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[bravenak]

1. Oh fuck this

[ciaobaby]

2. I'm just sure you meant to say "oh fuck him" (Booker)

[bravenak]

10. No. I mean fuck this

If the framing is going to continue to be Bernie vs. Democrats, then there is no way to bridge the divide. Maybe if bernie had found common cause with democrats in our establishment, he coulda convinced Booker to vote his way. Instead he chooses to denigrate our party, no surprise that he cannot herd those cats.

[ciaobaby]

13. Booker , et al , are denigrating our party by voting with republicans when we need to be united.

[bravenak]

29. Bullshit

We only need to be united if it is to do what bernie says

[markpkessinger]

20. And Booker being the largest Democratic recipient of Big Pharma contributions had nothing at all . .

. . . to do with this. Please.

[bravenak]

30. Probably not. Bernie refuses to make friends and negotiate

Might be easier to pass if you alllow other senators to share their concerns before hand. The democratic party owes him nothing

[George II]

35. Yeah, and that guy had to throw in "if the one in the hospital had shown up". These guys are...

...unbelievable.

Seems like some go out of their way to find things to criticize Democrats. How DARE she have surgery, how inconsiderate!!!

[bravenak]

38. It's fucking annoying

They hate democrats but cannot build a coalition without the bulk of the votes coming from democrats. Maybe insulting democrats all day everyday is not helpful to getting anything passed

[George II]

39. Is anyone concerned about how Dianne Feinstein is doing? Of course not, but...

....she should have showed up yesterday to vote.

At least she wasn't off buying a vacation home on Lake Champlain.

[bravenak]

44. Of course not

Democrats have on duty; to serve the interests of BS. We are not allowed to get pacemakers to prevent our own demise if that conflicts with doing what BS tells us to

[CentralMass]

3. K&R

[baldguy]

4. To think of the number of times Democratic Party loyalists like me have been called totalitarians,

Corporatists and worse over the last year by people extolling the "virtues" of being independent of the supposed boot-heel of the DNC, just because we stressed the need for the Party to stick together, with one message, one face & one voice to counter the fascist Republicans - finding these Dem-hating & Clinton-hating "liberals" criticizing Booker et. al. for doing the exact same thing they advocated for is highly amusing.

Not.

[George II]

36. Precisely. But they "excuse" Sanders when he votes for questionable legislation or...

..votes against good legislation, with the typical excuse "it would have passed anyway" or "it would have lost anyway".

If any of these so-called "analysts" would actually READ what the amendment was perhaps they wouldn't have been so critical. But that takes time, and who has time when there's a chance to bash Democrats?

[Equinox Moon]

5. I appreciate the news reporting. Thanks for the post.

Sad day for Dems with this vote. Sad day indeed.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Combine the best of Booker and Sanders, and we'll have a great candidate.

Booker is known for his civil rights fights whereas Sanders didn't fare as well with that message (fair or not).

I'm concerned about the influence of money in politics, so I'm not too keen on Booker for that reason.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/why-do-liberals-hate-cory-booker/278992/

[4bucksagallon]

7. My mother, before she died, would go on those seniors bus tours to Canada....

from Maine with only one purpose, that was to buy their life saving drugs at a price they could afford. How can anyone call themselves a progressive and block this measure? TYT are spot on with the assessment that it's easy to talk the talk when your not going against your big money donors. These kinds of people are not true progressives. Bernie is and always has been and he can call himself a Democratic socialist all he wants. He is proof that this is the leadership America needed but now will not have....

[George II]

40. You might want to read the amendment.

[HassleCat]

8. Achilles Heel

Every politician has one. Bernie Sanders has the gun industry. Cory Booker has big pharma.

[CentralMass]

9. Bernie has a D minus rating from the NRA.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/20/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-nra-report-card-d-minus-most-recent/

[bravenak]

11. Bernie's real achilles heel is that he turns off large portions of the democratic base

Namely minorities. I see folks are still surprised when black folks don't hop to when Bernie says jump. Now, if he wants to work with democrats maybe he should stop insulting the entire party.

[4bucksagallon]

15. Maybe you should stop feeling that "black folks" are the only people that...

progressive democrats should cater to. It's a big country, blacks are still only about 13% of the population and many of them don't vote for whatever reason, certainly not this year in percentages that win national elections.... I'll turn the tables on you. You want your own party.... start your own party. Now where have I heard that before?

[bravenak]

28. I did not say cater to, I said not turn completely off

[INdemo]

45. What does the NRA hve to do with this ammendment to allow

Canadian pharmaceuticals imported?

[jalan48]

12. I bet if Bernie had a (D) behind his name Booker and the others would have voted with him. Right?

[CentralMass]

14. Maybe if he had a wad of cash

[BainsBane]

26. Are you kidding?

if there is one thing Bernie doesn't lack, it's money.

[dgauss]

16. Just a guess but probably not.

And if Sanders did finally put on the (D), those who don't like Sanders now would move their focus away from the (D) to some other reason to dismiss him.

[tecelote]

31. Exactly.

[Eric J in MN]

17. No. Democrats also voted on drug re-importation and didn't pass it for the ACA.

Bernie Sanders didn't introduce that ACA amendment.

