middle classes. Wanna guess what one of these "cost saving" ideas were?

You guessed it! Switching Flint's fresh drinking water from Lake Huron to the toxic Flint River. All of this could have be prevented by following the federal law of adding an additive that protects the water from lead pipes so that lead won't be leaked into the water, but the governor didn't want to spend $9,000.

This switch happened in April 2014 and the media is barely picking up on the story with limited details. The effects of lead and other toxic elements for humans have already caused deaths in Flint. If you want to know more about the effects and epidemic of America's water crisis (how Flint is only the beginning), watch Erin Brockovich explain it in this video.

It's also interesting to note that Governor Snyder's chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, has a wife Deb Muchmore, who is the spokesperson for the Nestle Company in Michigan. Nestle has also been sucking Lake Huron dry.

For more information of this water crisis, read Michael Moore's article. He's also a Flint native.

Iowa Caucus Begins Tomorrow

The much anticipated Iowa Caucus starts on Monday at 7 p.m. (CT) where Republican and Democrats will begin caucusing for the candidates of their choosing. Caucusing is a tad more complicated compared to primary voting where voters simply cast a ballot for a candidate. So why is it complicated?

The Caucus Process 
For starters, Republicans and Democrats have different types of caucusing methods. Voters have to be at the designated caucusing sites by 7 p.m. and doors close immediately after. For Republicans, caucus goers typically listen to a speech of each candidate and cast a secret ballot.

For Democrats, voters have to assemble together in a room for the candidate they choose and if a candidate does not have 15 percent of the population congregating then that candidate will be considered "non-viable." Which means participants cannot caucus for that candidate, but they will have the opportunity to join another candidates group since they cannot participate for the non-viable candidate. Once there are no non-viable participants, each candidate's group will be tallied and the winner will be declared.

I know what you're thinking, caucusing is complicated. Only about 20 percent of registered voters turn out to caucus. There are usually complaints that caucusing isn't the most effective way for turnout. Luckily, I live in Texas where there's open primaries.

Predictions
According to Real Clear Politics (an organization that gathers polling data), Donald Trump has a five point lead over Ted Cruz from the most recent poll on Saturday (Trump 28%, Cruz 23%, and Rubio 15%). There's a tighter race on the Democratic side with Hillary Clinton having a three point lead over Bernie Sanders (Clinton 45%, Sanders 42% and O'Malley 3%).

Many are predicting that former Governor Martin O'Malley will be deemed a non-viable candidate in Iowa. Results of the caucus will appear late Monday night. For a better understanding of how caucuses work watch this video.