Segami
Segami's JournalBernie Sanders "NOBODY REALLY KNOWS" Department of Defense Spending
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I can't ever see Hillary quoting Dwight D. Eisenhower's famous "military-industrial complex" line......
On 6-14-15 in Indianola, Iowa, Senator Bernie Sanders responds to a "Governing Under the Influence" question about the massive political influence from Pentagon contractors, such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman who spend millions on lobbying and elections to influence public policy.
*Video starts here, addressing President Eisenhower*
Communist Dwight D. Eisenhower *crowd laughs*. Just as he was leaving office, when Kennedy was coming in he said “beware of the military industrial complex.” And he said “these people are self-serving”, and this was coming from a guy who was a four-star general who led the effort into Europe who knew a little bit about military spending. And he said “beware that they’re not necessarily entrusted in the well-being of our country, they’re entrusted in their own power and profits.”
I think when Eisenhower said fifty plus years ago (inaudible) that these guys are enormously powerful. There is a revolving door where generals and admirals open the military into defense contractors.
So let me just tell you a little bit about what we’re trying to do now.
cont'
An Outraged And Disgusted Bernie Sanders Urges His Supporters To Donate To Emanuel AME Church
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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has canceled his scheduled campaign event in Charleston, SC this weekend and is urging his supporters to donate to the Emanuel AME Church.
In a statement, Sanders said,
Sanders also urged his supporters to donate to the Emanuel AME Church, which you can do here. Sen. Sanders has over 200,000 donors, so if every donor would give the church one dollar that would mean more than $200,000 to help them in their time of grief. The Sanders event has been postponed as now is not the time for presidential campaign politics. It is important that our nation take this time to grieve and heal, but to also ask why, and how we can take steps towards ridding ourselves of the dark cloud of racism that still hovers over our nation and society.
There will be time later for campaign rallies. The three emotions that that Senator described feeling disgust, outrage, and sadness are shared by most Americans today. There is an overwhelming sadness over the loss of innocent life. Disgust over the racist motivations behind the crime, and outrage over the act itself.
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/18/outraged-disgusted-bernie-sanders-urges-supporters-donate-emanuel-ame-church.html
'TURNCOAT DEMS' In House Blasted As Fast Track Fight Heads Back to Senate
"The legislation that barely squeaked through the House today faces a much more uncertain future in the Senate," says Wenonah Hauter of Food & Water Watch. (Credit: Public Citizen) Drawing the swift ire of progressives around the country, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday took a step to revive President Barack Obama's faltering corporate trade agenda, passing Fast Track, or Trade Promotion Authority, in a 218-208 vote. Twenty-eight Democratic lawmakers voted in favor of Fast Track, which would make it easier for Obama to ram through controversial trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership, reducing the role of Congress to an up-or-down vote on such mammoth agreements.
These are the 28 Democrats who voted for 'fast-track'—twice
On Thursday, House Republicans once again held a vote on the so-called "Trade Promotion Authority" legislation—abbreviated as TPA and better known as "fast-track"—that would prevent Congress from adding amendments to any trade deals negotiated by President Obama. And once again, the same 28 Democrats voted in favor of it:
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Susan Davis (CA-53)
Sam Farr (CA-20)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Ami Bera (CA-07)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Jared Polis (CO-02)
James Himes (CT-04)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23)
Mike Quigley (IL-05)
John Delaney (MD-06)
Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Gregory Meeks (NY-05)
Kathleen Rice (NY-04)
Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01)
Jim Cooper (TN-05)
Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15)
Eddie Johnson (TX-30)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Beto O'Rourke (TX-16)
Gerald Connolly (VA-11)
Donald Beyer (VA-08)
Rick Larsen (WA-02)
Suzan DelBene (WA-01)
Derek Kilmer (WA-06)
Ron Kind (WI-03)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/18/1394407/-These-are-the-28-Democrats-who-voted-for-fast-track-twice#
"Thanks to House Republicans and a handful of turncoat Democrats, the army of corporate execs and industry lobbyists who wrote the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership will now have an easier time shoving it down the throats of an American public that's broadly opposed to more NAFTA-style trade deals," Democracy for America chair Jim Dean said after the vote. "While we will continue to work to defeat fast-track for the job-killing TPP in the U.S. Senate, we will never forget which House Democrats stood with American working families against Fast Track and who sold them out."
