February 1, 2016

Final Poll Gives Edge to Sanders, But Has Bernie Already Won Iowa?

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/02/01/final-poll-gives-edge-sanders-has-bernie-already-won-iowa

Small donor contributions smash previous fundraising record as countdown ticks for pivotal caucus outcome

While the latest poll before the pivotal Iowa caucus on Monday shows Bernie Sanders holding a slight edge over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, observers argue that the campaign's clear momentum and success in bringing a bold populist agenda to the mainstream already signifies a substantial 'win' for the once-longshot candidate.

According to the poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, released Monday morning, the Vermont senator is ahead of Clinton 49 to 46 percent among Iowa's likely Democratic caucus-goers.

What's more, Sanders' advantage was secured by a substantial 62 to 35 percent lead among first-time attendees, underscoring the deep anti-establishment and grassroots support that his campaign has generated.

"Iowa isn’t about who wins the most delegates; it is about who gains momentum and legitimacy. What Sanders has already won is very real." —Robert Borosage, Campaign for America's Future

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February 1, 2016

Bernie Is More Credible and Electable Than Hillary

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joschka-yoshi-tryba/bernie-is-more-credible-than-hillary_b_9121762.html

Bernie's platform isn't just good policy, it is hands down superior to every other presidential candidate's platform. Bernie supporters are not naïve. The point of electing Bernie is not to get anything done. It is to stop all the corrupt, corporate, political forces from getting anything more done.

Now that the media is finally saying it's time to start taking Bernie Sanders seriously, we've seen a flurry of hit pieces from Paul Krugman, Ezra Klein, Paul Starr, and other supposed liberal/progressive champions arguing, ironically, that we still shouldn't take Bernie seriously.

They say: "Americans will never elect a socialist" -- "Bernie won't get anything done" -- "Bernie's plans are all puppies and rainbows."

Allow me to debunk this American mythology that liberal and progressive ideas aren't viable in the U.S.: Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt.

January 31, 2016

A Confederacy of Dunces: The Democratic Establishment’s Assault on Sanders Begins

http://commondreams.org/views/2016/01/26/confederacy-dunces-democratic-establishments-assault-sanders-begins


Make no mistake – this is about power.

"When a true genius appears in your world, you may know him by this sign; that all the dunces are against him in a confederacy."
—Jonathon Swift

Well, it’s started. You knew it would. The Democratic establishment is going into attack mode as their anointed one – Hillary Clinton – is in danger of losing.

Take a look at some of the assaults that have been launched within the last five days:

Sandy Goodman, a former producer at NBC Nightly News, published a piece on the Huffington Post, entitled, Voting for Sanders is Voting Republican. The fact that Bernie does better than Hillary against Republicans is an inconvenient fact Goodman ignores in this ludicrous hit piece;
Paul Krugman’s column last Friday suggested that progressives voting for Sanders weren’t being “adults” and had no idea how change occurred – in Krugman’s world, change doesn’t come from the people, apparently. It comes from party apparatchiks working with the plutocracy;
Thomas Friedman, another New York Times columnist, essentially called Sanders a communist – something he knows isn’t true, but it’s a great scare tactic;
President Obama said Bernie Sanders' ideas haven’t yet been tested and went on to heap praise on Hillary. It wasn’t an endorsement, but it came mighty close.

All of these are coming from credentialed "liberals" who have been staunch supporters of the Democratic Party. And therein lies the problem. The Democratic Party’s interests are no longer aligned with the people’s interests and they haven’t been for a long time.
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note: I put "liberals" in quotes. because..........

Elizabeth Warren: Anyone Who Says ‘Change Is Just Too Hard’ Is in ‘Bed With the Billionaires’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1064813

January 30, 2016

Seizing on Establishment Panic, Sanders Sharpens Contrast with Clinton

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/29/seizing-establishment-panic-sanders-sharpens-contrast-clinton

'It is great to be against the war after you vote for the war. It is great to be for gay rights after you insult the entire gay community by supporting DOMA.'

With just a few days to go until the Iowa caucus, Bernie Sanders spoke to an evening rally in Burlington, Iowa on Thursday and made some of his boldest statements yet criticizing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's political track record and Wall Street ties.

Sanders, who has faced an escalation of establishment ire in recent weeks, made a sharp contrast between his principles and his rival's—such as his early and consistent opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Keystone XL pipeline, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.

"Check the record, find out where my opponent was on all of these issues," Sanders said. "It is great to be against the war after you vote for the war. It is great to be for gay rights after you insult the entire gay community by supporting DOMA."

In recent months, Clinton has come out against the TPP and the Keystone XL pipeline, despite her previous support for both projects. Sanders depicted her evolution as calculated—responding to public opinion rather than taking a principled stance.
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Triangulation fools some of the people all of the time.

January 27, 2016

Sanders Slams Wall Street Elite, Clinton Ditches Iowa To Fetch Their Checks

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/26/sanders-slams-wall-street-elite-clinton-ditches-iowa-fetch-their-checks

With less than one week before nation's first votes are cast in Iowa, a key contrast remains hard to ignore

Seemingly undeterred by the consistent critique that her close ties to the financial industry are hurting her campaign, The Intercept on Tuesday reports that with less than a week until the Iowa caucus, Hillary Clinton will soon leave the hotly-contested state to attend a pair of Wall Street-sponsored fundraising events.

According to The Intercept's Zaid Jilani:

Clinton will appear in Philadelphia at a “gala” fund-raiser hosted by executives at Franklin Square Capital Partners, a $17 billion investment fund. Rocker Bon Jovi will reportedly play an acoustic set for “friends” who pledge $1,000 and hosts who bundle up to $27,000.

