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Title: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on May 26, 2016, 09:08:17 pm

from The Washington Post....

Bernie Sanders easily wins the policy debate

By JEFFREY D. SACHS | 7:22PM EDT - Wednesday, May 25, 2016

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20160525bsb_BernieSandersBaltimore_zpscbcxqrnf.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/04/23/Local/Images/SandersBaltimore071461435311.jpg)
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (Inedependent-Vermont) speaks to a crowd in Baltimore on April 23rd.
 — Photograph: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post.


MAINSTREAM U.S. economists have criticized Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders's proposals as unworkable, but these economists betray the status quo bias of their economic models and professional experience. It's been decades since the United States had a progressive economic strategy, and mainstream economists have forgotten what one can deliver. In fact, Sanders's recipes are supported by overwhelming evidence — notably from countries that already follow the policies he advocates. On health care, growth and income inequality, Sanders wins the policy debate hands down.

On health care, Sanders's proposal for a single-payer system has been roundly attacked as too expensive (http://www.wsj.com/articles/price-tag-of-bernie-sanders-proposals-18-trillion-1442271511). His campaign (for which I briefly served as a foreign policy adviser) is told that his plan will raise taxes and burst the budget. But this attack misses the whole point of his health proposals. While health spending by the government would go up in the Sanders health plan, private insurance payments would disappear, generating huge net savings (https://berniesanders.com/issues/how-bernie-pays-for-his-proposals) for the American people.

Countries such as Canada, Germany, Sweden and Britain all follow something like a single-payer approach and pay much less (http://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/Focus-Health-Spending-2015.pdf) for health care than the United States does. While the United States spent 16.4 percent of gross domestic product on health care in 2013, Canada paid only 10.2 percent; Germany, 11 percent; Sweden, 11 percent; and Britain, 8.5 percent. U.S. overspending is about 5 percent of GDP, or nearly $1 trillion as of 2016, mainly because of the excessive market power of private health insurers and big drug companies. An authoritative study (http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2012/Best-Care-at-Lower-Cost-The-Path-to-Continuously-Learning-Health-Care-in-America.aspx) by the U.S. Institute of Medicine confirms this extent of excess costs, finding losses of about 5 percent of GDP in 2009. Critics of Sanders's health plan have failed to recognize or acknowledge the huge savings and cost reductions that would accompany a single-payer system.

On economic growth, Sanders also easily wins the debate. While President Obama opted for a short-term stimulus that peaked after two years and disappeared by the end of his first term, and Hillary Clinton has proposed a modest infrastructure program (https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2015/11/30/clinton-infrastructure-plan-builds-tomorrows-economy-today) over five years, Sanders calls for a much bolder public investment program directed at the skills of young people (through free college tuition) and at modernizing and upgrading America's infrastructure, with a focus on renewable energy, high-speed rail, safe drinking water and urban public transport. Sanders's growth strategy would get back to fundamentals: a long-overdue increase in productive investments to underpin good jobs and rising worker productivity.

Sanders's mainstream critics are mostly Keynesians. Their focus is on total spending, whether it's consumption or investment. Sanders, instead, focuses on investment because long-term growth depends on more rapid capital accumulation (including in skills and technology). America's slow growth is no mystery. The U.S. net investment rate has declined to about 5 percent of GDP, down from about 10 percent of GDP during the 1960s and 1970s. Sanders's plan would restore a high-investment economy and, with it, a higher growth rate.

On income distribution, Sanders accurately argues that U.S. income inequality is uniquely high among the rich countries. Only the United States has deep poverty alongside soaring wealth. Only the United States tolerates a hedge-fund industry in which poorly performing money managers (not to mention quite a few crooks) take home billions of dollars in pay, backed by unconscionable tax breaks pushed by Democratic and Republican senators who live off of the largesse of Wall Street.

Consider the most basic measure of income inequality, the Gini coefficient. This measures the inequality of income among households, with zero signifying complete equality and 1 complete inequality. For high-income countries, a Gini coefficient below 0.3 reflects a low degree of income inequality; between 0.3 and 0.4, a moderate degree; and at 0.4 or above, a high degree. According to the most recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=IDD), the U.S. Gini coefficient stood at 0.40, with Canada at 0.32; Germany, 0.29; Sweden, 0.27; and Britain, 0.35.

What accounts for this striking difference? Most important, U.S. inequality has soared in the past 35 years, since the start of the Reagan era. The U.S. Gini coefficient stood at 0.31 in 1980. All countries have faced market pressures pushing toward more inequality — especially increased trade with low-wage countries such as China and automation that has claimed the jobs and wages of workers with only high school educations. Yet only in the United States have these pressures turned into massive inequality of income.

The reasons are clear. The United States unleashed the power of CEOs to enrich themselves with mega-salaries, weakened trade unions and gave massive tax breaks to the super-rich. Sanders's policies would go after all of these unconscionable moves, bringing the United States back into line with the rest of the high-income world. He would, in short, end the age of impunity in which the rich and the powerful get their way, while the rest suffer. Sanders's policies include higher taxes on the rich, strengthening unions, raising the minimum wage, supporting families, providing free tuition at public universities and cracking down on financial crimes.

There is nothing magical or utopian about Sanders's recommendations. He is advocating policies of decency long ago adopted by other prosperous high-income countries. Our own neighbor, Canada, is a case in point. Canada has lower-cost health care, a life expectancy two years higher than in the United States, much lower college tuition, far lower poverty rates and, not surprisingly, more happiness (http://worldhappiness.report/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/03/HR-V1Ch2_web.pdf) (ranking sixth in the world in life satisfaction, behind Scandinavia and well ahead of the United States, which is 12th).

Mainstream economists long ago lost the melody line. Their models are oriented to the status quo and underemphasize the benefits of public investment. They take America's bloated health-care costs as a given, not as the result of the influence of the U.S. private health lobby. They treat low growth as natural (“secular stagnation” (http://larrysummers.com/2016/02/17/the-age-of-secular-stagnation)) rather than as the result of chronic underinvestment. They have come to accept cruelly rising income inequality and rampant impunity for financial crimes. Sanders knows better, based on worldwide experience, an abiding sense of decency and a strong and accurate vision for a brighter economic future.


• Jeffrey D. Sachs is director of the Earth Institute and a professor at Columbia University.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jeffrey-sachs-bernie-sanders-easily-wins-the-policy-debate/2016/05/25/224209a0-21ac-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jeffrey-sachs-bernie-sanders-easily-wins-the-policy-debate/2016/05/25/224209a0-21ac-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on May 27, 2016, 01:12:15 am

This is why America desperately needs Bernie....



from the Los Angeles Times....

Imbalance of power: Huge financial sector warps U.S. economy

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PDT - Thursday, May 26, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160526dh_zpstrsrxqvk.jpg) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5746036b/turbine/la-1464206319-snap-photo)

I HAVE this friend who is always gleeful when she catches me saying something pompous or dumb. As soon as I arrived for a visit with her in San Francisco last Saturday, she began giving me grief about something I wrote in a column last week (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-uber-economy-20160516-story.html). Getting a ride from Uber, I had declared, “would make me feel morally compromised.”

Well, OK, I admit the phrase was overly dramatic, (not to mention that I easily allowed myself to be “compromised” when my friend's husband called up Uber and we all jumped into the hired car for a ride across town). My point was not that Uber is more exploitative than many other sectors of our economy, but that Uber is symbolic of how American capitalism has evolved in the last few decades — thanks to technological change, globalization, lax regulation, political stupidity and good old greed — to give ever-expanding power to people with vast amounts of money while throwing the majority of us into a frantic pool of cheaper and cheaper labor.

Economic columnist Rana Foroohar does a much better job describing the demerits and perils of our new economy in the current issue of Time magazine (http://time.com/4327419/american-capitalisms-great-crisis). Foroohar's cover story may be the most enlightening article I have read this election year, and I recommend it to everyone, in particular all the candidates running for high office who generally spout ideas about the economy that seem stuck in 1980, if not 1955.

Foroohar's thesis is that the decline of the American middle class, the sluggish labor market and anemic business development can largely be attributed to an extreme imbalance in global economics that favors the financial sector over all else.

According to Foroohar, “America’s economic illness has a name: financialization. It’s an academic term for the trend by which Wall Street and its methods have come to reign supreme in America, permeating not just the financial industry but also much of American business. It includes everything from the growth in size and scope of finance and financial activity in the economy; to the rise of debt-fueled speculation over productive lending; to the ascendancy of shareholder value as the sole model for corporate governance; to the proliferation of risky, selfish thinking in both the private and public sectors; to the increasing political power of financiers and the CEOs they enrich; to the way in which a ‘markets know best’ ideology remains the status quo.”

In the new American economy, banks would rather put money into high-yield, risky financial schemes than loan money to small businesses. Short-term gains for stockholders and CEOs are invariably given priority over the well-being of employees and the long-term viability of companies. Dangerously, debt has become the prime economic driver, whether one is talking about consumers, banks or businesses.

Foroohar points out that the financial sector gobbles up a quarter of corporate profits while creating just 4% of American jobs. This has the effect of sucking all the economic air out of the room, she says, quoting a former Goldman Sachs banker who described the economy as “a zero-sum game between financial wealth holders and the rest of America.”

On a gut level, this should be no surprise to most Americans. Economic unease is inspiring much of the rebelliousness among voters in the current campaign season. Yet few people diagnose the problem especially well. Instead, there is a lot of useless noise about the Chinese and the Mexicans, about immigrants and bureaucrats, about poor people mooching off hardworking folks and billionaires squirreling away their money in offshore bank accounts.

Bernie Sanders is the only presidential candidate who has reached beyond platitudes and tired cliches to talk about what is really happening in our economy, but it would be misleading to look at this as a left/right issue, or a cleft that separates Republicans and Democrats. Financialization is bad for everyone, both business and labor, for the poor, the middle class and, yes, even for the rich because it is unsustainable. It will bring on another financial collapse or a social upheaval — perhaps both. Capitalism is imperiled by this distortion of the capitalist system.

For now, we can save a few bucks riding Uber — or make a few bucks by driving. We can push prices down on all sorts of things, hoping that will keep pace with the dive in incomes, but, at the bottom of that spiral is not the United States we have known. It is a place more like Venezuela.

Forget what I said about feeling morally compromised. It's time to feel morally outraged.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-financial-sector-warp-20160524-snap-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-financial-sector-warp-20160524-snap-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on May 27, 2016, 05:59:41 am
welcome to lala land
(http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/ttll5.jpg)


This is why America desperately doesn't need Bernie

America needs smaller government with less control and corruption

if you put crackpot sanders in power and he decides to take more government control over everything  there's a giant sucking sound even worse than it is now,he's old then he dies
and some other arsehole will be left with the new  powers sanders took but he won't give a rats arse about sanders lets give everybody a fair share if they deserve it or not policies.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1jCSfySGtk


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on May 27, 2016, 12:14:48 pm

So I take it from that load of bullshit that if you get seriously ill, you will decline treatment in one of NZ's goverment-provided healthcare facilities (public hospitals, subsidised GP-staffed medical centres, pharmac-subsidised medicines, etc.) and instead pay for your treatment out of your own pocket at one of the country's private hospitals because you are paranoid about being controlled by the government?

Yeah, right.....and a flock of pigs just flew past my window too!  (http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/XtraNewsCommunity2/Animated%20emoticons/09_ROFLMAO.gif)  (http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/XtraNewsCommunity2/Animated%20emoticons/07_LaughOutLoud.gif)







(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/PiggySmile.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/PiggySmile.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/PiggySmile.gif)

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigflies.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigflies.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigflies.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigflies.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigflies.gif)

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigs__Pig_flies_2.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigs__Pig_flies_2.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigs__Pig_flies_2.gif) (http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Idiots%20Trolls/Pigs__Pig_flies_2.gif)



Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on May 27, 2016, 12:34:55 pm
(https://earloftaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/frankenbernie.jpg?w=630&h=523)

Sanders supporters are stupid braindead zombies

if you like to be totally controlled by government maybe you should naff off to China and get a real job driving the freshly harvested organs from murdered falun gong followers to the airport.

communism is an insane idea for the insane likes of dumbarses like you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnPrxbYARJg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNvJk2oT0BY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II-gubJpYvA


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: nitpicker1 on May 27, 2016, 01:41:31 pm

I laughed when Trump asked how much Bernie would pay him when Bernie challenged him to debate.