The vote comes as a result of procedural maneuvering and arm-twisting by the White House and GOP leaders—machinations that Fast Track opponents were quick to decry. "Our disappointment with the president is profound," said Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica on Thursday. "Sadly, we have come to expect Republicans to sell out the environment for the pursuit of corporate profits. But we expect more regard for environmental protection and respect for working families from President Obama and the Democrats who supported this bill." While Thursday's vote is a setback, the fight is far from over. The legislation will now head back to the Senate, where as Public Citizen notes, "its fate remains at best unclear."
In May, the Senate originally passed a version of Fast Track that was linked to Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) legislation that gives aid to workers displaced by trade. But last Friday, the TAA measure was overwhelmingly defeated in the House, in turn derailing Fast Track. Thursday's vote separated Fast Track from TAA legislation, meaning those who voted in favor supported a bill without protections for workers. It is unknown whether Senate Democrats will support a stand-alone Fast Track bill.
cont'
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/18/turncoat-dems-house-blasted-fast-track-fight-heads-back-senate
BERNIE-MENTUM Spreads As HUGE DEMAND For Sanders Forces Nevada Event Into A BIGGER HALL
The presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders has announced that due to high demand their upcoming events in South Carolina and Nevada were moved to larger venues. In a statement, the Sanders campaign announced the need to change venues to bigger halls:
Responding to swelling interest, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign moved town meetings set for this weekend to much bigger spaces in Las Vegas and Charleston, South Carolina. The campaign also made contingency plans to accommodate the thousands of people who have indicated they plan to see Sanders on Saturday in Denver.
“The more people get to know about Bernie and what he stands for the more they want to be part of his political revolution,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager. “I think there’s just a hunger out in the country for someone to speak to the issues that really affect the lives of middle income and working families,” he added.
The events are free and open to the public, which makes turnout projections difficult to calculate precisely, but Weaver said the campaign changed the event sites in Nevada and South Carolina based on indications that much bigger crowds of people plan to attend than were initially anticipated.
Bernie Sanders is the hottest candidate in either party. His campaign has a grassroots momentum behind it that is unmatched at this time. It is unknown whether this enthusiasm will translate to votes, but Sen. Sanders has something special going. Sen. Sanders has events planned for Las Vegas, NV, Denver, CO, And Charleston, SC on Friday and Saturday. It looks like the sellout crowds that Sanders has been drawing are no fluke. Sen. Sanders seems to be well on his way to building a movement against the Koch brothers and other billionaires who are trying to buy our government.
cont'
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/17/bernie-mentum-spreads-huge-demand-sanders-forces-nevada-event-bigger-hall.html
BERNIE-MENTUM Precedes Clinton’s Visit To South Carolina
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Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign Tuesday night decided to move an event planned for Sunday in Charleston to a larger venue after more than 1,000 signed up to attend on the campaign’s website.
“The response in South Carolina has been tremendous,” said Phil Fiermonte, the campaign’s national field director. “The interest in Bernie and his message about rebuilding our middle class is resonating in South Carolina like it is in other states around the country.”
On Monday, the executive board of the South Carolina AFL-CIO passed a resolution supporting Sanders’ candidacy. “We firmly believe that Senator Bernie Sanders is the strongest candidate articulating our issues,” the labor union wrote, calling on “union members and working people everywhere to unite behind Bernie Sanders and elect the President America’s workers desperately need.”
LOL!!- Jon Stewart And Crew 'Orgasmic' Over Trump
As we all hoped and prayed he would, Jon Stewart opened The Daily Show Tuesday night with the “gift from heaven” that is Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential announcement. But before the delicious dessert, Stewart decided to feed his audience some “spinach” in the form of Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush’s campaign launch speeches that occurred in quick succession over the last few days.
Bombshell Report Finds Walmart Is HIDING BILLIONS Of Dollars To AVOID PAYING U.S. TAXES
A new report from Americans For Tax Fairness uncovered Walmart’s vast network of international subsidiaries that Walmart is using to hide $76 billion in order to avoid paying taxes in the United States.
