The positive cases for both Hillary and Bernie

I'm only focusing on the positive here!

Hillary:
1) first woman president-- breaking the glass ceiling-- is huge, transformative
2) she has extensive government experience at the highest levels, knows how things work in US government
3) she will be very strong on women's rights, reproductive rights, family issues
4) she will be strong on minority rights
5) she recognizes the importance of climate change and action on transitioning to a renewable energy economy
6) she will stand up to the NRA
7) she will be pro-environment
8) she will fight for improving the healthcare system and giving healthcare to all Americans
9) she will appoint good people to the Supreme Court
10) she will drive Republicans bonkers, much like Obama did.

Bernie:
1) more than any other candidate, he recognizes of the problem of America becoming a plutocracy; he is a major champion of fixing the massive problem of income inequality, and will really work to fix what has become a corrupt system, especially the banking system. He would be transformative in this regard.
2) he has government experience at the highest level; he knows how things work, he also has executive experience
3) he will be very strong on women's rights, reproductive rights, family issues
4) he will be very strong on minority rights
5) he strongly recognizes the importance of climate change and action on transitioning to a renewable energy economy
6) he has incredible integrity; he will not be in the thrall of corporations
7) he will be pro-environment
8) he will fight for improving the healthcare system and giving healthcare to all Americans
9) he will appoint good people to the Supreme Court
10) he will drive Republicans bonkers, much like Obama did.
11) he would be the first non-Christian elected to the presidency, and first Jew.
12) he recognizes the problem of endless, needless wars, and the power of the military industrial complex and how much money is sucked into it.

Is Hillary getting thrown under the bus by Obama?

Biden put out very pro-Bernie remarks a couple days ago on income inequality.

Obama made Bernie-like references to income inequality in the SOTU last night.

Axelrod comes out and denounces Chelsea on CNN about the healthcare attack.

Wow.

Vote by Mail-- a way to save our democracy

Great piece:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/januaryfebruary_2016/features/vote_from_home_save_your_count059190.php?page=all


Vote from Home, Save Your Country
Universal vote by mail can revive the franchise and change the political map. So why the resistance?
By Phil Keisling

"Democrats and their progressive allies aren’t bereft of ideas to boost voter participation. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are both championing promising reforms, such as automatically registering all American citizens based on driver’s licenses or birth records. But no other solution holds anywhere near the potential to boost actual voter turnout. Evidence from Oregon, Colorado, and Washington suggests that if other states adopted universal vote by mail (UVBM), they could increase their registered voter turnout in midterm elections by 10 to 15 percent. Even more dramatically, they could double or triple their primary election turnout, which would almost certainly reduce the inordinate influence of take-no-prisoners ideologues. (See “Can Vote by Mail Reduce Partisan Extremism?”)

Universal vote by mail has many other virtues, too. Those odious photo ID laws? Rendered moot; you don’t need a voter ID to fill out a ballot at your own kitchen table. Long polling place lines? How about no lines, period—and no way for elected officials to manufacture them by (whoops!) providing too few polling places in certain neighborhoods?

Universal vote by mail has also proven to be at least as secure from fraud—and arguably more so—as traditional voting at polls. Election officials check each voter’s signature on the ballot return envelope, matching it against the voter registration card before the ballot is counted. (Since signatures can change, voters still have time to update their registration cards—and qualify their ballots—before results are officially certified.)

Universal vote by mail has the additional advantage of being less costly to taxpayers than the traditional method. Beginning in 2000, Oregon taxpayers started saving $3 million per election cycle. Or consider California’s San Diego County, where election officials found that in a 2013 special election for mayor the direct cost of operating their polling places—$360,000, for 32 percent of votes cast—far exceeded that of the “mailed out” portion—$84,000, for 68 percent of votes cast. "

The last time we had a Democratic Socialist as president...

Ted Cruz is literally insane

Historic New Harpers Article Exposes Who Controls America

Very disturbing article, but it explains a lot, particularly about how there is no end to the war on terror.

http://off-guardian.org/2015/12/18/historic-new-harpers-article-exposes-who-controls-america/

"To boil it all down to the essence: The fundamentalist-Sunni royal family of the Sauds have bought the highest levels of the U.S. government in order to control U.S. foreign policies, especially the ongoing wars to take down the governments of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and ultimately (they hope) of Russia itself, which latter nation has allied itself instead with Shiia countries. The controlling entities behind American foreign policies since at least the late 1970s have been the Saud family and the Sauds’ subordinate Arabic aristocracies in Qatar (the al-Thanis), Kuwait (the al-Sabahs), Turkey (the Tuktik Erdoğans, a new royalty), and UAE (its six royal families: the main one, the al-Nahyans in Abu Dhabi; the other five: the al-Maktoums in Dubai, al-Qasimis in Sharjah, al-Nuaimis in Ajman, al-Mualla Ums in Quwain, and al-Sharqis in Fujairah). Other Saudi-dominated nations — though they’re not oil-rich (more like Turkey in this regard) — are Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Historic New Harpers Article Exposes Who Controls America

Very disturbing stuff, but explains a lot.

http://off-guardian.org/2015/12/18/historic-new-harpers-article-exposes-who-controls-america/

"To boil it all down to the essence: The fundamentalist-Sunni royal family of the Sauds have bought the highest levels of the U.S. government in order to control U.S. foreign policies, especially the ongoing wars to take down the governments of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and ultimately (they hope) of Russia itself, which latter nation has allied itself instead with Shiia countries. The controlling entities behind American foreign policies since at least the late 1970s have been the Saud family and the Sauds’ subordinate Arabic aristocracies in Qatar (the al-Thanis), Kuwait (the al-Sabahs), Turkey (the Tuktik Erdoğans, a new royalty), and UAE (its six royal families: the main one, the al-Nahyans in Abu Dhabi; the other five: the al-Maktoums in Dubai, al-Qasimis in Sharjah, al-Nuaimis in Ajman, al-Mualla Ums in Quwain, and al-Sharqis in Fujairah). Other Saudi-dominated nations — though they’re not oil-rich (more like Turkey in this regard) — are Pakistan and Afghanistan."