By the way

Trump accepted the challenge -  I was watching Fox News Channel on Sky overnight !

(http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/XtraNewsCommunity2/Animated%20emoticons/31_HeHe.gif)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on May 27, 2016, 02:08:50 pm

I notice you evaded the question about whether or not you would make use of government-provided and subsidised medical facilities if you are ill.

Just like Donald Trump, you spout all of this retoric, but there is no SUBSTANCE to any of it.

It's called “running on BULLSHIT!”

When you dig beneath the surface it is patently BULLSHIT.

Just look at all of Trump's BULLSHIT he is now changing his stance on.

Kinda says it all about white-trash boofheads, eh?


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on May 27, 2016, 03:47:49 pm
you're just going on about one thing free healthcare we already have this in nz i never had a problem with this
it's a safety net but it's not free someone always has to pay for it

(https://mikemstahl.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/asb.jpg?w=300&h=300)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on May 27, 2016, 04:01:34 pm
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjKaOoVVEAAKEwH.jpg)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on May 28, 2016, 08:01:38 pm

Hahaha....after saying he would WELCOME a televised debate with Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump has now said he WON'T debate with Bernie Sanders, after Bernie called his bluff and agreed to a debate; no doubt the reason for Trump's sudden flip-flop is because he KNOWS Bernie would wipe the floor with Trump once a debate started getting into meaty, indepth issues, instead of the fluff & bullshit in Donald's delusional world.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on May 28, 2016, 11:40:59 pm
if i was him i wouldn't bother with bernie
sanders is nothing but bum fluff

ill send trump my nickname for him

Bum Fluff Bernie lol

(https://d1jn4vzj53eli5.cloudfront.net/mc/afisher/2016_04/berniecomrade.png?h=346&w=350)

(http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_full/public/blogs/berniebaby.png?itok=xyrjX960)




Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on May 31, 2016, 06:10:58 am
(http://silenceisconsent.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/bernie-sanders-joker-meme.jpg)

because Obama sucked


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on May 31, 2016, 11:21:09 pm

from The Washington Post....

A graying generation founded on peace and
love finds its champion: Bernie Sanders


By STEPHANIE McCRUMMEN | 2:30PM EDT - Monday, May 30, 2016

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20160530lems_LewisElbingerMountShasta_zps58j2immx.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/05/06/Others/Images/2016-05-06/Lewis-Elbinger-025-CJO1462556947.jpg)
Lewis Elbinger in Mount Shasta, California, on May 2nd. The 68-year-old supports Bernie Sanders and believes he can win
the Democratic nomination. — Photograph: Carlos Javier Ortiz/The Wasington Post.


MOUNT SHASTA, CALIFORNIA — It is a glorious day in Northern California, and Lewis Elbinger, a 68-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter, is feeling great — or, as he puts it, “high vibe”. In the five decades since he first painted a white peace sign on his forehead, protested the Vietnam War and hitchhiked to India to become a monk, in fact, he has never felt more optimistic about the country than at this very moment.

“A consciousness is rising,” he says.

A case could be made that this is not exactly so in the sense that Elbinger means it.

Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Hillary Clinton, according to everyone who is not a Sanders supporter, will be his Democratic opponent, meaning that Sanders is about to become the latest in a long line of progressive candidates to lose.

But that is not how things appear in Mount Shasta, where the light seems brighter, the air cleaner, the sky bluer, and where Elbinger is about to get into his car with two fellow Berners and drive 130 miles south. The destination is Chico, where he will try to become a Sanders delegate representing California at this summer's Democratic National Convention. Put another way, he will be the older, white-haired Jewish guy with steadfast 1960s values trying to win an election against all odds.

He is certain that Sanders can not only win the nomination but also ride the wave of rising consciousness all the way to the White House, ushering in the era of peace, love and prosperity that his generation has long imagined.

“We've been waiting for this our entire lives,” says Elbinger, who retired after a 28-year State Department career that included a stint as a political adviser to General David H. Petraeus at the U.S. Central Command in Florida. “I know this is going to catch fire.”

He is dressed for the occasion like the Foreign Service officer he was and the unapologetic hippie he remains: gray blazer, forest-green oxford shirt, knotted tie, a large crystal draped around his neck, a “Feel the Bern” button on his lapel.

“Wow, you look spiffy!” says Christine Herbster, 59, as Elbinger arrives to pick up her and her friend Marcia Rey, 65, for the drive south.

“I saw a poll that said California is 61.5 percent for Bernie,” says Rey.

“Let's work for 70 percent!” says Elbinger.

“I'm going for 90!” says Herbster. “We have an endless pool of hope.”

“We are not giving up,” says Rey. “The vibe is different here — we are progressing.”

“We have sunshine!” says Herbster.

“And a lot of water!” says Rey.

“We have this glorious mountain here,” says Elbinger. “Just look at it. I can see it right now.”

The clouds have blown off Mount Shasta, which is still tipped with snow, and Elbinger draws in a long breath of fresh air. His mind is clear. His chakras are balanced. He likes to say he has a good filter to sift out negative thoughts before he might utter them and thus give them life in the world.

“All right!” says Elbinger. “We're off to Chico!”

“Right on!” says Herbster, and off they go.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh0EMkCfiv0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh0EMkCfiv0)

AS THE 2016 presidential election heads toward its last big primary, in California on June 7th, Bernie Sanders has achieved far more than anyone predicted, winning 20 primaries and caucuses and nearly 10 million votes. In recent weeks, more and more of those voters have become ever more strident and angry, believing that the primary process is rigged against Sanders. They have cursed and shouted down party officials and turned the slogan “Feel the Bern” into “Bern It Down” as a feeling spreads that Sanders should stay in the race no matter what. Such is the evolving devotion to a man who is called by some of his supporters “the candidate we've been waiting for.”

Of these, few have been waiting longer than Lewis Elbinger, a proud member of the Woodstock generation that forms the solid, ever-hopeful core of the Sanders coalition. These are the true believers who have always sought out some version of him, whether that was Dennis Kucinich in 2004 or Ralph Nader in 2000 or Jerry Brown in 1992, and who include the trio now hurtling toward Chico in a station wagon, a pouch of feathers dangling from the rearview mirror.

“Us old hippies,” says Rey.

“This is just the beginning,” says Elbinger, who cast his first presidential vote for the anti-Vietnam War Democrat Eugene McCarthy in 1968, the year that Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, cities were rioting, and Elbinger was sure that his country had “gone crazy”.

He was 20, and trying to make sense of such a world. He headed to Vietnam as a photojournalist, then hitchhiked to India, where he was living on pot and bread and setting up an ashram when something happened that changed the course of his life. A copy of Life magazine drifted into his hands, a whole issue devoted to Woodstock — page after page of half a million muddy hippies reveling in music, peace, love and drugs for three days on a farm in Upstate New York, which made him think something had shifted for the better.

He returned home to Detroit, met his wife, had a daughter and joined the State Department, which turned into a long career of postings in Kenya, Pakistan, India and other places. All of it led Elbinger to his fundamental belief in the oneness of humanity, and finally to Mount Shasta, where he opened a place in town called the Silk Road Chai Shop.

When he is not there, he is working on an opera based on the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. He lives in an apartment overlooking the mountain and meditates in a chair facing his chakra chart. He takes long walks in the forest and says prayers for a better world in a particular spot at a particular time when beams of sun hit his forehead just so. He sets a cellphone alarm for 12:12 p.m. each day, and when it rings, he asks himself, “Are you doing what you're supposed to be doing?”

He loves this life in a town that can at times feel like an actual Shangri-La, a place where shops sell kama sutra oil, crystals and books about dissolving your ego, and it's normal to overhear “I used to buy that incense by the box” or “Where do you keep your Buddha?”

Which is not to say that Elbinger is cut off from reality as most people know it; he toggles easily between worlds and was watching a debate last year when he became enthralled with Bernie Sanders, or as he sometimes calls him, Mahatma.

“The ‘maha’ means great, the ‘atma’ means soul — Great Soul,” he says, and in the car, his passengers could not agree more.

They zip along the highway, past blurs of green fields and sprays of orange poppies and a full and glittering Lake Shasta, winding down toward the Central Valley that Elbinger calls “the real world.”

“Imagine a painting, a Norman Rockwell painting that looks so idealistic,” says Rey, a retired graphic designer, looking out the window. “Living in a place like this, you're in the painting…. It's just a different way of being, and that's what Bernie stands for. A quality of life for everybody.”

“No matter how poor your parents were,” says Herbster, a retired Air Force mechanic.

“People don't know it but those rights are actually enshrined in the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights,” says Elbinger, who likes to say that if this life is a dream, as the Buddhists say, then “let's make it like a Walt Disney musical — why make it like a nightmare?”

“Do you have anything better to do than to try to make it better?” says Rey.

“That's why we're here,” says Elbinger, who has a remarkable ability to fold information he deems negative into his unified theory of ever-rising human consciousness.

For instance, the rise of Donald Trump: “He's needed — we are detoxifying, purging our system of the racism that occurred in the past.”

Hillary Clinton: “She's representing the dying forces of the 20th century.”

Pundits who say it's over for Sanders: “No, it's just beginning,” Elbinger says, explaining his view that the system is rigged against Sanders and if it weren't, the true extent of his popularity would be unleashed.

What's happening is an evolution, he says, which reminds him that he wishes Sanders would stop using the word “revolution”.

“I think he should drop the ‘r’,” he says. “The word ‘revolution’ scares people. It literally means to go in circles. Evolution means to spiral upwards, and that's what we're doing.”

At least this is how it feels at this very moment, winding through miles of walnut groves.

“There's nothing more I would love than for California to be the one that really stepped up for Bernie,” says Rey.

“It's going to be,” says Elbinger.

“I feel like I haven’t had someone feel and think the way I do in a long time,” says Herbster, and soon they are arriving in Chico, pulling up to an old wooden Grange Hall for the election.

“Oh,” says Elbinger. “Look at all the cars.”


A FEW hundred people are lining up at the doors. Some of them are young, but many more are of Elbinger's generation, men and women with graying beards and ponytails who have come from all over California's 1st Congressional District, which is mostly Republican, and which gives the gathering the slightly awkward air of a coming-out party.

“Nice button,” a young man says to an older woman wearing a Feel the Bern button.

“Isn't this wonderful?” an older woman says to another.

“So, you're a candidate? Bless your heart,” a young nurse says to Elbinger.

“I am — Lewis Elbinger,” he says, shaking her hand, then turning to the man behind him.

“Hi, I'm Lewis Elbinger — I'm going to be on the ballot,” he says, his confidence in all of this rising as the line moves into the auditorium.

“Kimberly Butcher?” an official calls out as the candidates begin making their pitches.

A nervous young woman comes to the stage.

“I'm a fairly new Democrat who's always felt apathetic to the process,” she begins, her voice shaking.

“Don't worry! You're among friends!” an older voice booms back, and one after another, the candidates stand on stage to declare their passion for Sanders.

“I have personally seen the cost of poverty, of these children being disenfranchised from the economic system,” begins a young mental-health worker named Randall.

“I'm Native American, and Bernie's the only one who's ever cared about us,” says a young man named Erik.

“Bernie's our only hope you guys,” says a mother of four named Karissa, her voice rising as she explains that she is overwhelmed with bills and is about to lose her house and that she is shouting because she is terrified. “I will stand with him for hours! I will stand with him for days! I will stand with him until my feet are bleeding, my knees are buckling! I will stand with him until I'm exhausted and fall down, and then I'll grab one of you guys to stand me up to stand with him some more!”

A 67-year old woman recalls hearing Martin Luther King speak at the March on Washington in 1963. A man in his 70s recalls attending the tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. A Legal Aid lawyer recalls marching against the Vietnam War.

“Many of you remember those times,” he says.

In the audience, Elbinger is nodding, because of course he does. He remembers everything about those times, and that is the reason why he is here, walking up to the stage, a white-haired, 68-year-old Jewish man still clinging to all the ideas that first inspired him.

“All right, Lewis!” Rey calls out.

“Yeah!” Herbster yells.

