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Ferd Berfel

Ferd Berfel's Journal
Ferd Berfel's Journal
April 2, 2016

Bolstered by Polls, Fundraising Haul, Sanders Surges Forward into Wis. Primary

?itok=jhJTlTas

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/01/bolstered-polls-fundraising-haul-sanders-surges-forward-wis-primary

Sanders is 'in tune with the mood of the American public.'


With boosts from a massive fundraising haul and new poll results, Bernie Sanders is harnessing energy with the Wisconsin primary days ahead.

A Public Policy Polling survey in Wisconsin released Thursday found Sanders with a 6-point lead—49-43 percent—over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. He had a particularly strong lead—65-28—with voters under 45, while the only group with whom Clinton claimed a significant lead was seniors at 63-30 percent.

A Fox Business Network Poll also released Thursday showed Sanders with a similar lead—48-43 percent—over Clinton in Wisconsin.

And on Friday, the Sanders campaign boasted that it had reached its goal of beating February's record fundraising haul by raising $44 million dollars in March. "Working people standing together are going to propel this campaign to the Democratic nomination and then the White House," Sanders stated.

As for the Clinton campaign, Seth Abramson, an assistant professor of English at University of New Hampshire, wrote at the Huffington Post that it "is in the midst of an historic collapse—much of it due to the unraveling of support for Clinton among nonwhite voters—and the national media has yet to take any notice."

"In short," he continued:

there simply is no evidence available to suggest that Hillary Clinton’s robust coalition of nonwhite voters still exists
April 2, 2016

The Disappearance of Hillary Clinton's Healthcare Platform

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/30/disappearance-hillary-clintons-healthcare-platform

What would happen if the media lifted the curtain on Clinton's healthcare platform and introduced any level of scrutiny to her proposed improvements on the Affordable Care Act?

In an extraordinary magic trick, performed on a national scale, Hillary Clinton's healthcare platform has been disappeared. While policy analysts, news anchors, and columnists have been engaged in an intense debate over Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” proposal, Clinton’s incremental alternative has escaped almost all scrutiny - even among those who say they prefer it.

Combining the election-season writings of our most prolific, liberal-leaning columnists at the New York Times, Huffington Post, Vox, Mother Jones, Politico, The American Prospect, etc. you’ll find dozens of articles critiquing Sanders's single-payer plan. None have mentioned a single Clinton healthcare proposal as a point of comparison - merely that she supports a philosphy of incremental reform.

Take Paul Krugman, a high-profile advocate of Clinton's approach to healthcare reform. Krugman has published two op-eds in the New York Times and five additional blog posts arguing that "[progressives] should seek incremental change on health care... and focus their main efforts on other issues - that is... Bernie Sanders is wrong about this and Hillary Clinton is right." In all seven pieces, Krugman focuses exclusively on Sanders's single-payer proposal and fails to mention even a single Clinton policy.

The disappearance of the Clinton healthcare platform has even been carried out by pollsters. The Kaiser Health Tracking Survey included a bizarre question in its February 2016 poll, which was widely cited in the press. Respondents were asked to pick one of four possible directions for the future of U.S. healthcare. Among the choices were "The U.S. should establish guaranteed universal coverage through a single government plan" and "Lawmakers should build on the existing health care law to improve affordability and access to care." Thirty-three percent of Democrats chose the single-payer option, while fifty-four percent chose the incremental option. The questions were clearly intended as stand-ins for the Sanders and Clinton healthcare proposals, but note that the single-payer option is a policy, whereas the incremental option mentions no actual policies, but asks respondents whether they support the (universally desirable) outcomes of improving affordability and access.

----------------------------

March 31, 2016

Bernie Sanders blasts GOP: ‘The Republican Party today is a joke maintained by the media’

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/bernie-sanders-blasts-gop-the-republican-party-today-is-a-joke-maintained-by-the-media/

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday about Donald Trump’s comments on abortion, indicating the GOP front-runner’s comments were “beyond comprehension.” He also discussed the state of the presidential race and criticized the media’s fascination with Trump.

The interview will air on a special edition of The Rachel Maddow Show on Wednesday at 10 p.m., after Maddow’s separate interview with Sanders’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.
(snip)
What you really need in this country is a progressive party standing with the working class and the middle class of this country. And yes, a conservative party that, you know, has, you know, is more fiscally conservative. That is where we should be as a country.

