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Nanjeanne
Nanjeanne's Journal
Nanjeanne's Journal
February 3, 2016
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More . . . http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-119082
When Bernie Met Hillary-Long before challenging Clinton, Sanders reached out to her. He got nowhere
Fascinating Read By BEN SCHRECKINGER - about healthcare, NAFTA and more. Recommend reading the whole thing.
. . .
As one of Congress’s most liberal members in the 1990s, Sanders went back and forth between clashing with Bill Clinton and warily embracing the leader of the centrist New Democrats. But even before the Clintons were in the White House, Bernie was playing the role of pragmatic progressive, making overtures directly to Hillary and working to pull her to the left.
In 1992, the lone socialist in Congress, Rep. Bernard Sanders, as he was then known, wasn’t wild about the centrist Arkansas Governor running for president, and he let it be known publicly. “Bernie was the founder of the progressive caucus. Clinton was the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, the whole point of which was to exterminate the progressives,” said Bill Curry, who served as counselor to the president during Clinton’s first term. “They weren’t even two ships passing in the night. They were two ships sailing in the opposite direction.”
But in May of 1992, Sanders wrote to the First Lady of Arkansas at her Little Rock law firm to tout a bill he had written to provide federal funding for state cancer registries, attaching his testimony on the bill’s behalf and a Reader’s Digest article calling registries “THE CANCER WEAPON AMERICA NEEDS MOST.”
In 1992, the lone socialist in Congress, Rep. Bernard Sanders, as he was then known, wasn’t wild about the centrist Arkansas Governor running for president, and he let it be known publicly. “Bernie was the founder of the progressive caucus. Clinton was the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, the whole point of which was to exterminate the progressives,” said Bill Curry, who served as counselor to the president during Clinton’s first term. “They weren’t even two ships passing in the night. They were two ships sailing in the opposite direction.”
But in May of 1992, Sanders wrote to the First Lady of Arkansas at her Little Rock law firm to tout a bill he had written to provide federal funding for state cancer registries, attaching his testimony on the bill’s behalf and a Reader’s Digest article calling registries “THE CANCER WEAPON AMERICA NEEDS MOST.”
<snip>
That summer, Sanders issued what the Vermont newspapers described as a “reluctant” and “half-hearted” endorsement of Clinton, saying that a second Bush term would be disastrous. In September, Clinton traveled to Vermont for a campaign rally in Burlington at Perkins Piers on Lake Champlain. Sanders was in attendance, and Clinton made sure to point out just how vast the gap was between Sanders and the Republican nominee on Sanders’ pet issue: health care.
<snip>
In February, Sanders requested a meeting with Hillary, “to bring in two Harvard Medical School physicians who have written on the Canadian system,” according to the records of the administration’s task force. Those physicians were Stephanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, leading advocates for single-payer health care.
They got their meeting at the White House that month, and the two doctors laid out the case for single-payer to the first lady. “She said, ‘You make a convincing case, but is there any force on the face of the earth that could counter the hundreds of millions of the dollars the insurance industry would spend fighting that?’” recalled Himmelstein. “And I said, “How about the president of the United States actually leading the American people?’ and she said, ‘Tell me something real.’ ”
They got their meeting at the White House that month, and the two doctors laid out the case for single-payer to the first lady. “She said, ‘You make a convincing case, but is there any force on the face of the earth that could counter the hundreds of millions of the dollars the insurance industry would spend fighting that?’” recalled Himmelstein. “And I said, “How about the president of the United States actually leading the American people?’ and she said, ‘Tell me something real.’ ”
<snip>
By October, Sanders’ next invitation for the Clintons to come to Vermont was not in a note to the White House, but in a hostile letter to the editor in The New York Times. “You report Oct. 25 that President Clinton believes the economy has turned the corner, on the path of a steady recovery. To get a better perspective on this view I urge the President to visit Vermont, where in the last year a Digital plant has closed, St. Johnsbury Trucking has closed, Johnson Controls is planning a shutdown, I.B.M. and G.E. have slashed hundreds of well-paying jobs, and workers from several companies are negotiating give-back contracts,” wrote Sanders. “I would hope that a President as intelligent as Mr. Clinton does not repeat the absurd economic dogma of Reaganomics.”