“Wow! Look at this crowd!” he begins. “My name is Lewis Elbinger, and I'm a retired Foreign Service officer. I've traveled all around the world, and I'm telling you that people all around the world are hoping for Sanders!”

His voice is rising.

“God knows we need him here, but the whole world is looking at us!”

He is gesturing.

“This is about voting our conscience! Getting trust and values back into the government again!”

He is on a roll.

“So the only question is, will this delegate switch over to Hillary Clinton at the contested convention?” he shouts. “And the answer in my case is no!”

The crowd is clapping and cheering him on, and he is looking out at their faces. It is not exactly a half-million muddy hippies at Woodstock, but to Elbinger the moment feels similar to what he felt all those decades ago, like something is shifting for the better in America.

“I'm expecting Bernie to win!” he yells. “Why? We are California guys! We can do this!”

People clap and cheer as Elbinger steps off the stage and sits back down, and when the speeches are over, Rey and Herbster tell him how great he was.

They cast their ballots, and soon they are back in the car, winding their way through the walnut groves, past green fields and swaths of orange poppies and on into the mountains.

“What an experience,” Elbinger says, pulling onto the highway.

“It was awesome,” says Rey.

They talk about how good it felt to be around so many people “who listen with their heart,” and their shared belief that this election and in fact all of existence comes down to a choice between love and fear, and how sure they are not only that love will win, but that the movement to elect Sanders will win, too.

“It's ever growing,” says Elbinger, and as they round a curve they can see their home in the distance.

“There's Mount Shasta!” Elbinger says.

“Yeah,” sighs Herbster.

“As beautiful as all this is, that's the place I want to be right there,” he says.

And soon, that is where they are.

Elbinger drops off his friends at the Silk Road Chai Shop.

“Mission accomplished!” says Herbster.

“Thank you, Lewis!” says Rey.

He drives through the town he loves, where people shop for little Buddhas and incense and a tourist holds a crystal in his palm while a man asks: “Can you feel it? The vibrations are really strong.”

And now he is back home, sitting in his meditation chair and facing the chakra chart. He looks out of the window — a view of blooming flowers and the mountain beyond. It is sunny. It is glorious. Eventually it is 12:12 and his alarm goes off.

“Are you doing what you are supposed to be doing?” he asks himself then, and at this point in a life he sees as spiraling ever-upward, he is certain. The answer is yes.


• Stephanie McCrummen is a national enterprise reporter for The Washington Post. Previously, she was the paper's East Africa bureau chief. She has also reported from Egypt, Iraq and Mexico, among other places.

__________________________________________________________________________

More on this topic:

 • Bernie Sanders did something special for this California farm town. He showed up. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/05/30/bernie-sanders-did-something-special-for-this-california-farm-town-he-showed-up)

 • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: Highlights from Bernie Sanders’s campaign, in pictures (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/highlights-from-bernie-sanderss-campaign-in-pictures/2015/10/13/2971ad0a-71c8-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_gallery.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-graying-generation-founded-on-peace-of-love-finds-its-champion-bernie-sanders/2016/05/30/219b6c34-1e0b-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-graying-generation-founded-on-peace-of-love-finds-its-champion-bernie-sanders/2016/05/30/219b6c34-1e0b-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on June 01, 2016, 12:20:09 pm

from the Los Angeles Times....

Bernie Sanders' sober social activism wins him fans in California

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PDT - Tuesday, May 31, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160531dh_zpsxb461iss.jpg~original) (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-activism-20160531-snap-story.html)

WHEN Lyndon Baines Johnson was Bernie Sanders' age, he'd been dead 10 years. Unlike LBJ, Bernie is still very much alive, leading a campaign caravan through California and aiming to take his left-wing children's crusade all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia the last week of July.

I caught up with Sanders at two rallies — one at a high school football stadium in Pomona on Thursday, the other on Saturday evening at the county fairgrounds in Bakersfield, the city represented by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican whose politics are far to the right of Sanders.

The crowds at both events were largely young, heavily Latino and predominantly working class. In both places, Sanders delivered the same speech — the same one he has given in every corner of America — with no need for a teleprompter. It is the consistent content of that message and the way he delivers it that has made him a completely unanticipated force in this campaign.


(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160531sb1_zpse2av0oxi.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-574d2750/turbine/la-1464674272-snap-photo)
Bernie Sanders speaks to a crowd at the Kern County fairgrounds in Bakersfield. — Photograph: David Horsey.

A year ago, only a few dreamy progressives would have predicted that the septuagenarian democratic socialist senator from out-of-the-way Vermont would become the leader of a youth movement that would seriously disrupt Hillary Clinton's smooth path to the Democratic nomination. Sanders' rise to the top tier in the 2016 campaign is, arguably, even more of a surprise than Donald Trump's success. Trump already had huge notoriety, billions of dollars, easy media access and a fractured field of competitors. Bernie Sanders had nothing but ideas.

I spoke with a college-age woman waiting in line at the Bakersfield fairgrounds. She wore a reversed baseball cap over her long, magenta-tinted hair, jeans ripped at the knees and a black muscle shirt touting “Bernie for President”. Her name was Cela Ayres. I asked her why this rumpled old guy with unruly white hair had become such a political phenomenon among millennials. Ayres said that other candidates — Hillary Clinton in particular — try to connect with young voters by awkwardly “relating” and using gimmicks like Snapchat.

“Bernie just says what relates to us,” Ayres told me. “He doesn't try to relate to us, he gets us.”


(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160531sb2_zpsglsajhbu.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-574d24eb/turbine/la-1464673660-snap-photo)
A crowd of supporters listen to Bernie Sanders speak at a rally in Bakersfield. — Photograph: David Horsey.

I heard similar sentiments from many in the Sanders crowds. They like his ideas and, even more, they like that he has been pushing the same core ideas since he was a college kid in the 1960s. He may not have charisma, but Bernie has something that seems far more effective this year, especially with young people and older voters who have been disillusioned by too many obsequious, perfectly groomed, cookie cutter candidates (think John Edwards in 2008). Sanders is unquestionably authentic.

If the most dispiriting aspect of the presidential campaign has been the success Trump has achieved with his narcissistic, bullying, dumbed-down rants, a hopeful, positive development is that so many people still have the attention span to sit through Sanders' very sober, policy-driven lectures. He ticks off his positions like an organizer in a union hall. He very rarely smiles or wastes time with a joke. He doesn't try to “humanize” himself with soft personal stories. Most important, he doesn't talk down to his crowd. And they respond with cheers.


(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160531sb3_zpsn2foaiwy.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-574d25b0/turbine/la-1464673856-snap-photo)
Some of the many young people who came to hear Bernie Sanders speak in Bakersfield. — Photograph: David Horsey.

Before the mass rally in Bakersfield, I was at a more intimate gathering inside a hall on the fairgrounds where Sanders met with activists, leaders and average citizens from the local Latino community. He was there mostly to listen and gather information. One middle-aged man broke down in tears describing how his father had toiled “forever” as a farm worker, inspiring him to strive higher. Another man talked about getting paid $1.25 to pick a box of strawberries that sells for $40 on the market. Several people complained about the undrinkable tap water in their homes — water contaminated by agricultural chemicals and oil fracking operations. Many others described serious illnesses caused by pesticides sprayed across the fields where their families work.

When Sanders had arrived, he looked sunburned and weary, but the people's stories roused him. He responded with sympathy and offered remedies that veered a bit too predictably toward his anti-corporate talking points. “If someone came in here and hit someone with a baseball bat, they'd be arrested,” Sanders said. “If somebody is poisoning the children [with pesticides], that person should be indicted, as well.”


(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160531sb4_zpso8q2zedk.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-574d2821/turbine/la-1464674483-snap-photo)
Bernie Sanders began a long campaign day in Santa Barbara and ended with a sunset speech in Bakersfield.
 — Photograph: David Horsey.


I have to fault Sanders for one gratuitous media-bashing comment. While condemning big corporations for the pollution of drinking water in the Central Valley, he scolded the “corporate media” for not telling that story. The Los Angeles Times, in fact, has done in-depth reporting on the subject over several years. But Bernie is a creature of the progressive movement that clings to a wildly simplistic “corporate media” meme. At 74, he probably will not change.

Many of the people who run for president act as if they've been planning their campaigns since high school (think Ted Cruz and Martin O'Malley). They tailor their message around what will make them most electable (think Marco Rubio and Scott Walker). They struggle to project an image that researchers tell them will be appealing to voters (think Hillary Clinton and a host of others). Bernie is definitely different. He is as much community organizer as politician. Certainly, he is not a man without ambitions, but he came to the idea of running for president very late. He appears to be doing it as simply the latest avenue of his social activism.

That difference is what has won him an unexpectedly big and passionate following. It is also the thing Democratic leaders who wish he would quit before he gets to Philadelphia simply do not understand. For Bernie, this isn't politics, this is revolution.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-activism-20160531-snap-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-activism-20160531-snap-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on June 01, 2016, 01:02:10 pm
sanders is a geriatric  old and washed out hippy fart who thinks he can give everyone a pay rise
he might have rainbows coming out of his arse but what a dumb arse tool

and the other guy under that story is a fundy serial tree hugger and fairy worshiper  ;D


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on June 01, 2016, 02:06:02 pm

Donald Trump is missing one major thing....a properly-functioning brain.

Donald Trump doesn't speak....he FARTS.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on June 01, 2016, 10:50:00 pm
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/57/11/25/571125fb58f2a8d8f950527890cc275c.jpg)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on July 26, 2016, 04:33:52 pm

from The Washington Post....

Democratic National Convention: Calls for unity met with
boos and jeers from Sanders supporters as event opens


By ABBY PHILIP and SEAN SULLIVAN | 7:51PM EDT - Monday, July 25, 2016

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20160725bss_BernieSandersSupporters_zpsojsbwcts.jpg~original) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/07/25/National-Politics/Images/dncMonday_0671469479811.jpg)
Bernie Sanders supporters chant during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday, July 25th, 2016.
 — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.


PHILADELPHIA — The still-raw wounds from the Democratic Party's primary were on full display on the opening night of their convention as supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders made their displeasure with the party’s nominee known on the convention floor.

Sanders supporters booed loudly at virtually every mention of Hillary Clinton's name and at other times, defiantly led chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!”

Behind the scenes, the Sanders and Clinton campaigns rushed to quell the anger within the Sanders ranks that had been reignited with the release of hacked emails of Democratic National Committee officials in the past week.

In an emailed message to his delegates, Sanders urged them not to sabotage the movement they had spent months building.

“Our credibility as a movement will be damaged by booing, turning of backs, walking out or other similar displays,” Sanders said in the note.

After being heavily criticized by Sanders and other prominent party leaders, ousted DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz faced the prospect of boos from Sanders supporters and instead of gaveling in the convention, she remained off stage. She was replaced by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake who opened the convention at 4:15 p.m.

But Wasserman Schultz's absence did not appease Sanders supporters.

They objected nearly every time a motion was brought up for a voice vote, calling instead for a roll call; they chanted against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal; they waved signs and banners.

The Monday night programming was supposed to highlight a party unified around a platform of economic policies for working families. Scheduled to speak are first lady Michelle Obama, Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat-Massachusetts) and Sanders.

As the night progressed, speakers turned more fully toward making the case for Clinton and against Trump.

Between speakers, an old clip of a Trump interview played through the convention hall.

“I don't want to sound too much like a chauvinist, but when I come home, and dinner is not ready, I go through the roof,” he said in the clip.

Later, Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta declared: “He is too erratic dangerous and divisive to entrust with the White House.”

But the ongoing fallout from the release of troves of embarrassing DNC emails threatened to distract from a lineup of high-profile speeches.

The leak of emails that showed DNC staff apparently scheming to help Clinton win the Democratic primary looms over the four-day convention. Wasserman Schultz resigned her post effective the end of the event. The FBI said it was investigating the breach.

Sanders was cheered by supporters at a rally Monday afternoon when he smiled and told the crowd that the Florida congresswoman's departure would “open the door” for new leaders to take the reins.

“Her resignation opens up the possibility of new leadership at the top of the Democratic Party that will stand with working people,” Sanders said.

Minutes later, when Sanders encouraged Democrats to elect Clinton and her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the crowd started booing loudly.

