February 10, 2016

Bernie Sanders-- first non-Christian to win a presidential primary

"Bernie Sanders’ win in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night came with some pretty impressive footnotes:

1. His margin of victory was the highest for a non-incumbent candidate in any state since JFK.

2. He won almost every demographic group—male, female, young, old, moderate, liberal, college educated, high school-educated—with the exception of voters making more than $200,000 per year.

3. He became the first Jewish candidate to win a state primary in U.S. history.

4. He became the first non-Christian candidate to win a state primary in U.S. history.

Sanders isn’t one to emphasize his religious affiliation—his political beliefs make him enough of an outsider as it is—so you won’t read much coverage about the historic nature of his win."

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/02/after-sanders-big-win-in-new-hampshire-establishme.html

Article is mostly discussion about the nature of super-delegates and is worth a read.

February 10, 2016

What a lot of people don't seem to get about the popularity of Bernie Sanders

-- is that there is a huge swath of the Democratic party that has been waiting for a strong, serious liberal candidate for decades now.

They know that despite Obama's credentials, talents and charisma, he still was too corporate-influenced. He was a somewhat more liberal version of Hillary, and then in office, he became even more of a centrist.

The fact is a lot of Democrats-- perhaps most of them-- are tired of centrist, corporate Dems, the types who constantly use Republican talking points and who threaten to cut social Security and Medicare.

My feeling is that Bernie Sanders is the strongest liberal candidate we've had in a long time. He speaks powerfully and honestly about OUR issues. We are lucky to have him in the race.

Is he perfect? No, but no candidate is. And he's as close to what I would want in a viable presidential candidate as anyone I've ever seen. He "gets it" on all the big issues. He absolutely does. His instincts are wonderful.

Does his age make me nervous? Yes, a little. He's in great health and very strong-- but a presidential campaign is truly exhausting. Of course, his running mate will be absolutely crucial.

Does his blunt and "extreme" rhetoric make me nervous? Yes-- mostly because of how the media and elites have discussed him and will play him.

Will he be able to win in November? I don't know. But Hillary is not a sure shot either. The bottom line from my perspective-- and I am thrilled we have this opportunity-- is we have to take this chance to get a strong, honest, liberal Democrat in the White House. It's not clear when we will have another candidate like Bernie.

This is our shot at getting our liberal voices really heard across the country-- and we can see how popular our ideas really are. These are the liberal voices usually excluded from the media. We've long suspected they are popular, but it's been hard to get a fair hearing on them. Now is our time.

February 8, 2016

Is supporting wars a feminist position?

It seems like war is about as bad for women as anything on this green earth.

So-- has the US had a military action that Hillary didn't support?

February 8, 2016

So who else has been blocked from the Hillary group?

Wow, are they touchy or what?

On one of their many posts about sexist attacks on Hillary, and I said:

"Sure. It's just that you can only get so much mileage out of these complaints"

Cue the outrage.

February 5, 2016

"The Tide Has Turned Against Clinton"

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2016/2/5/102056/6214

"Sanders came out of Iowa energized and with all the momentum.. And it showed in the debate last night. The first hour was a near-total debacle for Clinton.

It began when she fell into the trap I warned her about of coming across as the "No, We Can't" candidate.

I'm not sure why the Clinton campaign wants to fight over who's a progressive. The progressive movement pretty much defines itself as being in opposition to the politics of the Democratic Leadership Council and, to a significant degree, 1990's-style Clintonism. What she needs to do to appeal to progressives is not to insist that she is and always has been one of them. That just elicits incredulous guffaws of outrage. What she needs to do is show that she's not a clone of her husband, and never was. And, to state what should be obvious, no one who doesn't consider themselves a progressive is going to care if Clinton considers herself a progressive. The only people who care about this debate are the progressives who, overwhelmingly, agree that Sanders is progressive and Clinton is not.

Even more head scratching is her attempt to claim that she isn't part of the Establishment. She's the former First Lady, a former senator from New York, and a former Secretary of State. She's worth millions, and she and Bill run the Clinton Global Initiative that deals with the Establishment of countries all across the world. Saying that she's not the Establishment is ridiculous on its face. Imagine if Eleanor Roosevelt, while serving as Ambassador to the United Nations, had attempted to argue that she was a political outsider!

And that's before we add in that she can walk into the Conrad Hotel in Lower Manhattan to talk to Goldman Sachs executives and walk out a couple of hours later with a check worth more than her opponent's total net worth. "

Interesting post from a more center-left pundit who has generally supported Clinton up to now.

January 31, 2016

Bernie Sanders is wrong!

He's not socialist enough!

http://billmoyers.com/story/after-living-in-norway-america-feels-backward/#

"In that debate, no more was heard of Denmark, Sweden or Norway. The audience was left in the dark. Later, in a speech at Georgetown University, Sanders tried to clarify his identity as a Democratic socialist. He said he’s not the kind of Socialist (with a capital S) who favors state ownership of anything like the means of production. The Norwegian government, on the other hand, owns the means of producing lots of public assets and is the major stockholder in many a vital private enterprise.

I was dumbfounded. Norway, Denmark, and Sweden practice variations of a system that works much better than ours, yet even the Democratic presidential candidates, who say they love or want to learn from those countries, don’t seem to know how they actually work."

January 30, 2016

Does Bernie Sanders have any scandals associated with him?

or even a hint of corruption?

Is "socialist" and "he's going to raise taxes" or "he's too old" really the only thing people can use against him?

And he's supposed to be unelectable???

January 27, 2016

On Bernie's relgion, or lack of it

I think it's cool, but curious how others feel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanders-finally-answers-the-god-question/2016/01/26/83429390-bfb0-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_sanders-religion-1050am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

January 26, 2016

what was the point of having Hillary watch Sanders' "America" commercial?

that was weird, and awkward.

January 24, 2016

Gov. Snyder lied: Flint water switch was not about money, records show

Source: motor city muckraker

The Flint water crisis that led to thousands of people being poisoned began because state officials maintained it would save the cash-strapped city money by disconnecting from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) and using a different source.

But it turns out, DWSD offered the state-controlled city a deal that would have saved Flint more money by staying with Detroit.

An e-mail obtained by Motor City Muckraker shows the deal would have saved the city $800 million over 30 years, which was 20% more inexpensive than switching to the Karegnondi Water Authority.

(snip)

So what was it about? Some have suggested that Snyder was motivated by a desire to break up DWSD and ultimately privatize it. In the summer of 2015, DWSD was split into two entities: the DWSD and the Great Lakes Water Authority.

Read more: http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2016/01/23/gov-snyder-lied-flint-water-switch-was-not-about-money-records-show/

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Simply disgusting is all I can say. Democrats have to use this horrible story to take back elected office all over this country.