At the time, Sanders was a vocal opponent of the administration-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, which the House approved in November.
At the time, Sanders was a vocal opponent of the administration-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, which the House approved in November.
<snip>
With the moral support of the Heritage Foundation, Sanders led the bipartisan opposition in 1998 to the Clinton Administration’s plan to infuse the International Monetary Fund with $18 billion to bail out the economies hit by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which Congress ultimately rejected. He also voted against the Financial Services Act of 1999, which passed and repealed the Glass-Steagall Act’s prohibition on mixing commercial banking, investment banking or insurance in a single institution.
By the time Sanders arrived in the Senate in 2007, Hillary Clinton was already gearing up for her first presidential run, though the two did find opportunities to join forces during their two-year overlap in the upper chamber. In 2007, they co-authored the Green Jobs Act, which funded renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and passed as part of a larger energy bill. They both served on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, and in July 2008, along with Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy, the pair co-sponsored the Access for All America Act to expand the availability of primary care medicine, which died in committee.
By the time Sanders arrived in the Senate in 2007, Hillary Clinton was already gearing up for her first presidential run, though the two did find opportunities to join forces during their two-year overlap in the upper chamber. In 2007, they co-authored the Green Jobs Act, which funded renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and passed as part of a larger energy bill. They both served on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, and in July 2008, along with Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy, the pair co-sponsored the Access for All America Act to expand the availability of primary care medicine, which died in committee.
More . . . http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-119082
February 3, 2016
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http://fpif.org/adding-costs-hillary-clintons-wars/
Adding Up the Costs of Hillary Clinton’s Wars
There is so much in the article by Conn Hallinan, a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus, it's really worth the read.
Excerpts:
A Failure of Imagination
At a recent rally in Indianola, Iowa, Clinton said that “Senator [Bernie] Sanders doesn’t talk much about foreign policy, and when he does, it raises concerns because sometimes it can sound like he really hasn’t thought things through.”
The former secretary of state was certainly correct. Foreign policy for Sanders is pretty much an afterthought to his signature issues of economic inequality and a national health care system.
But the implication of her comment is that she has thought things through. If she has, it isn’t evident in her memoir, Hard Choices, or in her campaign speeches.
Hard Choices covers her years as secretary of state and seemingly unconsciously tracks a litany of American foreign policy disasters: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Georgia, Ukraine, and the “Asia pivot” that’s dangerously increased tensions with China.
At the heart of Hard Choices is the ideology of “American exceptionalism,” which for Clinton means the right of the U.S. to intervene in other countries at will. As historian Jackson Lears, in the London Review of Books, puts it, Clinton’s memoir “tries to construct a coherent rationale for an interventionist foreign policy and to justify it with reference to her own decisions as Secretary of State. The rationale is rickety: the evidence unconvincing.”
At a recent rally in Indianola, Iowa, Clinton said that “Senator [Bernie] Sanders doesn’t talk much about foreign policy, and when he does, it raises concerns because sometimes it can sound like he really hasn’t thought things through.”
The former secretary of state was certainly correct. Foreign policy for Sanders is pretty much an afterthought to his signature issues of economic inequality and a national health care system.
But the implication of her comment is that she has thought things through. If she has, it isn’t evident in her memoir, Hard Choices, or in her campaign speeches.
Hard Choices covers her years as secretary of state and seemingly unconsciously tracks a litany of American foreign policy disasters: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Georgia, Ukraine, and the “Asia pivot” that’s dangerously increased tensions with China.
At the heart of Hard Choices is the ideology of “American exceptionalism,” which for Clinton means the right of the U.S. to intervene in other countries at will. As historian Jackson Lears, in the London Review of Books, puts it, Clinton’s memoir “tries to construct a coherent rationale for an interventionist foreign policy and to justify it with reference to her own decisions as Secretary of State. The rationale is rickety: the evidence unconvincing.”