Sanders tried to talk them back, arguing that Republican nominee Donald Trump “must be defeated.”

Sensing a raw mood among his supporters, the Sanders team reached out to the Clinton team on Monday afternoon to voice worries that its supporters may cause a stir during Monday night, even after Wasserman Schultz resigned, according to a Democrat familiar with the talks.

Clinton aide Marlon Marshall and Sanders deputy campaign manager Rich Pelletier huddled in the afternoon to develop a joint plan to try to avoid excessive disruptions, the official said. This person spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Sanders sent out a signed text message to some supporters that reads: “I ask you as a personal courtesy to me to not engage in any kind of protest on the floor. Its of utmost importance you explain this to your delegations — Bernie,” the official said.

The Clinton and Sanders camps have also proactively merged their floor whip teams, and Sanders surrogates — including former NAACP President Ben Jealous — will be urging Sanders supporters to not cause a ruckus on the floor.

On the convention stage, one of Sanders's most ardent backers, Maine state Rep. Diane Russell, urged his supporters to celebrate a real victory: the “unity commission” that would recommend cutting back the number of superdelegates that were not bound to vote for a nominee based on the results of the primaries or caucuses.

“We did not win this by selling out,” Russell said. “We won this by standing up.

“We won this by standing together,” she added.

But moments later, when Clinton supporter and Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings rose to speak about his experience and the legacy of the civil-rights movement, hecklers rose to chant “No TPP! … No TPP!”

As the party prepared to transition to a new party chair, there were already signs that fresh efforts were underway to extend an olive branch to Sanders.

Top DNC officials released a new statement offering a “sincere apology” to Sanders for the “inexcusable remarks” expressed in the leaked emails.

Longtime Democratic strategist and a vice chair of the convention, Donna Brazile, was named interim chair of the party effective on Friday, upon the resignation of Wasserman Schultz.

On Monday afternoon, Brazile acknowledged the rowdy convention atmosphere but said she was confident that the party would get through it.

“It takes time to heal, time to come together,” Brazile said. “I'm confident that we can find common ground, which is what's most important.”

She added that she has been apologizing to Sanders and his campaign officials.

“We're bigger as a party than this,” she added. “I've told them that we will make sure our system gets better, make sure our practices get better and make sure our email gets more secure. I've been in this party for 40 years, we love this party, and we're going to do what needs to be done.”

Meanwhile, Sanders pledged to push for greater unity in his remarks later in the night, regardless of the strong feelings that remain among his supporters.

And Clinton officials said they expect that there will be a roll-call vote of all 50 states and that Sanders will have his name placed in nomination.

“We anticipate there will be a roll-call vote tomorrow night and that every vote will be counted, that we'll go through all 50 states,” said Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon. “We're happy to have it.”


Dan Balz, Robert Costa, David Weigel, Anne Gearan, Philip Rucker and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.

• Sean Sullivan has covered national politics for The Washington Post since 2012.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: Opening day of the Democratic National Convention (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/opening-day-of-the-democratic-national-convention/2016/07/25/30da8094-52a5-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_gallery.html)

 • Complete live coverage of the Democratic National Convention (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics-live/liveblog/democratic-national-convention-updates)

 • Here are the latest, most damaging things in the DNC's leaked emails (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/24/here-are-the-latest-most-damaging-things-in-the-dncs-leaked-emails)

 • Why Debbie Wasserman Schultz failed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/25/the-decline-and-fall-of-debbie-wasserman-schultz-explained)

 • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: What the scene in Philadelphia looks like as it readies for the DNC (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-the-scene-in-philly-looks-like-as-it-readies-for-the-dnc/2016/07/24/8d1e27cc-51c2-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_gallery.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-national-convention-warren-sanders-to-speak-tonight-as-party-tries-to-move-past-disarray/2016/07/25/93d4faba-5211-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-national-convention-warren-sanders-to-speak-tonight-as-party-tries-to-move-past-disarray/2016/07/25/93d4faba-5211-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on July 26, 2016, 04:47:14 pm

from the Los Angeles Times....

Convention sketch: the gantlet of Bernie buddies

By DAVID HORSEY | 6:15PM PDT - Monday, July 25, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160725dhc_zpsf6yjhind.jpg) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5796afd9/turbine/la-1469493220-snap-photo)

TODAY, as delegates emerged from the subway at the Wells Fargo Center where the Democratic National Convention is being held, they were met by hundreds of rowdy protesters pressing against a wire mesh fence, chanting, “Hey, ho, DNC! We won't vote for Hillary!”

It was a reminder, both to the delegates planning to vote for Hillary Clinton and to the Bernie Sanders delegates, that there are some folks on the left who will never vote for the party's nominee if it turns out to be you-know-who.

After a relatively quiet day on Sunday when many activists were avoiding the heat, the protesters were out in force as the first day of the convention began. The heat and humidity were hitting record highs, but the crowd outside the fence was energized. They yelled at delegates as they passed by, urging them to change their minds and vote for Sanders.

In a couple of hours, Sanders himself will address the convention. Unless he throws a curveball at the Clinton campaign, he is expected to call for a united front behind Hillary. Even Bernie, though, will not be able to change the minds of his many supporters out in the streets who see no difference between Clinton and Donald Trump.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-gantlet-20160725-snap-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-gantlet-20160725-snap-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on July 26, 2016, 05:46:18 pm


looks like bernie sanders and trump were 100% right about the system being totally rigged dems implode


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlqJ1tHkm0E


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Mr Eastwood on July 27, 2016, 01:25:31 am
It was very sad to see the democrats being anti democratic.

Please, anybody but Hillary, she reminds me of the nodding dog puppet in the rear car window.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on July 27, 2016, 04:16:03 am
haha the washington post was blaming putin for the leak
lol the left love acting like victims,better that instead of admitting the party screwed bernie

bernie supporters booed when asked to support hillary

but dont worry dems have the memory of a goldfish lmao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03YJpek1YHw



Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on July 27, 2016, 01:06:09 pm

from the Los Angeles Times....

Disappointed Bernie fans resist Sanders' hopeful view of Hillary Clinton

By DAVID HORSEY | 12:30PM PDT - Tuesday, July 26, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Tribune%20Newspapers%20Pix%202016/latimes_20160726dha_zpsiwmqsun5.jpg) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-5797b1e9/turbine/la-1469559288-snap-photo)
Bernie Sanders tries to convince his fervent supporters that Hillary Clinton is not evil incarnate. — Cartoon: David Horsey/Los Angeles Times.

ON Monday evening, Bernie Sanders stood on the stage at the Democratic National Convention as the most influential loser in a presidential primary race since Ronald Reagan in 1976. Except for the hard reality that he is not the party's nominee, Bernie's prime time address was truly a victory speech.

Leveraging the power of his remarkable campaign and his 1,846 pledged convention delegates, Sanders not only became the driving force behind adoption of what he called “the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party,” but he shifted his opponent's policy proposals significantly toward his own. So dramatically has he influenced the philosophical direction of Hillary Clinton and her party that he had no problem adapting the famously consistent themes of his campaign speech into Monday night's endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president.

And it was not a tepid endorsement of the kind Donald Trump has gotten from so many Republican leaders. Early on in his speech, Sanders declared that any objective observer would conclude “Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States.” Because of her ideas and her leadership skills, he said, “the choice is not even close.” He resisted taking the nostalgic, self-pitying approach that Senator Edward Kennedy took when conceding to President Jimmy Carter at the 1980 Democratic convention. There was no “the dream never dies” conclusion to Sanders' speech, no sentimentality, only a reiteration of his complete support for Clinton.

Sanders certainly would rather be the nominee himself, but he has been an activist and office holder for half a century. His long political career has taught him that partial victories eventually add up to revolutions. He spoke of that in his address, saying, “Together, my friends, we have begun a political revolution to transform America, and that revolution — our revolution — continues. Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1% — a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice — that struggle continues.”

Many of his supporters on the convention floor were far less hopeful. Some were tearful and sobbing as he spoke. Others sent up a chorus of boos whenever Clinton's name was mentioned and even when Sanders endorsed her. In interviews on NBC following Sanders' speech, his delegates displayed a level of idealism that spilled into naiveté. They said they still cannot imagine voting for Clinton, a woman they see as the loathsome personification of corporate influence in politics. Sanders' forceful arguments in Clinton's favor did not appear to have shifted their thinking at all.

The Vermont senator had pointed out that he and Clinton reached significant agreements on plans to grant free tuition at state universities for 85% of aspiring students, to raise the minimum wage, to provide a public option for healthcare and to allow citizens at age 55 to opt into Medicare. He also noted that Clinton believes scientific evidence that global warming is dangerously real, while Trump and the Republicans insist climate change is a hoax. And he pointed out what a radical difference there would be between the Supreme Court justices Clinton would appoint and those a President Trump would nominate.

It is mystifying that people can be so passionate in their support of a candidate, yet not give credence to his sage advice when it comes to Hillary Clinton. Those who are young have the excuse of tender age and inexperience. The older Bernie enthusiasts are simply too ideologically absolutist to recognize what Sanders, in his wisdom, sees: Hillary Clinton, like other establishment Democrats before her — Lyndon Johnson comes to mind — can respond to both political pressure and a heightened vision of justice to become an agent of progressive change.

Bernie Sanders is a realist. He knows there are many elections in a lifetime and a revolution that lasts is not won in a single shot.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-fans-20160726-snap-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-fans-20160726-snap-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on October 25, 2016, 01:01:28 pm

from The Washington Post....

Sanders is prepared to be a liberal thorn in Clinton's side

Hillary Clinton's onetime primary rival wants to work with her if she is elected, but he will
oppose appointments and legislation that don't pass muster with the left wing of her party.


By JOHN WAGNER | 2:03PM EDT - Monday, October 24, 2016

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20161024hcbs_HillaryClintonBernieSanders_zpsahpztnbx.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/09/28/Others/Images/2016-09-28/hrc171475096590.jpg)
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton campaigns with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont last month
in Durham, New Hampshire. — Photograph: Melina Mara/The Washington Post.


BURLINGTON, VERMONT — Senator Bernie Sanders, a loyal soldier for Hillary Clinton since he conceded the Democratic presidential nomination in July, plans to push liberal legislation with like-minded senators with or without Clinton's support if she is elected — and to aggressively oppose appointments that do not pass muster with the party's left wing.

In an interview, Sanders said he and other senators have started plotting legislation that would achieve many of the proposals that fueled his insurgent run for president, including a $15 federal minimum wage, tuition-free public college, an end to “mass incarceration” and aggressive steps to fight climate change.

The senators, Sanders said, also plan to push for the breakup of “too big to fail” banks and to pressure Clinton to appoint liberals to key Cabinet positions, including treasury secretary. Sanders said he would not stay silent if Clinton nominated the “same old, same old Wall Street guys” to regulatory positions that are important in enacting and overseeing the financial policies he supports.

“I will be vigorously in opposition, and I will make that very clear,” Sanders said.

Sanders's comments signal that, if she wins the presidency on November 8th, Clinton may have to contend not only with Republicans who oppose her agenda but also with liberals in her party who were not excited by her campaign and have long feared that she plans to govern as a centrist.

It remains to be seen how much sway Sanders will have in January. He is in line to take over the chairmanship of one of the Senate's major committees if Democrats regain control of the chamber, but aides to some of the senators he said are working with him suggested that less of a coordinated effort is underway.

The proposals Sanders plans to push are contained within the Democratic Party's 51-page platform, a document that he and his allies were instrumental in drafting in the run-up to the party's July convention in Philadelphia. Although in the past the party platform has often been quickly forgotten, Sanders's role in shaping it was key to his decision to support Clinton, and he has long planned to pressure her to follow through with action in the White House.

Progressive groups have questioned whether Clinton will fully embrace such initiatives as president and where they might fall on her priority list, particularly as she potentially faces a divided Congress and makes outreach to Republicans a focus of her campaign. Clinton did not embrace some of the policies contained in the party platform as a candidate in the primary cycle, but she has since signaled her support.

Sanders said he considers it his job “to demand that the Democratic Party implement that platform.”

The iconoclastic senator from Vermont, whose long-shot presidential campaign turned him into a national celebrity, shared his plans on Friday during a candid and lengthy interview in his home town.