But the Republican Party today now is a joke, maintained by a media which really does not force them to discuss their issues

-----------------------

Sorry Rachel - You are part of the Sick, destructive, anti-democracy joke





and M$NBC, Maddow, Tweety and the rest are part of the cabal

March 31, 2016

As Sanders Surges, Cable News Runs Prison Reality Show, Jesus Documentary

http://fair.org/home/as-sanders-surges-cable-news-runs-prison-reality-show-jesus-documentary/

Over the past week, Bernie Sanders racked up six wins out of seven primary contests, winning 92 delegates more than his rival Hillary Clinton to chip into her pledged delegate lead. While not an existential shift in the race, the momentum has changed in Sanders’ favor, especially since he won the last three primaries—Hawaii, Washington state and Alaska—with between 70 and 82 percent of the vote.

You, however, would hardly have noticed had you been watching cable news the night of the Saturday primaries. Both MSNBC and CNN forwent live election coverage on arguably Sanders’ biggest night of the year, instead deciding to air a normally scheduled prison reality show and a “documentary” on Jesus.

(SNIP)

The race is far from over, yet most of the major cable networks have all but moved on. Clinton’s lead, while considerable, is far from insurmountable. Indeed, the netting of 66 delegates Saturday night pulls Sanders to within 268 pledged delegates of the former secretary of State—with 2,073 delegates yet to be awarded.
March 29, 2016

Bernie Sanders as Commander-in-Chief

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/29/bernie-sanders-commander-chief

Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman and Iraq War veteran, stars in a stunning ad endorsing Sanders as “Commander-in-Chief,” a potential turning point in the race.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s landslide victories in Washington State, Alaska and Hawaii on Saturday coincided with a long-awaited signal that he may finally be ready to challenge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the “Commander-in-Chief” question, which has been regarded as one of her key strengths.

In what may be the most striking campaign commercial of the presidential race, the Sanders campaign released an ad, entitled “The Cost of War” and featuring Hawaii’s Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who endorsed Sanders not just as her preference for President but as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military.

(snip)

Many neoconservatives and “liberal interventionists” now see Clinton as the vessel carrying their hopes for more “regime change” wars.

(snip)
March 29, 2016

Beware the Blue State Model: How the Democrats Created a "Liberalism of the Rich"


Let’s go to Boston, the spiritual homeland of the professional class and a place where the ideology of modern liberalism has been permitted to flourish without challenge or restraint.

Thomas Frank

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When you press Democrats on their uninspiring deeds -- their lousy free trade deals, for example, or their flaccid response to Wall Street misbehavior -- when you press them on any of these things, they automatically reply that this is the best anyone could have done. After all, they had to deal with those awful Republicans, and those awful Republicans wouldn’t let the really good stuff get through. They filibustered in the Senate. They gerrymandered the congressional districts. And besides, change takes a long time. Surely you don’t think the tepid-to-lukewarm things Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have done in Washington really represent the fiery Democratic soul.

So let’s go to a place that does. Let’s choose a locale where Democratic rule is virtually unopposed, a place where Republican obstruction and sabotage can’t taint the experiment.

Let’s go to Boston, Massachusetts, the spiritual homeland of the professional class and a place where the ideology of modern liberalism has been permitted to grow and flourish without challenge or restraint. As the seat of American higher learning, it seems unsurprising that Boston should anchor one of the most Democratic of states, a place where elected Republicans (like the new governor) are highly unusual. This is the city that virtually invented the blue-state economic model, in which prosperity arises from higher education and the knowledge-based industries that surround it.

(snip)

This is a curious phenomenon, is it not? A blue state where the Democrats maintain transparent connections to high finance and big pharma; where they have deliberately chosen distant software barons over working-class members of their own society; and where their chief economic proposals have to do with promoting “innovation,” a grand and promising idea that remains suspiciously vague. Nor can these innovation Democrats claim that their hands were forced by Republicans. They came up with this program all on their own.
March 24, 2016

Tim Canova - Yes, they are rigging our elections

https://medium.com/@Tim_Canova/yes-they-are-rigging-our-elections-d20a2079633c#.xrt0nrdtn

https://medium.com/@Tim_Canova/yes-they-are-rigging-our-elections-d20a2079633c#.xrt0nrdtn


There is no question that the Democratic establishment is throwing the kitchen sink at insurgent progressives like Bernie Sanders and Tim Canova.