<snip>
Clinton often costumes military intervention in the philosophy of “responsibility to protect,” or “R2P.” But her application is selective.
She takes credit for overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, for example. But in her campaign speeches she’s not said a word about the horrendous bombing campaign being waged by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. She cites R2P for why the U.S. should overthrow Bashar al-Assad in Syria, but is silent about Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Bahrain to crush demands for democracy by its majority Shiite population.
Clinton, along with Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, and Susan Rice, the Obama administration’s national security advisor, has pushed for muscular interventions without thinking — or caring — about the consequences.
And those consequences have been dire.
She takes credit for overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, for example. But in her campaign speeches she’s not said a word about the horrendous bombing campaign being waged by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. She cites R2P for why the U.S. should overthrow Bashar al-Assad in Syria, but is silent about Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Bahrain to crush demands for democracy by its majority Shiite population.
Clinton, along with Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, and Susan Rice, the Obama administration’s national security advisor, has pushed for muscular interventions without thinking — or caring — about the consequences.
And those consequences have been dire.
<snip>
Would Hillary be more inclined toward an aggressive foreign policy?
Certainly more than Obama — Clinton pressed the White House to intervene more deeply in Syria, and was far more hardline on Iran. On virtually every foreign policy issue, in fact, Clinton is said to have led the charge inside the administration for a more belligerent U.S. response.
More than the Republicans? It’s hard to say, because most of them sound like they’ve gone off their meds. For instance, a number of GOP candidates pledge to cancel the nuclear agreement with Iran. While Clinton wanted to drive a harder bargain than the White House did, in the end she supported it.
However, she did say she’s proud to call Iranians “enemies,” and attacked Sanders for his entirely sensible remark that the U.S. might find common ground with Iran on defeating the Islamic State
Certainly more than Obama — Clinton pressed the White House to intervene more deeply in Syria, and was far more hardline on Iran. On virtually every foreign policy issue, in fact, Clinton is said to have led the charge inside the administration for a more belligerent U.S. response.
More than the Republicans? It’s hard to say, because most of them sound like they’ve gone off their meds. For instance, a number of GOP candidates pledge to cancel the nuclear agreement with Iran. While Clinton wanted to drive a harder bargain than the White House did, in the end she supported it.
However, she did say she’s proud to call Iranians “enemies,” and attacked Sanders for his entirely sensible remark that the U.S. might find common ground with Iran on defeating the Islamic State
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It’s more polite than the “make the sands glow” atavism of the Republicans. But in the end, it’s death and destruction in a different packaging.
http://fpif.org/adding-costs-hillary-clintons-wars/
February 2, 2016
A Question I Really Wish Would Be Asked To Clinton At Next Debate
Secretary Clinton,
You have been touting your experience as a significant reason for people to support you as President over Senator Sanders.
We know you have great admiration for Pres. Obama and what he has done as President. But you criticized him quite a bit in 2008 for not having enough experience to be President.
I also assume that you think your husband, Bill Clinton, was a good President. Yet he was a Governor of a medium sized state in the South. Then he became President.
So why do you think that Sen Sanders, who has more experienced than either Pres. Obama or Bill Clinton when they were running, wouldnt be capable of being as good a President as those you admire?
My guess would be we wouldn't get an answer beyond socialism, can't be done, dangerous times and ----- fill in e blank.
February 2, 2016
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Another SC Rep to Endorse Bernie!
Darren SandsVerified account
?@darrensands
Scoop: South Carolina Rep. Joe Neal to endorse @BernieSanders. His Richland Co. is the second most populous in S.C.
?@darrensands
Scoop: South Carolina Rep. Joe Neal to endorse @BernieSanders. His Richland Co. is the second most populous in S.C.
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February 2, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/us/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democratic-iowa-caucus.html?_r=0
Little Separates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in Tight Race in Iowa
From NY Times by Patrick Healey
Some excerpts.