[stuffmatters]

18. Amy Klobuchar co sponsered this bill; it wasn't an anti Bernie but a pro-big pharma vote by 13 Dems

And, yeah, it's why Dems can't even stand together for even the most common sense start to reducing big Pharma's deadly fleecing of Americans.

[elmac]

43. This is correct and if the Dems can't stand together on something like this

then the parties future looks very bleak. They better get their shit together quick or the fascists will have their way for not only 8 years but for decades.

[INdemo]

47. So....this among many other situations

is another example that The Corporate mafia owns many of Democrats..Once again dont expect any change in 2018 midterm when there are those Democrats that like the status quo and I'll bet those 12 Democrats just got a hefty bonus Constitution from the pharmaceutical
companies.

[BainsBane]

27. Perhaps if he'd taken the bill seriously enough

To talk to other senators about their concerns and made modifications, like specifying precisely what safety meant? But then he never intended it to be law, did he?

[jalan48]

42. It's a good thing all those Republicans and that handful of Democrats saw through Bernie's ruse.

[markpkessinger]

19. Booker and the other Democrats didn't "screw Bernie Sanders" with this vote . . .

. . . they screwed the American people.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

22. That's an accurate, less divisive way of expressing it!

[markpkessinger]

21. Hiding behind the excuse of "upholding FDA standards" . . .

. . .Give me a fucking break! And besides, if Americans are willing to trust the judgment of Canadian regulators -- and I, for one, would probably place more confidence in them than I would in oiur own FDS -- why should we be prohibited from doing so? We don't need this kind of paternalistic 'protection' from Booker or anybody else. I mean, it's fucking Canada already -- it's not like we're tlaking about Somalia or something!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

23. It reminds me of the BS argument that a company named Genentech tried...

a few years ago.

I get injections of a drug named "Avastin" in my eyeballs periodically to drastically slow down eventual blindness.

Genentech scientists developed the drug to treat colon cancer (as an IV drip), but it didn't have a good reputation for that treatment and hospitals often had unused bags of it.

Some ophthalmologists in Florida decided to test the drug, in tiny doses injected directly into the eyeballs, as a treatment for macular degeneration. It worked great! In short time, many other ophthalmologists and retinologists started buying unused IV bags of Avastin from hospitals, dividing the drug into many tiny doses for direct injection.

Meanwhile, Genentech decided to develop their own "eye drug" based on Avastin, calling it Lucentis. If I'd been forced to pay for Lucentis instead of Avastin, I would've paid about $2000 per shot instead of $300 each!

Genentech then appealed to the government to make Avastn eye injections illegal, supposedly out of concern for the "safety" of patients who might get tainted small doses that weren't subdivided in sterile conditions!

Yeah, I'm sure that "safety" was their main concern! Greedy MF'ers!

Eye doctors around the country made a big stink about it, and they essentially said they were going to keep doing it anyway, and Genentech eventually backed off.

They still scored a "financial win" by getting Medicare/Medicaid to pay for the more expensive Lucentis but not Avastin, though!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

34. One of Rudy Giuliani's first jobs...

..... after being "America's Mayor" was shilling for pharma by using his "security street cred" he somehow gained by being mayor of NYC when it got hit.

He ran around all the news media worrying about how importing drugs from Canada could be dangerous and maybe, just maybe, be a source of terrorist attack.

Now some of our own people are pulling the same shit.

[stonecutter357]

24. Democratic party Members only from now on.......thanks.

[tecelote]

33. Yeah. That'll do it.

We'll be stronger all alone. We don't need no one else.

We lost on so many levels and we can do it again!!

[BainsBane]

25. The title certainly shows priorities

As long as you cast issues in terms of what Bernie is owed, you're going to generate opposition. While Bernie Sanders supporters may believe him more important than every other human being on the planet, we all don't subscribe to the positivist, great man view of politics. Some of us actually believe all human beings are created equal.
.
It is intersting that the day Obamacare is repealed, the only thing the Bernie people care about is that everyone didn't vote for an amendment that was never going to pass. The people who are about to lose their healthcare don't rate compared to the far more important issue of obeying Bernie.

[George II]

37. I doubt that anyone complaining here even knows what the amendment was about, nor.....

....did they bother to read why Booker and others voted against it.

It was a weak and vague amendment. Of course, look at who "wrote" it.

[otohara]

50. #NeverBooker Already?

Damn you guys are gluttons for punishment.

[George II]

41. WHY BOOKER VOTED AGAINST THIS AMENDMENT!!!!!

“I support the importation of prescription drugs as a key part of a strategy to help control the skyrocketing cost of medications.

Any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards.

I opposed an amendment put forward last night that DIDN'T MEET THIS TEST.

The rising cost of medications is a life-and-death issue for millions of Americans, which is why I also voted FOR amendments last night that bring drug prices down and protect Medicare’s prescription drug benefit.

I’m committed to finding solutions that allow for prescription drug importation with adequate safety standards.”

[elmac]

46. this is a poor excuse for someone

who has to chose between paying the rent or paying for medication each month.

[mcar]

48. Thank you!

I find it - interesting - that some of Bernie's fans are singling out Booker for their scorn.

[George II]

49. Well the video took a shot at Feinstein for "not showing up", never considering...

...the reason why she didn't.

She was having a pacemaker installed. How inconsiderate of her, didn't she know that "Bernie" had an amendment up for a vote? Damned Democrat!!!