In recent weeks, Sanders has stumped for Clinton, traveling the country to rally skeptical progressives and others around her bid to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump. But during the conversation in his office here, it became clear that Sanders is ready to reassert himself within the Democratic Party.

“The leverage that I think I take into the Senate is taking on the entire Democratic Party establishment, and, you know, taking on a very powerful political organization with the Clinton people,” Sanders said. “We won 22 states and 46 percent of the pledged delegates, 13.4 million votes … and a majority of the younger people, the future of the country…. That gives me a lot of leverage, leverage that I intend to use.”

Sanders said that his office and others have started converting the party platform into draft legislation. He said the lawmakers “informally” working with him include Senators Elizabeth Warren (Democrat-Massachusetts) — who campaigned with Clinton on Monday in New Hampshire — Sherrod Brown (Democrat-Ohio) and Jeff Merkley (Ddemocrat-Oregon).

Aides to those senators said they are certainly inclined to embrace liberal agenda items, many of which they have championed in the past. And Warren, in particular, has a history of speaking out against President Obama's nominees when they are not up to her standards, and she has signaled a willingness to do so under another Democratic president.

Sanders said he has not sought assurances from Clinton or her staff that she would be on board with an effort to enact the platform “piece by piece,” as he intends.

But, he said, “right now, as I see it, that platform is where Clinton is at, where I am at, where the vast majority of Democrats are at, and that is what we've got to implement.”

The Clinton campaign has sought to play down any potential fissures with the left wing of the Democratic Party. On Sunday, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said that Clinton is “proud to have worked with Senator Sanders on drafting the most progressive platform in Democratic Party history.” If she is elected, Fallon said, Clinton “intends to partner with him to advance their shared priorities.”

During a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Sunday, Clinton touted her proposal to make college debt-free — and credited Sanders with working with her on the idea. The two rivals had worked together after the primaries to scale back Sanders's proposal to make public colleges and universities tuition-free for everyone.

But in other ways, Clinton has signaled that her early agenda may be designed to appeal as much to Republicans as Democrats. On Sunday, Fallon told reporters in Raleigh that Republicans should be able to support two of her top priorities, immigration reform and investing in the country's infrastructure.

“We think that we have put forward ideas for the first 100 days that are the ones that Republicans should have every reason to work with us on,” he said.

Sanders said in the interview that he favors a more combative approach.

“It's not good enough for me, or anybody, to say, ‘Well, look, Republicans control the House: From Day One, we're going to have to compromise’,” Sanders said. “The Democratic Party, before they start compromising, has got to rally the American people around our ideas and make it clear that if Republicans do not go along with reasonable ideas to benefit the middle class and the working class, they are going to pay a very heavy political price.”

If the Democrats take over the Senate, Sanders is all but guaranteed to have a bigger voice in the chamber. He is in line to become chairman of the Budget Committee, although he said his preference would be to take the gavel of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which has jurisdiction over the minimum wage, health care and many of the issues he has championed during his quarter-century in Congress.

Sanders said Clinton's appointees to top positions in her administration would provide a strong indication of the direction she intends to take — and he plans to hold her feet to fire to fill her Cabinet with progressives. A top priority, he said, is a treasury secretary who does not come from Wall Street.

Like other progressives, he said he has been troubled by rumors that Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg could be under consideration for that post.

Sandberg, Silicon Valley's best-known female executive and author of a best-selling book on women's empowerment, has a close relationship with former treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, who has ties to Wall Street.

“I personally believe that a billionaire corporate executive is frankly not the kind of person that working families want to see as secretary of treasury,” Sanders said. “We need somebody who has a history of standing up to Wall Street and is prepared to take on the financial interests whose greed and illegal behavior has done so much harm.”

Sanders said he also will make known to Clinton his views about who should serve in roles such as U.S. trade representative and attorney general.

“I expect her to appoint people who will head agencies in a way that is consistent with the Democratic Party platform, and if not, I will do my best to oppose those nominees,” he said.

Sanders characterized the platform as more progressive than Clinton's campaign agenda but said she would have an obligation as the party's president to try to enact it, regardless of which party controls the House and the Senate.

“On a number of positions, her views are progressive,” Sanders said, “but I believe that the Democratic platform is more progressive and that the Democratic platform is the most progressive platform in the history of this country.”

Sanders will get another opportunity to promote his agenda next month, when he launches a 17-city tour in support of his new book, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250132924). Sanders also has plans for a string of television appearances to tout the book.

The first half of the book, he said, is a recounting of his presidential campaign from a “very personal point of view.” The second half details many of the policy issues he pushed on the campaign trail, but in “much greater detail.”

The book tour, Sanders said, “will be a good place, I think, to begin talking about where we want to go as a country.”

During the course of the interview, Sanders, 75, first hedged when asked whether he would ever run for president again, but then he declared it as “highly, highly, highly unlikely.”


John Wagner also reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.

• John Wagner is a political reporter covering the race for the 2016 presidential election for The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • Sanders taps his network to raise nearly $2 million for House, Senate races (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/20/bernie-sanders-taps-his-donor-network-to-raise-nearly-2-million-in-two-days-for-house-senate-contenders)

 • Bernie Sanders returns to the campaign trail in New Hampshire (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/05/bernie-sanders-returns-to-the-campaign-trail-in-new-hampshire)

 • Sanders's next challenge: Where will he take his revolution? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sanderss-next-challenge-where-will-he-take-his-revolution/2016/06/26/40d0bf68-3a59-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sanders-is-prepared-to-be-a-liberal-thorn-in-clintons-side/2016/10/24/aaf6dd88-97eb-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sanders-is-prepared-to-be-a-liberal-thorn-in-clintons-side/2016/10/24/aaf6dd88-97eb-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on October 25, 2016, 04:59:19 pm
funny i thought Clinton was supposed to be a liberal.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on December 23, 2016, 08:01:41 am

from the Los Angeles Times....

President Sanders? Bernie would have beaten Trump!

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PST - Thursday, December 22, 2016

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/David%20Horsey/latimes_20161222dha_1482394819_zpswixzft8o.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-585b8c9b/turbine/la-dhorsey-1482394819-snap-photo)

IF Democrats had made a different choice in the primaries last spring, Bernie Sanders would be assembling his Cabinet right now. A reading of voting patterns in the presidential election suggests that the Vermont senator would have beaten Donald Trump.

Trump won the election by prevailing in the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that, together, gave him 46 electoral votes. In Michigan, he edged Hillary Clinton by just three-tenths of a percent. In Wisconsin, the margin was eight-tenths. In Pennsylvania there was a slightly larger gap of 1.2%.

All three of those states usually lean toward the Democratic candidate. This time around, most working-class white voters — many of whom voted for Barack Obama in the last two elections — saw Clinton as the incarnation of a political establishment that was indifferent to their struggles. They were won over by Trump's boasts that he would protect American jobs and challenge the influence of Wall Street. Who else in the 2016 campaign made similar promises, with far more conviction? Bernie Sanders, of course.

Polls and interviews with voters, both before and after the election, identified a significant overlap between Trump voters and Sanders admirers. Among non-college-educated whites in the old industrial states, many were simply looking for someone to address their concerns and shake things up in Washington. They went with Trump on November 8th, but plenty of them would have voted for Sanders if he had been on the ballot.

Would it have been enough to tip Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania? Given the small numbers needed, the answer is very likely yes.

Now, I have a smart friend who is certain the socialist label would have sunk Bernie in the general election. He believes America's long antipathy toward the Red Menace (the old red, not the new, conservative red) would have been fully exploited by right-wing commentators and the Trump campaign. Certainly, that would have been the central line of attack. But I argue, with the Soviet menace no more than a memory, the potency of that attack would have been largely limited to a constituency on the right that no Democrat could win anyway.

Sanders is not a threatening, alien figure. His “socialism” was most pronounced in his calls to tax the wealthy at a higher rate and provide free college tuition at state universities — two ideas that are hardly radical, given that both were the norm in the America of Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. And it would have been difficult for Trump to condemn Bernie's attacks on big corporations and the financial industry since his own rhetoric was infused with a similar populist message.

It is now clear, as well, that Sanders would have had another big advantage: He wasn't Hillary. It may be grossly unfair, but 30 years of character assassination from the right took its toll. A big share of voters opted for Trump because they loathed Clinton, or at least the predominant caricature of her. Bill Clinton was a drag on her candidacy, as well. When Trump's lewd comments about women made on video were revealed, the negative reaction was blunted by Trump surrogates who skewed attention toward the sordid past of Hillary's husband.

With Bernie, there would have been no Bill — and no email controversy, no Benghazi brouhaha and no last-minute letter from the FBI director. Also, no misogyny — a disturbing but real factor in Clinton's loss.

Finally, there was an enthusiasm gap among younger voters who were a key demographic in Obama's victories. They would not have stayed home on election day or wasted their vote on the Green Party candidate if Sanders had been the Democratic Party nominee. Despite his white hair and stooped shoulders, Sanders was adored by a legion of millennials who respected his ideological consistency and responded to his challenge to become part of a movement for change.

It would not have taken many votes to produce a different result in three key states. Bernie Sanders could have done it. He would now be president-elect and America would be heading in a very different direction.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-beats-trump-20161222-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-beats-trump-20161222-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on December 23, 2016, 12:50:23 pm
(http://2static.fjcdn.com/pictures/New+ben+garrison+cartoon_3dcc3b_6124530.jpg)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 24, 2017, 02:40:32 pm

from the Los Angeles Times....

Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles:
 ‘The truth is that Trump is a pathological liar’


By JAVIER PANZAR | 11:50AM PST - Tuesday, February 21, 2017

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Tribune%20Images/latimes_20170221bs_BernieSandersLA20170219_zpsrw8tjo51.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58ac9c19/turbine/la-pol-ca-bernie-sanders-event-20170219)
Senator Bernie Sanders speaking in L.A. on Sunday. — Photograph: Michael Owen Baker/Los Angeles Times.

VERMONT SENATOR Bernie Sanders (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/bernie-sanders-PEPLT005768-topic.html) got a rock star's welcome when he spoke in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday in what was theoretically a book tour stop but amounted to more of a political rally, urging progressives to play by new rules as they resist President Trump (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-trump)'s administration.

“We are looking at a totally new political world,” he said. “If we play by the old rules, we will lose and they will win. Our job is not to play by the old rules.”

Sanders, 75, used the stage at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel as part of Los Angeles Times' Ideas Exchange to buttress his pitch to reshape and redefine the Democratic Party (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/democratic-party-ORGOV0000005-topic.html) after the 2016 election.

He got the crowd roaring by tearing into Trump for repeating false claims that thousands of New Jersey Muslims cheered on the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally voted (http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-trailguide-updates-1485222177-htmlstory.html) in November.

“I say this with no pleasure, my wife dislikes me saying this, but the truth is that Trump is a pathological liar,” he said, reiterating a statement he made a week prior on NBC's “Meet the Press”. “Either he knows that he is lying or even more dangerously, he does not know that he is lying.”

Since Trump’s electoral college victory, Sanders has secured a spot on the Senate Democrats' leadership team and begun to reassert the populist political vision (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-bernie-sanders-20161117-story.html) that won him millions of votes against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.

Sanders applauded the activism that has sprung up since Trump's inauguration and said Democrats and progressives needed to continue to build a resistance to Trump as well as a vision for the future.

“We can defeat Trump and Trumpism and the Republican right-wing ideology,” he said. “We have to understand, despair and throwing up your hands — that ain't an option.”

Sanders believes a majority of voters agree with progressive values and Trump has a “mandate for nothing,” but he sought to explain Trump's electoral college win despite losing the popular vote, arguing the party did not do enough to appeal to economically downtrodden industrial workers.

Sanders said Trump — whom he called a “phony billionaire” — seized on anxiety and fear among working-class voters on his way to victory. The issue, he argued, was not that Trump won the election “so much as the Democratic Party lost the election” by not answering the call of those workers.

He asked voters to put themselves in the “hearts and the souls” of workers who have lost jobs and who feel left behind by the global economy.

Sanders repeated many of the populist platforms he ran on, including rallying against the influence of money in politics and a financial system he says rewards Wall Street bankers while the American middle class shrinks.