The close results were deeply unnerving to Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as well as her advisers, some of whom had expressed growing confidence in recent days that they had recaptured political momentum after weeks when Mr. Sanders was drawing huge crowds and rising in the polls
Clinton advisers said late Monday night that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton were discussing bringing on additional staff members to strengthen her campaign operation now that a pitched battle may lie ahead against Mr. Sanders. The advisers said they did not know if a significant staff shakeup was at hand, but they said that the Clintons were disappointed with Monday night’s result and wanted to ensure that her organization, political messaging and communications strategy were in better shape for the contests to come.
Mr. Sanders’s strong performance in Iowa was a significant milestone in a campaign in which he began 40 percentage points behind Mrs. Clinton when they both declared their candidacies last spring. Many Democrats privately dismissed Mr. Sanders as a left-wing fringe candidate who had no real chance of defeating Mrs. Clinton anywhere other than his home state of Vermont, where his democratic socialist politics were not as exotic as many Democratic Party leaders found them.
But Mr. Sanders proved to be a rigorously disciplined candidate, delivering the same powerful message inveighing against establishment politics, Wall Street and the benefits enjoyed by the wealthy and the well-connected.
But Mr. Sanders proved to be a rigorously disciplined candidate, delivering the same powerful message inveighing against establishment politics, Wall Street and the benefits enjoyed by the wealthy and the well-connected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/us/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democratic-iowa-caucus.html?_r=0
February 1, 2016
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#CaucusForBernie - You May Say I'm A Dreamer . . . But I'm Not The Only One
Jeremiah Smith ?@jbspharmd 10m10 minutes ago
We've had enough of business as usual & we're ready for a govt that works for the people! #CaucusForBernie
We've had enough of business as usual & we're ready for a govt that works for the people! #CaucusForBernie
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Bernie Sanders Verified account ?@BernieSanders 11m11 minutes ago
Football is a spectator sport. Democracy is not a spectator sport. #CaucusForBernie
Football is a spectator sport. Democracy is not a spectator sport. #CaucusForBernie
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MiamiGator ?@GatorsEite23 16m16 minutes ago
@BRios82 @SarahWoodwriter extremely progressive :/ #CaucusForBernie #FeelTheBern 🔥
@BRios82 @SarahWoodwriter extremely progressive :/ #CaucusForBernie #FeelTheBern 🔥
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People For Bernie ?@People4Bernie 27m27 minutes ago Des Moines, IA
#CaucusForBernie because this
#CaucusForBernie because this
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February 1, 2016
....
More in the link http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2016/01/31/black-business-leader-makes-case-sanders/79614998/
Black Business Leader Makes A Case For Sanders (Waterloo Iowa )
From Burlington Free Press
Tavis Hall said that Bernie Sanders’ proposed minimum wage of $15 an hour could make that a reality. Currently, Iowa’s minimum wage sits at $7.25.
“It’s a weird notion that paying people adequately is bad for small business,” Hall said of those who believe that Sanders’ policies would be disastrous for the economy.
Hall, executive director of the Main Street Waterloo that promotes local business, believes Sanders is the Democratic candidate who can help small businesses thrive. Still, the 31-year-old Waterloo-native acknowledged that his idea of a vibrant economy differed from those on Wall Street.
“It’s not going to be as good for business as crony capitalism,” Hall said.
“It’s a weird notion that paying people adequately is bad for small business,” Hall said of those who believe that Sanders’ policies would be disastrous for the economy.
Hall, executive director of the Main Street Waterloo that promotes local business, believes Sanders is the Democratic candidate who can help small businesses thrive. Still, the 31-year-old Waterloo-native acknowledged that his idea of a vibrant economy differed from those on Wall Street.
“It’s not going to be as good for business as crony capitalism,” Hall said.
....
When asked whether Sanders has the ability to woo the African American electorate, Hall said he believes black voters are less committed to Hillary Clinton than the narrative in mainstream media.