Here are some of the key findings from the report:
Walmart has established a vast and relatively new web of subsidiaries in tax havens, while avoiding public disclosure of these subsidiaries.
All told it has 78 subsidiaries and branches in 15 offshore tax havens, none of them publicly reported before. They have remained invisible to experts on corporate tax avoidance in part because of the way Walmart has filed information about them to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Walmart may be skirting the law as there is a legal requirement to list subsidiaries that account for greater than 10 percent of assets or income.
Luxembourg, dubbed a “magical fairyland” by one tax expert because of its ability to shelter profits from taxation, has become Walmart’s tax haven of choice.
It has 22 shell companies there – 20 established since 2009 and five in 2015 alone. Walmart does not have one store there. Walmart has transferred ownership of more than $45 billion in
assets to Luxembourg subsidiaries since 2011. It reported paying less than 1 percent in tax to Luxembourg on $1.3 billion in profits from 2010 through 2013.
Walmart has made tax havens central to its growing International division, which accounts for about one-third of the company’s annual profits.
At least 25 out of 27 (and perhaps all) of Walmart’s foreign operating companies (in the U.K.Brazil, Japan, China and more) are owned by subsidiaries in tax havens. All of these companies have retail stores and many employees. Walmart owns at least $76 billion in assets through shell companies domiciled in the tax havens of Luxembourg ($64.2 billion) and the Netherlands ($12.4 billion) – that’s 90 percent of the assets in Walmart’s International division ($85 billion) or 37 percent of its total assets ($205 billion).
Walmart appears to be playing a long game – from tax deferral to profit windfall.
It is using tax-haven subsidiaries to minimize foreign taxes where it has retail operations and to avoid U.S. tax on those foreign earnings. Walmart apparently hopes the U.S. Congress will reward its use of tax havens by enacting legislation that would allow U.S.-based multinationals to pay little U.S. tax when repatriating current low-taxed foreign earnings (such as to fund infrastructure spending) and pay no tax with the adoption of a territorial tax system.
Republicans have been pushing hard for a tax-free holiday to allow these corporations to bring the money back to the US with no taxes due. Walmart is waiting for Republicans to pass a bill that will reward them for hiding money overseas.
Not only does Walmart keep their workers in poverty through low wages, kill small locally owned businesses when they move into an area, cause an increase in local taxes by getting sweetheart tax free deals from local politicians, tax dodging by corporate giants like Walmart increases taxes on small businesses by $3,200 a year.
The Walton family are the only people who benefit from the Walmart way of doing business. Walmart is one of the biggest tax cheats in the United States, which is why it is time for the IRS and the federal government to investigate Walmart.
http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/files/ATF-June-2015-Walmart-Report-Key-Findings-Final.pdf
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/17/bombshell-report-finds-walmart-hiding-billions-dollars-avoid-paying-taxes.html
Bernie Sanders CLIMBS New Hampshire POLL
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An Unhinged Lindsey Graham Shows Why America SHOULDN'T ELECT A Republican President
Sen. Lindsey Graham did a service for his country today by showing how out of touch Republicans are with reality as he tried to attack Hillary Clinton while calling for more Americans to die in the Middle East. Graham demonstrated the deluded party wide thinking that should be a reminder to every American why they can’t elect a Republican to be president.
Transcript:
DICKERSON: The secretary of defense, in some blunt remarks, said Iraqi army is not really up to the task.
This has been a repeated story, so why, if you add 10,000 advisers, are you not just sending good after bad here?
GRAHAM: Well, the surge did work.
In 2011, we had security in Iraq, political progress. If you don’t believe me, listen to President Obama in 2012. General Keane is the guy I have been listening to, who was the architect of the surge. If you have 10,000 Americans train and advise and assist at the battalion level, it would help Iraqi army be tougher.
It you had a couple of aviation battalions of American attack helicopters, you would have a distinct advantage over ISIL in Syria, in Iraq. But you have to look at Syria and Iraq as one battle space. We’re not doing the. We have no strategy to deal with the Iraqi safe havens in Syria. You cannot win this war from the air.