The key to a progressive resurgence, he said, could be turning Trump's message on its head by persuading workers who have lost jobs that foreign workers who come to the U.S. in search of a better life are not their enemies. Instead, he said, corporate greed is the main cause of their economic woes.

Sanders began on Sunday by thanking California voters who cast ballots for him, and shouts of “Bernie 2020” rang out multiple times in the sold-out theater.

Clinton won Los Angeles County and California by large margins, but Sanders found support in pockets of Santa Monica and Silver Lake, as well as northeast and downtown Los Angeles.

Sanders' campaign found a fount of support in Los Angeles during the primary, holding rallies (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trailguide-sanders-and-his-celebrity-friends-rally-1465101814-htmlstory.html) with hip rock bands and liberal celebrities and drawing cheers (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trailguide-bernie-sanders-strolls-around-echo-park-1465079586-htmlstory.html) from picnickers while walking around Echo Park Lake.


• Javier Panzar is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He was born and raised in Oakland and therefore empathizes with underdogs, misfits and malcontents of all stripes. His reporting has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, the Orange County Register and his college paper, the Daily Californian. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a history degree and a lot of books. If he isn't running on some trail, he is probably compulsively buying more used books.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-bernie-sanders-event-20170219-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-bernie-sanders-event-20170219-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 25, 2017, 06:22:38 pm

from the Los Angeles Times....

Bernie Sanders is the leaderless Democrats' anti-Trump evangelist

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PST - Thursday, February 23, 2017

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/David%20Horsey/latimes_20170223dh_1487810913_zpsxqmu6fuq.jpg~original) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-58ae311a/turbine/la-1487810913-j1mm7iy929-snap-photo)

IMAGINE strolling into an evangelical church, packed to the rafters with true believers, just as the preacher is about to ask the sinners to step forward and be saved. And imagine walking up to the pulpit and asking that preacher if he'd like to sit down with you for a conversation about scriptural exegesis. Imagine how you would be received.

I almost felt like that on Sunday night when I walked onto the stage of an ornate old theater in downtown Los Angeles where I had been invited to interview Bernie Sanders (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/bernie-sanders-PEPLT005768-topic.html), the Vermont senator whose run against Hillary Clinton (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-clinton) was the unexpected phenomenon of the 2016 Democratic primaries.

Going in, I knew the audience would be animated. The event had sold out quickly, and tickets that started at $25 were being scalped for hundreds of dollars. These folks were enthusiastic about seeing their political champion again after the disappointment of the lost primary campaign, the subsequent electoral college defeat of Clinton and the inauguration of a new president who is assaulting every policy and principle they believe in. What I did not quite anticipate was Sanders.

Before I was brought in from the wings, the senator gave a 45-minute speech that was the latest iteration of the stem-winder he delivered at hundreds of town halls, fairgrounds and stadiums throughout the long presidential campaign. By the time I joined him at the two chairs at center stage, the rowdy crowd was revved up and Sanders was far from finished with them.

I kicked off my segment of the program by showing three of my cartoons on the big screen behind us. I thought that would be an entertaining way to ease into a discussion. Sanders glanced at them, but did not even fake a guffaw. When I tried to connect with him by mentioning I had been in Vermont a few years ago and witnessed the Strolling of the Heifers, a homespun parade of cows in Brattleboro, he did not smile or make a remark about the charms of his home state. When my meandering questions failed to get to the point quickly enough, he broke in with answers. And, two or three times, he got up from his chair to talk directly to the audience.

Now, I do not want to be misinterpreted. I did not find Sanders to be rude or unfriendly. Rather, he was a man with a mission, a very untypical politician who is deeply serious about his message and his cause. As I observed when I heard him speak at rallies in Pomona and Bakersfield before the California primary, he does not waste words making jokes or telling endearing personal stories. And on Sunday night in L.A., he was an evangelist with a responsive crowd. He was not obligated to fritter away that opportunity by indulging me.

The points Sanders touched on in his “sermon” were familiar from the campaign and from his campaign book, “Our Revolution” — the dangerous rise of an American oligarchy that buys control of the political system and reaps most of the rewards of economic growth; workers with stagnant wages for lengthening hours of labor; the hollowing out of the middle class; the need for relief from obscene levels of college student debt; the still unattained promise of affordable healthcare for everyone; the opportunities to create jobs by rebuilding the country's infrastructure and building a new energy system divorced from fossil fuels; the imperative to deal with climate change before it is too late.

The difference now is that Donald Trump (http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-all-things-trump) is in the White House and Republicans command Congress. So, Sanders is no longer looking for votes, he is preaching resistance. He is on the road urging his followers to reject despair, exhaustion, fear or apathy and get more deeply involved in politics by running for office, joining campaigns, chasing down elected officials at town hall meetings, taking to the streets in protest and “thinking outside the box” — resistance on every level.

On Sunday night, Sanders reminded the audience that “this is not the first moment in American history that has been bleak.” He recalled the dire situation of African Americans in the South in the 1950s and '60s, the quandary of women a century ago who were denied the right to an education, the plight of workers in earlier eras who had no rights because they had no unions, and the shadowed lives of gay people who had to keep their true identities in the closet. In all those situations, people could have given up, he said, but they did not.

“I left the campaign more overwhelmed and impressed by the beauty in our country,” Sanders said, bringing the evening to a close. “And don't let Trump and his friends on television discourage you. There is incredible beauty in this country. There are millions of people of every race and every background who want to work together to makes this the country that you and I know it can become. And right now our job is to be as smart as we can be, to be as effective as we can be, to organize … educate, get involved in the process in a way you never have before, because this is not just for you. This is for my four kids and your children. It is for my seven grandchildren and your grandchildren that you have now or to come. This is for the future of the planet. That’s what we're fighting for.”

As I watched Sanders speak — amused by my superfluous role and impressed by his passion and stamina — it struck me that, if the man were 10 years younger, everyone in the media would be talking about him as the top choice for Democrats in 2020. Instead, the Democratic Party lacks a national leader. Clinton is silent in defeat. Barack Obama is playing golf. Joe Biden's chance has passed. There is no single person who is the obvious savior of the party.

But Democrats have an evangelist in Bernie Sanders, and his campaign seems far from done.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-evangelist-20170222-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-bernie-evangelist-20170222-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 26, 2017, 06:35:50 pm

from The Washington Post....

Sanders burns Trump with taunting tweet
about the size of his inauguration crowd


When Trump suggested that a rally by his supporters would
be the “biggest of all,” Sanders produced the receipts.


By VANESSA WILLIAMS | 5:37PM EST - Saturday, February 25, 2017

(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170225sbs_SenatorBernieSanders_zpsbetjptfp.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2016-12-15/Getty/629890430.jpg&w=1484)
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) speaks during a December event at the headquarters of the American Federation
of Teachers in Washington. — Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images.


SENATOR Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) set Twitter on fire during Saturday with an epic troll of President Trump and his unending obsession with the size of the crowds that he draws.

Early on Saturday, Trump tweeted that if the people who voted for him held a rally, “It would be the biggest of them all!”

To which Sanders issued this scorching reply:


(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170225twbs_TwitterBernieSanders_zpssgmtuhaa.jpg~original) (https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/835488569850494976)

Sanders, who became the voice of the progressive movement during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, regularly trolls Trump on Twitter, sharply criticizing the president's policies and rhetoric.

Saturday's response poked at a particularly sore spot for Trump, who vehemently disputed estimates by the news media about the size of the crowd that attended his inauguration last month. Sanders's tweet showed a side-by-side comparison of aerial photos of the Mall on Inauguration Day and the Women's March. The protest march was held the day after Trump's inauguration and was estimated to be three times larger.

But even before the Women's March, which organizers said drew at least 500,000 in Washington and millions around the country and the globe, Trump aides railed against photos put out by the National Park Service that showed fewer people on the Mall this year than in 2008 for former president Barack Obama's first inauguration. In his first news briefing for the new administration, press secretary Sean Spicer argued “this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period.” The claim was widely disproved by fact-checkers.

On Friday, while speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in suburban Washington, Trump boasted, “this place is packed, there are lines that go back six blocks and I tell you that because you won't read about it, okay. But there are lines that go back six blocks, there is such love in this country for everything we stand for, you saw that on Election Day.”

But news outlets reported there were no such lines (http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/320988-trump-falsely-claims-lines-go-back-6-blocks-for-cpac-speech).


(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170225twj_TwitterJezebel_zpsmpt2ezle.jpg~original) (https://twitter.com/Jezebel/status/835164209956728834)

As of mid-afternoon, Trump had not replied to Sanders, moving on to tweet complaints about the news media, including announcing that he would not be attending the annual White House correspondents' dinner (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/835608648625836032).

• Vanessa Williams is a staff writer at The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Spicer earns Four Pinocchios for false claims on inauguration crowd size (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/22/spicer-earns-four-pinocchios-for-a-series-of-false-claims-on-inauguration-crowd-size)

 • Women's marches: More than one million protesters vow to resist President Trump (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/womens-march-on-washington-a-sea-of-pink-hatted-protesters-vow-to-resist-donald-trump/2017/01/21/ae4def62-dfdf-11e6-acdf-14da832ae861_story.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/25/sanders-burns-trump-with-taunting-tweet-about-the-size-of-his-inauguration-crowd (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/25/sanders-burns-trump-with-taunting-tweet-about-the-size-of-his-inauguration-crowd)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 16, 2017, 01:32:42 pm

from The Washington Post....

Bernie Sanders remains one of America's most popular politicians

But not among Republicans, who strongly prefer President Trump.

By PHILIP BUMP | 7:11PM EDT - Wednesday, March 15, 2017

A FASCINATING new survey (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2017/03/15/fox-news-poll-315) from Fox News asked Americans their opinions of a number of political leaders and politically relevant organizations. No elected official included in the survey had a larger net favorability — overall favorable views minus unfavorable ones — than Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont), continuing Sanders's strong showing in such polls.

Somewhat surprisingly, the second-highest net favorability was held by Planned Parenthood. Part of this is probably because the organization enjoys strong partisan support, and has in polls in the past. Had the NRA been included, it, too, probably would have been highly popular (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/06/planned-parenthood-and-the-nra-are-the-perfect-proxies-for-our-modern-political-fights), thanks to a push from Republicans.

Besides Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat-Massachusetts) and Vice President Pence were the most popular politicians on net. Notice that the embattled Affordable Care Act is better viewed on net than President Trump and most of the other Republicans included in the poll.


(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170315fp_FoxPoll01_zpszzitsk3s.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/03/FoxFaves_A2.jpg&w=1484)

At the bottom were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky). House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Republican-Wisconsin) was less popular on net than the unpopular president — but both fared better than WikiLeaks.

If we break out the polling by party, the results shift dramatically.

Among Democrats, Sanders takes the top position. (Hillary Clinton wasn't included.) Trump's net favorability among Democrats was minus-83, thanks to 85 percent of Democrats holding a strongly unfavorable view of him.


(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170315fp_FoxPoll02_zpsphh2lhub.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/03/FoxFaves_d2.jpg&w=1484)

Notice, too, that Planned Parenthood enjoys the most “strongly favorable” opinion of any person or group among Democrats. Nearly two-thirds of members of the party view the organization that way. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (Democrat-New York) continues to be unknown (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/02/07/more-democrats-are-familiar-with-stephen-bannon-than-charles-schumer) by 30 percent of Democrats.

Among Republicans, Trump edges out Pence for the highest net favorability.


(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170315fp_FoxPoll03_zpspuryza2w.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/03/FoxFaves_r2.jpg&w=1484)

Obamacare is near the very bottom — a position held by Pelosi. The Freedom Caucus — a group of conservative members of Congress — wasn't well known among any group. Among the “liberal” groups and people, Planned Parenthood fares the best on net, though it's not very popular among Republicans.

It is among independents. The organization comes in second in net favorability to the most popular independent in America, Sanders.


(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170315fp_FoxPoll04_zpsfvlyajxw.jpg~original) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/03/FoxFaves_i2.jpg&w=1484)

Pelosi is at the bottom of the list here, too, while Trump is viewed slightly more favorably than unfavorably. It's the strength of that Democratic opposition to Trump that continues to drag him down overall.