More in the link http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2016/01/31/black-business-leader-makes-case-sanders/79614998/
January 31, 2016
From Mother Jones
Bolding Mine
When Bill Clinton swings by the Machinists Union hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sunday night, he'll be flanked by a bevy of national labor leaders. It will be a fitting scene for the final night before the first votes of the Democratic presidential nomination contest, a campaign in which Hillary Clinton has wrapped up the vast majority of national union endorsements. She's received the support of 24 unions, she bragged at an event last week, representing more than 10 million of the 14.6 million unionized workers in the country.
Organized labor has been a major push for her campaign as she closes out Iowa. Last week, Hillary Clinton hosted a "Hard Hats for Hillary" event that included the presidents of the Carpenters, Ironworkers, and Federation of Government Employees, among others. She released a gauzy video on her support for unions, in which she tells their members, "A lot of the work you do may not be as well understood and appreciated as it should be."
On the ground here in Iowa, however, Clinton's labor advantage isn't quite so clear cut. There aren't polls measuring statewide union support for the two candidates, and it's notoriously difficult to forecast caucus results anyway, given how much they come down to turnout and organization. But mounting anecdotal evidence from Iowa suggests that notwithstanding the endorsements of the people atop the unions, Clinton might not be able to count on the same level of support from actual union members in Monday's caucuses.
"I know there's a lot of rank-and-file people that like Bernie Sanders," says Ken Sager, president of the Iowa AFL-CIO. Sager, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which has yet to endorse, says he's been getting about equal volumes of pro-Sanders and pro-Clinton mail—about seven piece of mail per day from the campaigns and various unions in the final days of the race—despite the fact that his wife is a member of the pro-Clinton AFSCME.
"The people that I have talked to think that he is very genuine in terms of supporting the issues that are important to workers and their families," Sager says, noting that other local chapters of the electrical union in other parts of the country have endorsed Sanders. "He talks about the things that will work in making a difference. Getting everybody to be involved."
Lance Coles, the communications director for the state's AFL-CIO, predicts that ample union support could propel Sanders to a statewide victory on Monday. "I've said that for a long time," he says. "I think Bernie's going to squeak it out here, I think he's going to pull it."
Coles' union, the American Postal Workers Union, has endorsed Sanders, and he's been active in boosting Sanders' efforts. "Come Monday night, there's going to be a lot of Bernie support," he says. "Probably a lot more than what people think."
"The Bernie [events] are like pep rallies," he adds. "They’re much more, I don't want to say agitated, but excited, there's a lot more energy in their events. Most of the stuff I see for Hillary is: one, she's always late, which pisses a lot of people off. And I understand that with Secret Service, I get it, I understand that. But a lot of people are really frustrated with that."
Last fall, when Clinton skipped the state's AFL-CIO convention while Sanders and other candidates attended, local labor leaders groused to Bloomberg Businessweek's Josh Eidelson that they were wary of Clinton, primarily over her shifting positions on free trade. "I would love to have her be the first female president," Stacey Andersen, a representative of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics & Allied Workers International Union, told Eidelson, "but she’s going to have to come out a little bit stronger than what I’ve been seeing when it comes to labor-friendly issues." And as the Intercept recently noted, Clinton's union endorsements have been the decisions of the group's leadership, while the handful of unions backing Sanders have done so after directly polling their members.
On Monday afternoon, Sanders appeared at the local hall of the United Steelworkers in Des Moines (showing up on time) to assure the crowd—whose national union has yet to endorse—that he's the better candidate for organized labor. Parked outside was a red campaign bus from the National Nurses United emblazoned with an endorsement for Sanders. "The most trusted profession trusts Bernie," the side of the bus read. The Sanders staff distributed signs to the crowd reading, "Vote Labor Values, Labor for Bernie."
"I like his views and his opinions," Josh Fleenor, a 35-year-old tire builder in the local union, told me before the event. "Bring America back."