Obama will go before Assad will go. So, this whole policy toward degrading and destroying ISIL is miserable failure. And when Secretary Clinton said that this country was well-positioned to deal with the threats from ISIL, Iran, Russia, and China, she is absolutely delusional.
We’re in a bad position against all the threats we face, because Barack Obama has been a weak and indecisive commander in chief. And she would be the third term of a failed presidency. We better do something different.
…..
I will be a commander in chief on day one who takes the fight to ISIL to literally degrade and destroy it. And Assad will go. And it’s going to take more American troops to accomplish that goal. But we’re not well-positioned. If Hillary Clinton thinks we’re well-positioned as a nation, she’s disqualified herself to be commander in chief. We’re in a terrible spot.
On foreign policy, Lindsey Graham is a blood thirsty lunatic. Graham remarks are the perfect snapshot of the Republican refusal to see reality. Sen. Graham has convinced himself that the troop surge was working. He has convinced himself that terrorism was about to be defeated as if boots on the ground can win a war of the mind. Republicans have rewritten the history of the of the Bush years. They believe that they can use Bush’s foreign policy and win the Middle East. This whole line of thinking is what makes the Republican Party dangerous. Lindsey Graham wasn’t unhinged as in screaming and yelling. Graham’s whole thought process was that of an unhinged mind.
cont'
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/14/lindsey-graham-wigs-out-calls-hillary-clinton-delusional-demands-americans-die-middle-east.html
Hillary May Have Just LOST This Campaign
from DailyKos:
Hillary the Inevitable looks like a Goliath right now, but the most crucial moment of the 2016 Democratic primary may have happened already. Kos and others who support her cite her obvious assets--name recognition, her husband, her organization, and her vast financial resources--and conclude that she is the most powerful candidate to advance to the general election. They admit that she is a machine, for the most part--a concocted political presence who has endured, has a loyal core constituency, and dominates a comfortable pocket of the political spectrum that has been a proven winner in recent presidential elections--the moderate liberal who is progressive on social issues, not so much in military and economic matters. If you count Gore's stolen victory, it's won five of the last six contests--and none of those candidates had the cumulative strength of Hillary Clinton's current campaign. But most every one of her supporters will acknowledge that Hillary's political juggernaut is compromised by a single weakness: the sincerity of her progressive credentials, and just where her loyalties lie. That is a question that has dogged her and her husband for many years, and a question that has expanded in its significance now that economic injustice has emerged as the single greatest issue of our day. It is the single question that has compromised her popularity here on Daily Kos, and dominates arguments between her supporters and detractors. Hillary's advocates counter this argument by citing her inevitability, citing Bernie's age and other allegedly disqualifying factors, and making ridiculous claims that he's going to ignore issues like immigration reform, police violence, etc. just because he hasn't made them his focus. I've got news for you, guys--economic injustice is the biggest issue today for every American citizen, whether they realize it or not. Bernie is staying on this message because that's what disciplined politicians do, and because it's the biggest issue that differentiates him from Hillary. Hillary supporters are maintaining that she will win because she is the Greatest Machine Ever, even though she is weaker than Bernie on the biggest issue of our day: America's economic future and the survival of the middle class. And you hardly ever hear one of her supporters say that her economic policies are superior to Bernie's--they counter by maintaining instead that his policies are unrealistic, unattainable, or relatively unimportant.
Hillary knows this issue is a problem for her, or she wouldn't have made it a punch line/centerpiece of her campaign video announcement. After watching the video even I felt hopeful that maybe Hillary the Machine had decided that she needed to go left on economic issues after all, corporate donors be damned. And of course she followed that with bold policy statements regarding immigration, police violence, and immigration, which were certainly encouraging since I have at times felt that her election seemed inevitable. But I and many other Sanders supporters were skeptical about exactly to what lengths she would go to save the middle class. Her message on economic insecurity conveyed acknowledgment of the problem, but almost nothing in the way of specific policy proposals--in stark opposition to Bernie's laundry list of economic interventions. It smacks of lip service in the absence of conviction, the kind that's familiar to political junkies of all stripes--the empty campaign promises that can be nominally fulfilled after election victory by half-hearted, limited measures with minimal political consequence. She was trying to deprive Bernie of sole possession of this issue, but certainly not trying to own it. However, hopeful Hillaryites could still comfort themselves with the idea that she will pursue the issue with more detail and conviction when she's in office--understanding that Hillary can't afford to alienate her contributors now, but holding the belief that underneath it all Hillary has their best interests at heart. Even I tried to maintain this "run to the middle, govern to the left" fantasy back when Hillary seemed even more inevitable than she does now (i.e., before Bernie stole my heart and vote.) But now that TPP's come to vote before Congress, that idea is all shot to hell-- and Bernie now has possession of a political weapon for which Hillary has no credible defense.