The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that “Franklin Square employs Ivy League-educated money managers and salespeople with experience at big Wall Street firms – plus four personal trainers and a dietitian to keep staff happy and productive amid the gym, yoga and nap rooms, Sol LeWitt art installations, and fancy cafeteria.”

Clinton will then head to New York City, where she will speak at a lunchtime “Conversations With Hillary” fund-raiser. This one is co-hosted by Matt Mallow, a senior managing director and general counsel at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm. As we’ve reported before, having a conversation with Hillary is not cheap.

January 27, 2016

Huge Crowds, Surging Polls for Sanders as 'Revolution' Revs Engine Ahead of Iowa

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/27/huge-crowds-surging-polls-sanders-revolution-revs-engine-ahead-iowa

With wall-to-wall crowds, climbing poll numbers, and a wave of critical new endorsements, Bernie Sanders is riding high.


Two new polls out on Wednesday show that the senator from Vermont is not only holding fast on his lead in Iowa, but also continues to gain against frontrunner Hillary Clinton nationally.

The voter enthusiasm that has defined much of Sanders' candidacy was on full display Tuesday evening when an overflowing crowd of 14,000 people rallied at an exhibition center in St. Paul, Minnesota, following an afternoon rally in Duluth that saw a crowd of 6,000 people.

"You, and millions of other people, need to come together," Sanders said in Duluth. "You need to say loud and clear that when so many men and women fought and died to save our country, that we the people are going to have a government that represents us, not just a handful of billionaires.

January 27, 2016

Noam Chomsky - Sanders has the best policies;

Noam Chomsky: Why the Republican Party Is a Threat to Human Survival

Sanders has the best policies; GOP must be stopped at all costs.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/noam-chomsky-why-republican-party-threat-human-survival

Renowned scholar and activist Noam Chomsky declared this week that the GOP and its far-right front-runners are "literally a serious danger to decent human survival.”

Speaking with The Huffington Post on Monday, Chomsky cited the Republican Party’s refusal to tackle—or even acknowledge—the “looming environmental catastrophe” of climate change, thereby “dooming our grandchildren.”

He went to rebuke the Republican party for its “abject service to private wealth and power” and dispossession of the poor.

But Chomsky made it clear that his conviction that “the Republican Party has drifted off the rails” and must be stopped by no means amounts to an endorsement of Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton—who he has previously criticized as hawkish and opportunistic.

In fact, he told The Huffington Post that the United States has what amounts to a one-party system—with both Democrats and Republicans united by business interests

January 26, 2016

Clinton Says She'd Build on Obama's Legacy

If Implemented the TPP will be Obama's overriding legacy.

The TPP will be the Coup de grace to US Sovereignty, Democracy, and the American Middle-class.
If Hillary is elected, this will be implemented, and anything else you're concerned about simply won't matter.



http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/sanders-lays-down-populist-agenda-while-clinton-promises-build-obamas-legacy-key-iowa

January 25, 2016

Sanders' Medicare-for-All Plan Takes Aim at For-Profit Healthcare System

It stuff like THIS that is causing Bernie to Surge!


http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/18/sanders-medicare-all-plan-takes-aim-profit-healthcare-system?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

It is 'time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on Earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege.'

Just before Sunday's Democratic primary debate in South Carolina, Bernie Sanders released the details of his Medicare-for-All universal healthcare proposal, saying it is "time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on Earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege."

The plan (pdf), also known as single-payer healthcare, builds on the successes of both Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), "eliminating expensive and wasteful private health insurance," and saving taxpayers money by "dramatically reducing overall health care costs and bringing down skyrocketing prescription drug prices which are far greater in the United States than in any other country."

According to the Sanders campaign:

The shift to universal health care would be paid for with a 2.2 percent health care premium (calculated under the rules for federal income taxes); a 6.2 percent health care payroll tax paid by employers; an estate tax on the wealthiest Americans and changes in the tax code to make federal income tax rates more progressive.

Under the plan, individuals making $250,000 to $500,000 a year would be taxed at a rate of 37 percent. The top rate, 52 percent, would apply to those earning $10 million or more a year, a category that in 2013 included only the 13,000 wealthiest households in the United States.

January 25, 2016

Something Is Happening - by Jim Hightower

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/21/something-happening

The 'Sanders Sensation' is a spontaneous, unusually vibrant grassroots uprising that has already shattered the Democratic Establishment's holy myth that corporate centrism and super PAC money are the only means to victory.


?itok=mK19TvxQ
When I crossed paths with a Democratic Party campaign consultant in Austin last March, I suggested he come out to the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall to hear Bernie Sanders, adding that the Vermont senator was pondering a run for the presidency. "You gotta be kiddin' me," the political pro snorted. "Bernie Sanders? Let me tell ya, his chances are slim and none, and Slim don't live in Bernie's precinct. First of all, no one south of Greenwich Village ever heard of him. Second, who's gonna vote for some old senator from a tiny state of Birkenstock-wearers damn near in Canada?"

So that scoffer was a no-show, but we really didn't have room for him anyway. We had expected about 200 people — the capacity of the hall — but nearly 500 Texans showed up that night to hear the undiluted populist message of this senator "no one ever heard of."

Austin was one of the first stops on a cross-country trip that Sanders was taking to assess whether an unabashedly progressive, movement-building presidential campaign could rally any substantial support. If he ran, he intended to go right at the moneyed elites who've thoroughly corrupted our politics and rigged our economy to squeeze the life out of the middle class. But, would anyone follow? Were people really ready to do this, and could a 74-year-old, notoriously brusque Vermonter with a conspicuous Brooklyn accent be the one to spark such a modern-day American revolt? He wasn't sure, and even if it might work, he assumed it would be a slow build.