But our opponent, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, claims that is just untrue. Yesterday, she told Fox News “there’s just no shred of evidence to suggest”that she favors establishment candidates as Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

What an insult to our intelligence.

It was no accident that the presidential debates were scheduled during professional and college football games, as well as long holiday weekends. It was no coincidence that Bernie Sanders and our campaign were denied access to the Democratic Party’s voter file. It is not just dumb luck that establishment candidates keep winning elections — they are literally rigging the system to favor them.

We are the grassroots and we are a threat to their power. Help us overcome a broken and corrupt political system by making a donation of $10 or whatever you can afford.
March 24, 2016

This Race Far From Over: New Poll Shows Sanders and Clinton Tied Nationally

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/24/race-far-over-new-poll-shows-sanders-and-clinton-tied-nationally


'In the end, Hillary Clinton has a trust problem,' says pollster


Signaling that the primary race is far from over, a new national poll shows Bernie Sanders tied with Hillary Clinton among those who have voted or plan to vote in a Democratic contest this year.

The Bloomberg Politics survey found 49 percent of respondents preferred Sanders, while 48 percent backed Clinton.



March 23, 2016

How the Democratic Party Establishment Suffocates Progressive Change

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/22/how-democratic-party-establishment-suffocates-progressive-change


The Democratic Party establishment persistently strives to downsize economic and political expectations. Sanders aims to upsize them, which is why he is viewed as such a threat


The Democratic Party establishment has recently found itself discomforted by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign to return the party to its modern roots of New Deal social democracy. The establishment’s response has included a complex coupling of elite media and elite economics opinion aimed at promoting an image of Sanders as an unelectable extremist with unrealistic economic policies.

The response provides a case study showing how the party suffocates progressive change. Every progressive knows about the opposition and tactics of the Republican Party. Less understood are the opposition and tactics of the Democratic Party establishment. Speaking metaphorically, that establishment is a far lesser evil, but it may also be a far greater obstacle to progressive change.

(snip)

Rather than an excess of pipe dreams, our current dismal condition is the product of fear of dreaming. The Democratic Party establishment persistently strives to downsize economic and political expectations. Sanders aims to upsize them, which is why he has been viewed as such a threat."

(snip)

There is legitimate room for intellectual difference. What is so stunning is the tone of the critique and the fact it sought to diminish an important policy (fiscal stimulus) just because Sanders was using it to his political advantage.

(snip)

Progressives must surface the obstruction posed by the Democratic Party establishment. Primaries are prime time to do that, which means there is good reason for Sanders’ campaign to continue.

?itok=NDzmC0Rt
March 23, 2016

How the Democratic Party Establishment Suffocates Progressive Change

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/22/how-democratic-party-establishment-suffocates-progressive-change

The Democratic Party establishment persistently strives to downsize economic and political expectations. Sanders aims to upsize them, which is why he is viewed as such a threat


The Democratic Party establishment has recently found itself discomforted by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign to return the party to its modern roots of New Deal social democracy. The establishment’s response has included a complex coupling of elite media and elite economics opinion aimed at promoting an image of Sanders as an unelectable extremist with unrealistic economic policies.

The response provides a case study showing how the party suffocates progressive change. Every progressive knows about the opposition and tactics of the Republican Party. Less understood are the opposition and tactics of the Democratic Party establishment. Speaking metaphorically, that establishment is a far lesser evil, but it may also be a far greater obstacle to progressive change.

(snip)

Rather than an excess of pipe dreams, our current dismal condition is the product of fear of dreaming. The Democratic Party establishment persistently strives to downsize economic and political expectations. Sanders aims to upsize them, which is why he has been viewed as such a threat."

(snip)

There is legitimate room for intellectual difference. What is so stunning is the tone of the critique and the fact it sought to diminish an important policy (fiscal stimulus) just because Sanders was using it to his political advantage.

(snip)

Progressives must surface the obstruction posed by the Democratic Party establishment. Primaries are prime time to do that, which means there is good reason for Sanders’ campaign to continue.

?itok=NDzmC0Rt

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