Throughout his speech, Sanders touted his record of fighting for low-wage workers, defending efforts to block trade agreements—a veiled dig at Clinton—and to expand union membership through measures such as card check. "I don't get any money, and I don't want any money, from corporations," he said. "Never got a nickel. Don't want any money from the billionaire class. But I am very grateful for the support that I've received from the Steelworkers throughout my entire political career. Thank you guys, very, very much."
"Initially I didn't think he could win," said Jerry Addy, a retired operating engineer at the event. "Now I think he can win. I just think Bernie's a better person, a better candidate. Bernie's doing retail. Hillary's doing wholesale."
Clinton Can't Count on Union Backing in Iowa, Despite Endorsements (report from Patrick Caldwell)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/iowa-unions-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-afl-cioFrom Mother Jones
Bolding Mine
When Bill Clinton swings by the Machinists Union hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sunday night, he'll be flanked by a bevy of national labor leaders. It will be a fitting scene for the final night before the first votes of the Democratic presidential nomination contest, a campaign in which Hillary Clinton has wrapped up the vast majority of national union endorsements. She's received the support of 24 unions, she bragged at an event last week, representing more than 10 million of the 14.6 million unionized workers in the country.
Organized labor has been a major push for her campaign as she closes out Iowa. Last week, Hillary Clinton hosted a "Hard Hats for Hillary" event that included the presidents of the Carpenters, Ironworkers, and Federation of Government Employees, among others. She released a gauzy video on her support for unions, in which she tells their members, "A lot of the work you do may not be as well understood and appreciated as it should be."
On the ground here in Iowa, however, Clinton's labor advantage isn't quite so clear cut. There aren't polls measuring statewide union support for the two candidates, and it's notoriously difficult to forecast caucus results anyway, given how much they come down to turnout and organization. But mounting anecdotal evidence from Iowa suggests that notwithstanding the endorsements of the people atop the unions, Clinton might not be able to count on the same level of support from actual union members in Monday's caucuses.
"I know there's a lot of rank-and-file people that like Bernie Sanders," says Ken Sager, president of the Iowa AFL-CIO. Sager, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which has yet to endorse, says he's been getting about equal volumes of pro-Sanders and pro-Clinton mail—about seven piece of mail per day from the campaigns and various unions in the final days of the race—despite the fact that his wife is a member of the pro-Clinton AFSCME.
"The people that I have talked to think that he is very genuine in terms of supporting the issues that are important to workers and their families," Sager says, noting that other local chapters of the electrical union in other parts of the country have endorsed Sanders. "He talks about the things that will work in making a difference. Getting everybody to be involved."
Lance Coles, the communications director for the state's AFL-CIO, predicts that ample union support could propel Sanders to a statewide victory on Monday. "I've said that for a long time," he says. "I think Bernie's going to squeak it out here, I think he's going to pull it."
Coles' union, the American Postal Workers Union, has endorsed Sanders, and he's been active in boosting Sanders' efforts. "Come Monday night, there's going to be a lot of Bernie support," he says. "Probably a lot more than what people think."
"The Bernie [events] are like pep rallies," he adds. "They’re much more, I don't want to say agitated, but excited, there's a lot more energy in their events. Most of the stuff I see for Hillary is: one, she's always late, which pisses a lot of people off. And I understand that with Secret Service, I get it, I understand that. But a lot of people are really frustrated with that."
Last fall, when Clinton skipped the state's AFL-CIO convention while Sanders and other candidates attended, local labor leaders groused to Bloomberg Businessweek's Josh Eidelson that they were wary of Clinton, primarily over her shifting positions on free trade. "I would love to have her be the first female president," Stacey Andersen, a representative of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics & Allied Workers International Union, told Eidelson, "but she’s going to have to come out a little bit stronger than what I’ve been seeing when it comes to labor-friendly issues." And as the Intercept recently noted, Clinton's union endorsements have been the decisions of the group's leadership, while the handful of unions backing Sanders have done so after directly polling their members.