Only three people or groups are viewed favorably by at least half of the country, according to the Fox News poll: Bernie Sanders, Planned Parenthood and Obamacare. Only two are viewed unfavorably by at least half the country: Pelosi and Trump.


• Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York City.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/15/bernie-sanders-remains-one-of-americas-most-popular-politicians (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/15/bernie-sanders-remains-one-of-americas-most-popular-politicians)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 16, 2017, 02:09:20 pm
 
I've seen these fake polls before during the election and look how that worked out


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 16, 2017, 10:13:22 pm

That poll was from Fox News.....Donald Trump's favourite news service.

ROFLMAO....haw haw haw!!


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 17, 2017, 08:54:02 am
only half of fox is right wing it's as fake as the rest of them even their owners have an agenda
you can't trust any of the media they're all controlled and bent

the press didn't care what obama done or said they never reported on his lies if anyone complained they were called racist.

the whole left right thing is a joke

Trump is really a libertarian in his thinking he believe that people should have freedom even the right wing republicans were against trump they withheld election funds forced him to us his own money because they are both wings on the same dirty bird

anyways going back the mainstream laughing saying trump was a joke
but the voters thought differently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55hS0FKg9a8




Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 17, 2017, 09:58:58 am

Of course, if you want PURE UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT, then head off to Breithart and InfoWars. They are so full of LIES and BULLSHIT and conspiracy theory crap that they wouldn't even know the truth if they fell over it. However, they are useful for stupid people who are too DUMB to understand real news from real news media. Such as Trump supporters.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 17, 2017, 10:56:24 am
believe whatever you want everyone should have that freedom

I was listening to bernie he said a lot of the things trump wants to change he agrees with and said he would be on board with some of trump idea's.
Are you ok with that

I do not follow breitbart news much  but i believe the CIA assassinated Andrew breitbart by hacking his car and crashing it.
Car hacking is part of the CIA hacking toolbox released by wikileaks vault 7

The owner of the washington post Bezos has a good contract with the CIA worth 600 million dollars prove me wrong on this.

but i am fan of alex jones as he mostly always has documented proof that people can research for themselves as i often have.
I am not saying he is perfect sometime he gets things wrong but most times he's right on the money.

The guests he has on his show are totally interesting and his news you won't find in the mainstream.
Just think of all the stuff the mainstream dont tell us.

Then there's the documented fact that mainstream has been used for dishing out CIA propaganda for a lot of years.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 14, 2017, 02:56:11 am

from The Washington Post....

Sanders will introduce universal health care,
backed by 15 Democrats


Republicans, bruised and exhausted by a failed campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act,
were giddy about the chance to attack Democrats and Sanders.


By DAVID WEIGEL | 10:00PM EDT - Tuesday, September 12, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_925w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/12/National-Politics/Images/Senate_Dems_45673-ce9bf-4136.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/12/National-Politics/Images/Senate_Dems_45673-ce9bf-4136.jpg)
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont), second from right, walks to a luncheon with Democrats on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
 — Photograph: Susan Walsh/Associated Press.


SENATOR Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) will introduce legislation on Wednesday that would expand Medicare into a universal health insurance program with the backing of at least 15 Democratic senators — a record level of support for an idea that had been relegated to the fringes during the last Democratic presidency.

“This is where the country has got to go,” Sanders said in an interview at his Senate office. “Right now, if we want to move away from a dysfunctional, wasteful, bureaucratic system into a rational health-care system that guarantees coverage to everyone in a cost-effective way, the only way to do it is Medicare for All.”

Sanders's bill, the Medicare for All Act of 2017, has no chance of passage in a Republican-run Congress. But after months of behind-the-scenes meetings and a public pressure campaign, the bill is already backed by most of the senators seen as likely 2020 Democratic candidates — if not by most senators facing tough re-election battles in 2018.

The bill would revolutionize America's health-care system, replacing it with a public system that would be paid for by higher taxes. Everything from emergency surgery to prescription drugs, from mental health to eye care, would be covered, with no co-payments. Americans younger than 18 would immediately obtain “universal Medicare cards,” while Americans not currently eligible for Medicare would be phased into the program over four years. Employer-provided health care would be replaced, with the employers paying higher taxes but no longer on the hook for insurance.

Private insurers would remain, with fewer customers, to pay for elective treatments such as cosmetic surgery — a system similar to that in Australia, which President Trump has praised for having a “much better” insurance regimen than the United States.

But the market-based changes of the Affordable Care Act would be replaced as Medicare becomes the country's universal insurer. Doctors would be reimbursed by the government; providers would sign a yearly participation agreement with Medicare to remain with the system.

“When you have co-payments — when you say that health care is not a right for everybody, whether you're poor or whether you're a billionaire — the evidence suggests that it becomes a disincentive for people to get the health care they need,” Sanders said.“Depending on the level of the co-payment, it may cost more to figure out how you collect it than to not have the co-payment at all.”

As he described his legislation, Sanders focused on its simplicity, suggesting that Americans would be happy to pay higher taxes if it meant the end of wrangling with health-care companies. The size of the tax increase, he said, would be determined in a separate bill.

“I think the American people are sick and tired of filling out forms,” Sanders said. “Your income went up — you can't get this. Your income went down — you can't get that. You've got to argue with insurance companies about what you thought you were getting. Doctors are spending an enormous amount of time arguing with insurers.”

Republicans, bruised and exhausted by a failed campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act, were giddy about the chance to attack Democrats and Sanders. At Tuesday's leadership news conference, Senator John Barrasso (Republican-Wyoming), a medical doctor, crowed that Sanders's bill had become “the litmus test for the liberal left” and that Americans would reject any costly plan for universal insurance coverage.

“Bernie Sanders's home state had… a similar plan,” Barrasso said, referring to a failed 2014 campaign for universal health care in Vermont. “They realized they would have to double the taxes collected on the people of that state to pay for it because it was so financially expensive.”

Sanders acknowledged that the plan would be costly but pointed to the experience of other industrialized countries that provided universal coverage through higher taxes. The average American paid $11,365 per year in taxes; the average Canadian paid $14,693. But the average American paid twice as much for health care as the average Canadian.

“Rather than give a detailed proposal about how we’re going to raise $3 trillion a year, we'd rather give the American people options,” Sanders said. “The truth is, embarrassingly, that on this enormously important issue, there has not been the kind of research and study that we need. You've got think tanks, in many cases funded by the drug companies and the insurance companies, telling us how terribly expensive it's going to be. We have economists looking at it who are coming up with different numbers.”

In 2016, when Sanders challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, high cost estimates and the idea of wiping out private insurers kept many Democrats from embracing universal health care. While support for Sanders's proposal has risen from zero to 15, several Senate Democrats are proposing alternate plans for Medicare or Medicaid buy-ins, and Democratic leaders caution that their party will take no one-size-fits-all position.

“I don't think it's a litmus test,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California) of Medicare for All. “I think to support the idea that it captures is that we want to have as many people as possible, everybody, covered, and I think that's something that we all embrace.”

Many supporters of Sanders have contradicted Pelosi, portraying his plan as popular — 57 percent of Americans support Medicare for All, according to Kaiser Health News — and efficient. Our Revolution, founded by Sanders, has urged Democrats to sign on; Justice Democrats, created after the election to challenge Democrats in primaries if they bucked progressive values, has asked supporters to call their senators until they endorse the bill. And a web ad paid for by Sanders's 2018 Senate campaign, asking readers to “co-sponsor” his bill, attracted more than half a million names.

As of Tuesday night, just one senator from a swing state had done so. Senator Tammy Baldwin (Democrat-Wisconsin), who as a member of the House had backed Representative John Conyers Jr. (Democrat-Michigan)'s Medicare for All bill, wrote a Tuesday op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to confirm that she was on board. The Republican Party of Wisconsin, which has struggled to find a first-tier challenger for Baldwin next year, was quick with a statement: “Senator Tammy Baldwin Embraces Radical $32 Trillion Health Care Takeover.”

The $32 trillion figure was based on the Urban Institute's analysis of Sanders’s 2016 campaign plan. The new bill was different — and so was the confidence Democrats had as they embraced it.

“With this reform, we would simplify a complicated system for families and reduce administrative costs for businesses,” Baldwin wrote.


Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.

• David Weigel is a national political correspondent covering Congress and grassroots political movements for The Washington Post. He's the author of The Show That Never Ends (https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/0393242250), a history of progressive rock music.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • The Health 202: Single-payer pushes the health-care debate decidedly leftward (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2017/09/13/the-health-202-09132017-health202/59b8354d30fb045176650c24)

 • VIDEO: Bernie Sanders calls for health care ‘for all people’ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/8b0c04e2-9800-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_video.html)

 • VIDEO: Senator Harris announces she will co-sponsor ‘Medicare for All’ bill (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/390400fe-8e65-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_video.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/sanders-will-introduce-universal-health-care-backed-by-15-democrats/2017/09/12/d590ef26-97b7-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/sanders-will-introduce-universal-health-care-backed-by-15-democrats/2017/09/12/d590ef26-97b7-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 14, 2017, 02:15:00 pm

from the Los Angeles Times....

Turning aside risk, Democrats rally to
Bernie Sanders' single-payer health plan


By CATHLEEN DECKER | 1:15PM PDT - Wednesday, September 13, 2017

LIKE passengers leaping for a departing train, leading Democrats are scrambling to support single-payer health insurance, a system that would represent a huge expansion of government control over healthcare and which the party's presidential nominee declared last year would “never, ever” come to pass.

Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont), whose support for universal coverage was central to his 2016 presidential campaign, on Wednesday unveiled the latest version of his plan to expand Medicare to cover all Americans.

After a parade of testimonials about the failures of the nation's existing healthcare system, Sanders cast his measure as a moral and economic issue.

“Today we begin the long and difficult struggle to end the international disgrace of the United States of America, our great nation, being the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all of our people,” Sanders said.

In the days before Sanders' announcement, Democrats as ideologically diverse as liberal Senator Kamala Harris of California and conservative Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia expressed support for his effort. Their statements reflect a significant shift within the Democratic party, driven by multiple developments: a belief that the window has closed on Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare; a surge in support for government-run insurance among younger, more activist Democrats; and looming 2018 and 2020 contests that demand clarity on what Democrats support — not just whom they oppose.

Most of the party's potential 2020 presidential candidates have now endorsed the single-payer idea, including Sanders, Harris, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Minnesota Senator Al Franken.

Competing Democratic healthcare plans are due out soon, including one that would allow Americans to buy coverage through Medicaid and another that would expand Medicare, efforts less disruptive than Sanders' proposal. But the authors of both have cast them as bridges to a time when a single government plan can gain a majority.

The shift toward single payer brings risk for Democrats. The party suffered huge losses after attempts to restructure the nation's insurance system during the Clinton and Obama administrations.

And although polls show rising support for a government-run insurance plan, much of that increase comes among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents — meaning the party will be pushing an approach nearly as partisan as President Trump's recent efforts to repeal the current healthcare law. (The president's press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Wednesday that Trump considers the new plan “a horrible idea”.)

Moreover, public opinion appears less than solid. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll (http://www.kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/data-note-modestly-strong-but-malleable-support-for-single-payer-health-care) found support gyrating wildly when criticisms of a Medicare-for-all plan — including increased taxes and more government control over healthcare — were raised.

“People don't like uncertainty,” said Lynn Vavreck, a UCLA political scientist. “Even the promise of something good might not be seen as better than what you have.”

Already, elements in both parties are on the attack.

In Iowa, Republicans are accusing Democratic candidates for governor of supporting Sanders, citing a $32-trillion estimate for the senator's 2016 campaign plan. In California, the fight has been between competing Democratic factions, leading to the threatened recall of the Democratic Assembly speaker after he set aside a single-payer bill pushed by a powerful nurses' union because, he said, its financing was insufficient.

At his announcement, Sanders glided over the tough topic of how to pay for his proposal, saying only that “the average American family” would be better off and increased taxes “will be more than offset” by the absence of insurance premiums.

The swift embrace of a single government-run insurance program belies the long slog that veterans of the capital's healthcare wars predict would be required to sell the plan not only to a skeptical public but to legislators on Capitol Hill. For now, with a Republican president and both houses of Congress held by the GOP, the finish line is a distant one under most any calculation.