As we all know now, TPP is a very large trade agreement that is coming along at a very vulnerable time for our nation. We have a government that is divided, discredited, and weak--and yet it is the only counterbalance we as a people have to the will of an entrenched, self-interested economic elite that seemingly has no limits to its lust for wealth and power. A huge proportion of Americans are facing diminishing options for economic success, and an increasingly insecure future. Hope is in very short supply. So along comes this bill that is so onerous and counterproductive that another bill (TAA) has to be passed for alleged compensation to American workers--as if American workers WANTED compensation instead of jobs!!!! Not only that, it includes bizarre regulatory mechanisms that, in the minds of myself and many others, appear to be a sort of corporate world government aimed at undermining the ability of sovereign nations to regulate their own economies. AND the text of the bill was secret!!! AND The Powers That Be wanted to "FAST-TRACK" it!!!!!!!! Those of us who want the economic priorities of this nation changed probably share my desire for a top-to-bottom overhaul of the tax code, trade regulation, management of economic resources, etc.--i.e., a comprehensive plan to change things for the better. Such an undertaking would entail extensive study of the problems that exist, and a thoughtful review of proposals that might solve those problems that takes into account all the potential negatives of each proposal--not just a bunch of willy-nilly actions without aforethought. The first step in such a mission is to avoid doing something stupid and counterproductive--such as passing a huge, highly questionable trade bill with unpredictable consequences, obvious negatives, unknown content--and especially doing so in a hurry because the bad guys say so!!!!
Hillary Clinton had every opportunity to express such concerns about TPP, and did nothing besides awkwardly sitting on the fence. If she was even a "moderate liberal" on this issue, couldn't she express concerns about "fast-tracking" the process, calling for delay of this legislation until more extensive study of the legislation could occur with open public scrutiny? The majority of Democrats in both the Senate and House opposed this legislation. By sitting on her hands, she positioned herself firmly in the right wing of her party on trade issues, on the same side of the corporate oligarchy we are trying to usurp. Sure, the vote went down, and the TPP is now on hold. But we didn't know for sure that was going to happen, and besides the issue still lives to see another day. Maybe Hillary will reexamine the political calculus and adjust her stance, and join the majority of her party in opposition to the treaty. But when push came to shove this past week, Hillary made it crystal clear--she cannot be relied upon to place the interests of the common American above those of her corporate sponsors. We here at Daily Kos can still debate who is most capable of defeating the Republicans in November 2016--but when it comes to the pivotal issue of economic injustice, Hillary has now revealed herself to be all talk, no walk. In the weeks to come, you can bet that Bernie's going to address the other issues of the day that concern all of us here, such as immigration reform, voting reform, #BlackLivesMatter--and on every one of them he will be comfortably progressive, because, let's face it, NOBODY is more progressive than Bernie Sanders is. But Hillary will never be able to walk back this past week, and IMO unable to establish any credibility on the biggest issue of today--which happens to be Bernie's home turf!!! And just because Bernie has been playing nice with Hillary so far, don't expect him to refrain from calling her out on this point. It will be replayed again and again, and Hillary will be damned if she does, damned if she don't--forced to rationalize her indecision, attempting to explain why she didn't have enough fear of the consequences TPP to slow down the process, to argue for transparency, or do anything else. Her passivity was acceptance. And neither passivity, nor acceptance, appear to me to be defensible in this primary campaign.
cont'
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/13/1392968/-Hillary-may-have-just-lost-this-campaign
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