merrily
merrily's JournalNew Poll: Majority says: enough Bushes and Clintons in the Oval Office.
I think that is a change? Last I read, not many really cared.
Other than that, there is good news and bad news for both Bernie and Clinton in the polls. You have to look at the entire article as slices that are not misleading are hard to carve out and I won't cherry pick
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/nbc-marist-polls-show-donald-trump-running-strong-iowa-nh-n398401
More about Bernie, MTP and guns
Please see: Video of Bernie on MTP, July 26, 2015 and DUers' comments at http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017281718
Please see also my earlier OP, titled "FWIW, a politifact article on Bernie and some of his gun votes." http://www.democraticunderground.com/128027343
FYI:
The State of Vermont is 9,523 square miles and the population is 626,562 (as of 2014). In 2011, 78 gun-related fatalities occurred in the State of Vermont. Vermonters hunt, including for food. http://www.pressherald.com/2014/11/23/vermont-trains-local-food-enthusiasts-adult-onset-hunters-to-bag-own-deer/
The City of New York is 469 square miles (all boroughs, not only Manhattan, the most densely populated) and the population is 8,405,837 (as of 2014). In 2011, 366 gun-related fatalities occurred in the City of New York, down from 524 in 2000. (They decreased further in 2012 and at least one article credits the decrease to a decrease in "stop and frisk."
http://nypost.com/2013/04/29/city-gun-deaths-plummet/
To my surprise, there is also hunting in New York City, probably for food as well. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/recreation/hunting_and_trapping.shtml-t
What makes sense for the State of Vermont may not make sense for New York City, or vice versa. One size does not fit all, which is exactly why the Constitution provided for Senators that represent each state equally, regardless of the size and population of a state, and why Sanders points out that each state is, for the most part, free to make its own gun laws. However, be they state or federal, I have little doubt that the SCOTUS would strike down as unconstitutional the kinds of gun control laws some people want, anyway. And even less doubt that such laws would be challenged in court.
As Bernie says in the MTP video, the state of Vermont has no gun control at all. So, the stand of the people whom he is supposed to represent most is clear. Yet, he has voted for some control measures and says we must do more.
As Bernie also says in the MTP video, as Congress has been operating, compromise is necessary if anything at all is to get done. On the one hand, people make up shit about Bernie's being a purist. On the other hand, he's damned if he compromises.
On the one hand, we've been reminded often that Obama is President of all the people, not only THE most progressive in the land--and that is truer of a President than it is of a Senator. However, when Sanders is the Senator of all people in Vermont, not only the most anti-weapon contingent in Vermont, he gets damned. The ever shifting sands and double standards betray the speakers, but that is beside the point.
Finally, Sanders rating from the NRA is D- to F, not exactly indicative of a "gun nut."
I am not apologizing or rationalizing. I simply think we need to have facts at hand. Facts may not be easy to present as are bs one liners, but I am partial to them anyway.
Idiots: Just heard on CBS Up to the Minute: "The President has never stepped so confidently into
his Kenyan past."
The only Kenyan past the President has is as a visitor. Perhaps the voice over meant to refer to the President's paternal Kenyan roots?
Was this an unintentional poor choice of words or an intentional subtle birther reference,
Either way, it was bad news, literally and figuratively.
ETA: I should have specified: This was not the anchor speaking live, but a video prepared in advance of the broadcast. Whether CBS prepared it, we'll probably never know. However, it probably had to pass through a process involving more than one person before hitting the airwaves.
Here we go. On Face the Nation this morning,
the panel discussed Netroots Nation, Sanders, O'Malley and Hillary and why saying "All lives matter" (which Bernie did not say) is not okay. As host Dickerson was winding up to go to break, John Heilemann interrupted him, saying, "Wait. This is very important. This is why Sanders will not be the nominee and Hillary will. Sander does not have the support of minorites and immigrants and Hillary does." This is from memory and a few words might be off, but not the thrust.
John Heilemann, on of the authors of Game Change, which discussed the 2008 primary, among other things, found it necessary to interrupt the host at the last second to make sure he said Hillary was going to be the nominee? Is this reporting the news or trying to make the news be as you wish it to be? Is it at least fair journalistic dommentary? No. It could not have been lighter in analysis or a more obvious, even rude, attempt to make sure the last word of the segment was that Hillary was going to be the Democratic Presidential nominee, the same thing people like him have been telling us for three years.