On Monday afternoon, Sanders appeared at the local hall of the United Steelworkers in Des Moines (showing up on time) to assure the crowd—whose national union has yet to endorse—that he's the better candidate for organized labor. Parked outside was a red campaign bus from the National Nurses United emblazoned with an endorsement for Sanders. "The most trusted profession trusts Bernie," the side of the bus read. The Sanders staff distributed signs to the crowd reading, "Vote Labor Values, Labor for Bernie."
"I like his views and his opinions," Josh Fleenor, a 35-year-old tire builder in the local union, told me before the event. "Bring America back."
Throughout his speech, Sanders touted his record of fighting for low-wage workers, defending efforts to block trade agreements—a veiled dig at Clinton—and to expand union membership through measures such as card check. "I don't get any money, and I don't want any money, from corporations," he said. "Never got a nickel. Don't want any money from the billionaire class. But I am very grateful for the support that I've received from the Steelworkers throughout my entire political career. Thank you guys, very, very much."
"Initially I didn't think he could win," said Jerry Addy, a retired operating engineer at the event. "Now I think he can win. I just think Bernie's a better person, a better candidate. Bernie's doing retail. Hillary's doing wholesale."
January 31, 2016
*bolding mine
Bernie Crushing it - "Bernie Sanders' Small Donor Fundraising Continues To Set Records"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-fundraising_us_56ae4f7ee4b0010e80ea7bdbWASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign raised $33.6 million in the last three months of 2015 and another $20 million in January alone, the campaign announced Sunday. The campaign further stated that 1.3 million people have made 3.25 million donations to Sanders' run -- a record number of donors at this stage in a presidential campaign.
“The numbers we’ve seen since Jan. 1 put our campaign on pace to beat Secretary Clinton’s goal of $50 million in the first quarter of 2016,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said in a statement. “Working Americans chipping in a few dollars each month are not only challenging but beating the greatest fundraising machine ever assembled.”
The vast majority of Sanders' money has come from donors giving under $200. This contrasts with Hillary Clinton's campaign, which has raised the majority of its funds from donors giving maximum contributions of $2,700. Clinton’s campaign has also raised substantial sums from small donors, but Sanders’ ability to remain competitive with Clinton’s fundraising by relying solely on small contributions is unprecedented.
The Sanders camp said that the fourth quarter total will show 70 percent of the campaign's donations came from small donors. Further, the $20 million it reports to have raised in January came almost exclusively from online donations averaging $27 a piece.
Overall, Sanders raised $75 million in 2015 compared to an anticipated $114 million for Clinton.
“The numbers we’ve seen since Jan. 1 put our campaign on pace to beat Secretary Clinton’s goal of $50 million in the first quarter of 2016,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said in a statement. “Working Americans chipping in a few dollars each month are not only challenging but beating the greatest fundraising machine ever assembled.”
The vast majority of Sanders' money has come from donors giving under $200. This contrasts with Hillary Clinton's campaign, which has raised the majority of its funds from donors giving maximum contributions of $2,700. Clinton’s campaign has also raised substantial sums from small donors, but Sanders’ ability to remain competitive with Clinton’s fundraising by relying solely on small contributions is unprecedented.
The Sanders camp said that the fourth quarter total will show 70 percent of the campaign's donations came from small donors. Further, the $20 million it reports to have raised in January came almost exclusively from online donations averaging $27 a piece.
Overall, Sanders raised $75 million in 2015 compared to an anticipated $114 million for Clinton.
*bolding mine
January 31, 2016
This is My Candidate, Bernie Sanders - Consistent and Real for 30 years
This is from an August show of Rachel Maddow's. It was probably posted back then - but now, on the eve of the Iowa caucus - I found it inspiring to watch again. It's over 10 minutes - but worth it to see Bernie back in the 1980s talking with the same passionate honesty about the greatness we could achieve. There's some great clips from national media (young Tom Brokow) about Bernie's success as Mayor of Burlington and the many times he was reelected as Mayor, Congressman and Senator with large margins against Republicans.
Enjoy!
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Member since: Wed Oct 28, 2015, 02:02 PMNumber of posts: 5,400