In a fair campaign, six months out is too early to make that kind of flat out prediction in good faith, let alone over three years. It's not journalism. It's not even crystal ball reading. It's a concerted attempt to direct the outcome of the primary.
Why politicians don't care that much about re-election (2012 article)
The Clintons are featured in this article from a few years back, but that is not why I am posting it, so I chose not to put that part of the article's title in the subject line.
Bill Clinton’s $80 Million Payday, or Why Politicians Don’t Care That Much About Reelection
Posted on May 22, 2012 by Matt Stoller
............
Most activists and political operatives are under a delusion about American politics, which goes as follows. Politicians will do *anything* to get reelected, and they will pander, beg, borrow, lie, cheat and steal, just to stay in office. It’s all about their job.
.............
In fact, this is what politics is increasingly about, not elections, but staying in the club. Erskine Bowles, former White House Chief of Staff, lost two Senate elections. But he’s on the board of Facebook and Morgan Stanley, as well as authoring the highly influential Simpson-Bowles plan to gut Social Security and Medicare. Tom Daschle, who lost a Senate race in 2004, is a millionaire who in large part crafted Obama’s health care plan. Former Senator Judd Gregg is now at Goldman Sachs. Current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made $12 million in between his stint at the Clinton White House which ended in 2000 and his election to Congress in 2002. Former Congressman Harold Ford, now at Morgan Stanley, is routinely on TV making political claims. Larry Summers is on the board of the high-flying start-up Square. Meanwhile, Russ Feingold, a Senator who did go after Wall Street, is a professor in the Midwest. Eliot Spitzer is a struggling TV host and writer.
Much more.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/its-not-about-reelection-bill-clintons-80-million-payday.html
Please, please try to ignore specific names. This issue is mega, not limited to one or two politicians or elections. It's a systemic issue.
Populists: support the Democratic Socialists of America!
http://www.dsausa.org/To my shame, I confess to knowing nothing about the Democratic Socialists of America until Bernie ran. The three most significant things of which I was ignorant were that:
1. The DSAUSA is a movement, not a political party.
2. The DSAUSA believes in working within the Democratic Party.
3. The DSASUA believes in working within capitalism.
Do I wish they had chosen a different name, rather than one that has people thinking of Tsars and Joe McCarthy? Yes, I confess to that, too. However, at bottom, this is a movement that wants to move the Democratic Party to the left, which is where I want to move it. This is a movement that believes that a society should take care of all its members, especially those who have the most trouble taking care of themselves, which is what I believe in. Why have I not been supporting it all along? Ignorance.
It has endorsed Bernie. I think the reasons for that are obvious and good. However, that is only one candidate in one election. If you want the Democratic Party to veer left more than it has, consider that that is what the DSAUSA wants as well.
In the recent past, my donations went to individuals, rather than to the DNC, the DSCC or the DCCC. More recently, however, I learned that a portion of the donations that I make to populist Democrats end up subsidizing less populist Democrats in Congress anyway. http://www.democraticunderground.com/12778505
Right now, my political donations and support will be going to Bernie. When Bernie is no longer a candidate, at least a good portion of my political donations and support just may go to the DSAUSA, where they will not end up subsidizing DINOs.
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump each entered a Presidential primary race.
One entered with little name recognition; the other did not.
Anyone notice a difference in the early media treatment of each of those two candidates?
Cool image and perfect for replying to my post, KUDOs on both counts.
But Bernie's hair is better than Patrick Stewart's. Just saying.
Then again, when it comes to Bernie's hair, I am a single issue voter.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1137&pid=45418
DUer proves a Majority of Americans are Democratic Socialists.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12779483This Op is shameless, candid self-promotion of my thread in the Populist Group, which I think can help people in the Bernie Sanders Group shamelessly and candidly promote Senator Sanders for President of the United States of America. In fact, I ask you to give the link out at the meetings you attend on July 29.
With love and deference to the late, great Jackpine Radical, Bernie is no fringe candidate, no radical, no outlier (and no liar).
Bernie is the most trustworthy mainstream/Main Street USA candidate of them all. IMO that is how he should be promoted--and in association with beloved, though maligned, programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Bernie Sanders, the President Main Street, USA wants and desperately needs.
Profile Information
Member since: Wed Jun 20, 2012, 02:49 AMNumber of posts: 45,251