“I hate to break it to anybody, but we are realistically not within four years of having a single-payer bill or a universal coverage bill passed,” said Andy Slavitt, who oversaw Medicare, Medicaid and insurance markets during the Obama administration.

“I strongly advise that Democrats invest the time in listening … [to] how people think about the trade-offs and how they think about the options and what features they'd like,” he said.

Backers of the plan dismiss any political motives. Harris said on Wednesday that the measure “is a nonpartisan issue.”

Despite admonitions from experts like Slavitt, support for a universal government program rapidly is becoming a litmus test for the party's national and state candidates.

“It's going to be hard to win a Democratic primary in 2020 without supporting single payer,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said.

Some in the party disagree with the rush toward a new program on the heels of existing healthcare fights.

“Right now, I'm protecting the Affordable Care Act,” Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, of San Francisco, said on Tuesday, repeating her long-standing position that talk of a single-payer plan, which she supports in theory, remains premature. “None of these other things … can really prevail unless we have the Affordable Care Act protected.”

Lake and other pollsters say there's an even more basic reality: Most voters have little idea of what single-payer would do and how it would do it. In one focus group, for example, a participant expressed frustration over what “single payer” healthcare was, Lake said.

“What does single payer mean? The only single payer is me,” the focus group attendee said.

The label refers to a government program that would pay for and regulate healthcare for all Americans. It would replace the current system dominated by employer-supplied private insurance and supplemented by Obamacare's government-assisted individual insurance plans.

It also would affect Medicare, which covers those 65 and older, and Medicaid, the program for lower-income people and the disabled that was expanded under Obamacare and now covers about 1 in 5 Americans.

As Sanders alluded to, it would eliminate the need to pay premiums to insurers for coverage but would require a very large tax increase.

The fact that most voters aren't familiar with single payer could allow candidates who have endorsed it to define for themselves what they've signed onto. Then again, they will be defined by opponents as embracing the most extreme version.

“There's a lot of energy for single payer,” said Bill Burton, a former Obama spokesman and party strategist. But at this point, the parameters of a bill are unknown, he said.

“It's an idea that people are supporting, not actual legislation.”

Sanders will determine, in large part, how much flexibility his colleagues have. While he remains an independent, somewhat distant from the party whose nomination he sought last year, the Vermont senator has an unparalleled ability to draw in the young voters on whom the Democratic Party’s future depends.

Last year, that ability came at the expenses of the party establishment and eventual nominee Hillary Clinton, with whom he clashed over healthcare.

Sanders argued that universal coverage was necessary both to protect Americans' health and to break what he called the “corrupt” control of the healthcare system by pharmaceutical companies and other interests.

Clinton countered that his plan “will never, ever come to pass.”

Since the campaign — and the months-long, unsuccessful fight by Republicans to repeal Obamacare — things have changed.

A Pew Research poll in June found that the percentage of Americans favoring a single-payer plan had risen to 33%, five points higher than in January and 12 points higher than three years earlier. Two-thirds of Democrats younger than 30 favored a single government plan, as did 22% of young Republicans.

Sanders has said support for his plan should not be a litmus test for candidates, but some of his most loyal partisans disagree in words that conjure a coming fight.

“It's a litmus test,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, the executive director of National Nurses United. “The Democrats hate it when I say that.”

Any intra-party conflict will be piled upon the nervousness that defines every effort by either party to change the nation's healthcare system. The persistent problem: Although Americans often vote for change, they also fear it.

Vavreck said she was surprised at the quick shift among Democrats from defending Obamacare, which kept much of the insurance system in place, to fighting for what has been deemed a long shot.

“The idea that you go to the biggest, boldest idea seems to me an unusual way to make progress,” she said. Sanders and other Democrats may have decided, she said, that “if you don't push for a foot, you never get an inch.”


• Cathleen Decker reported from Washington D.C.

• Cathleen Decker analyzes politics for the Los Angeles Times, writing about the Trump administration and the themes, demographics and personalities central to national and state contests. In 2016 she covered her 10th presidential campaign; she has also covered seven races for governor and a host of U.S. Senate and local elections. She directed the L.A. Times' 2012 presidential campaign coverage.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Bipartisan effort to stabilize health insurance markets is coming down to the wire (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obamacare-senate-fixes-20170913-story.html)

 • Pelosi declines to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders' single-payer healthcare bill (http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-pelosi-declines-to-endorse-bernie-1505230000-htmlstory.html)

 • The debate over single-payer healthcare in California isn't going away. Here's why. (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-single-payer-politics-20170827-story.html)


http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-single-payer-democrats-20170913-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-single-payer-democrats-20170913-story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Donald on September 14, 2017, 02:18:45 pm
....sorry..aintgt time to read your leftie propaganda...but prefers feel to summarise it into English...look forward to it😉


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 14, 2017, 02:56:48 pm

from The Washington Post....

The Democrats have become socialists

Bernie Sanders rolled out his Medicare for All plan and was
supported by 16 of his Senate Democratic colleagues.


By DANA MILBANK | 6:35PM EDT - Wednesday, September 13, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_900w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/13/Editorial-Opinion/Images/317677326_0-2360.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/13/Editorial-Opinion/Images/317677326_0-2360.jpg)
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont). — Photograph: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News.

WHEN Bernie Sanders launched his bid for the Democratic nomination, he was often asked whether he, a democratic socialist, would actually become a Democrat. Now, more than a year after he ignited a movement with his unsuccessful bid, that question is moot. The Democrats have become socialists.

This became official, more or less, on Wednesday afternoon, when Sanders rolled out his socialized health-care plan, Medicare for All, and he was supported by 16 of his Senate Democratic colleagues who signed on as co-sponsors, including the party's rising stars and potential presidential candidates in 2020: Elizabeth Warren. Cory Booker. Kamala Harris. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Several of them dutifully joined Sanders, who is threatening another presidential run himself, at the rollout event in one of the largest hearing rooms on Capitol Hill and praised the guru of the single-payer movement for government-run universal health care.

“I'm all in on this. Thank you, Bernie,” said Senator Jeff Merkley (Oregon).

Gillibrand (New York): “I will be standing with Bernie.”

Warren (Massachusetts): “I want to say thank you to Bernie for all that you have done.”

“The reason we have a chance to achieve” single-payer health care, said Senator Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), “is because of advocates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.”

This is a dramatic shift. In 2013, when Sanders introduced similar legislation, he didn't have a single co-sponsor. By contrast, you could have been forgiven for thinking Wednesday's rollout, with Sanders, Warren, Booker, Harris and Gillibrand testing their messages, was the first Democratic cattle call of the 2020 campaign. There were a couple hundred liberal activists in the room (many of them veterans of the Sanders campaign and a few wearing “Join the Political Revolution” Sanders T-shirts) and another 50 in an overflow room.

This embrace of an unabashedly socialist position by the Democrats delights nobody more than the original socialists, the Democratic Socialists of America. David Duhalde, the group's deputy director, was one of the first in line for the event, carrying a Medicare-for-All sign.

“Socialism has been most successful in this country when its ideas have been adopted by other parties,” he said, listing the enactment of labor laws, Social Security and Medicare. But “this is a high water mark,” he said.

In the short term, I've argued, this development is a bad thing for Democrats. The nation's focus has been on divisions among Republicans and their inability to enact any sort of agenda under President Trump. The single-payer issue highlights Democratic divisions and united Republicans.

Notably, only one Democrat who faces a competitive re-election, Senator Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), signed on with Sanders. The socialized-medicine bill is popular with the Democratic base but is a liability for Democratic candidates in the swing districts and Republican states that Democrats need to win to retake the House and Senate.

The divisions were on display during Wednesday: As Harris spoke, a member of the left-wing group Code Pink held up a large cutout of the head of Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat-California), who is up for re-election and doesn't support the Sanders bill. Beneath Feinstein's photo were the words “Healthcare Denier”. (Luckily for Democrats, Sanders told The Washington Post's David Weigel that he doesn't plan to make the issue a litmus test.)

The Republican National Committee, seizing the rare opportunity to play offense, sent out a news release and a video attacking the plan: “Legislation does NOT include how to pay for the $32 trillion program… Plans of 156M(!!) Americans would be upended.” And Senator Lindsey O. Graham (Republican-South Carolina), announcing yet another attempt at repealing Obamacare on Wednesday, tried to use the Sanders plan to revive the moribund effort. He said his bill was Republicans' “best and only chance” to prevent single-payer health care.

It’s not hard to see Graham's prophecy coming true over time, particularly if Republicans, unable to replace Obamacare, continue to sabotage the program and let it fall apart, leaving millions without health care. Republicans have another problem fighting single-payer care now. Because they called Obamacare “socialized medicine,” even though it's a market-based plan, they have nothing worse to fire at Democrats for embracing the real thing.

Sanders lost the nomination battle to Hillary Clinton (who favored a more incremental approach to health care and gives the single-payer debate little mention in her new book about the campaign). But he seems to be winning the war over the direction of the Democratic agenda. Sanders now has 35 percent of the Senate Democratic Caucus, and some of the biggest names in the party, embracing his call. So when he predicts, as he did on Wednesday, that “this nation, sooner than people believe, will in fact pass a Medicare-for-All, single-payer system,” it doesn't sound as crazy as it once did.


• Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation's capital. He joined The Washington Post as a political reporter in 2000.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Sanders offers possible tax hikes that could pay for universal Medicare (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/09/13/sanders-offers-possible-tax-hikes-that-could-pay-for-universal-medicare)

 • GOP tries one more time to undo ACA with bill offering huge block grants to states (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gop-bill-to-block-grant-major-parts-of-the-aca-unveiled/2017/09/13/bdcd1872-988b-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/socialized-health-care-in-the-us-suddenly-that-sounds-a-lot-less-crazy/2017/09/13/20b88d88-98cb-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/socialized-health-care-in-the-us-suddenly-that-sounds-a-lot-less-crazy/2017/09/13/20b88d88-98cb-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Donald on September 14, 2017, 04:50:00 pm
Ktj......"The Democrats have become socialists"

....finally....you have come to your senses...well done😉


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 14, 2017, 05:02:22 pm

Actually, the ONLY thing which will make America Great Again will be if they become a SOCIALIST country.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Donald on September 14, 2017, 05:11:31 pm
As the great Sir John Key would say...yeah...nah..probably best not to hold your breath for that one sonny🙄


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: aDjUsToR on September 15, 2017, 12:12:49 am
"Actually, the ONLY thing which will make America Great Again will be if they become a SOCIALIST country."

You mean like Venezuela?? Yeah that's a real success story 😁


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on October 08, 2017, 06:59:04 pm

from The Washington Post....

Shifting attitudes among Democrats have big implications for 2020

Whether in reaction to Trump or other forces, Democratic views on questions of race,
health care, immigration and the government's role are changing.


By DAN BALZ | 10:05AM EDT - Saturday, October 07, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1025w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/10/07/National-Politics/Images/851681476-3938.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_2500w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/10/07/National-Politics/Images/851681476-3938.jpg)
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) speaks during a health-care rally at the 2017 Convention of the California Nurses Association
and National Nurses Organizing Committee on September 22nd in San Francisco. Sanders is pushing his “Medicare for All” bill in the Senate.
 — Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Gettty Images.


PARTISAN DIVISIONS are not new news in American politics, nor is the assertion that one cause of the deepening polarization has been a demonstrable rightward shift among Republicans. But a more recent leftward movement in attitudes among Democrats also is notable and has obvious implications as the party looks toward 2020.

Here is some context. In 2008, not one of the major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination advocated legalizing same-sex marriage. By 2016, not one of those who sought the nomination opposed such unions, and not just because of the Supreme Court's rulings. Changing attitudes among all voters, and especially Democratic voters, made support for same-sex marriage an article of faith for anyone seeking to lead the party.

Trade policy is another case study. Over many years, Democrats have been divided on the merits of multilateral free-trade agreements. In 1992, Bill Clinton strongly supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the face of stiff opposition from labor unions and others. He took his case into union halls, and while he didn't convert his opponents, he prospered politically in the face of that opposition.

By 2016, with skepticism rising more generally about trade and globalization, Hillary Clinton was not willing to make a similar defense of the merits of free-trade agreements. With Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) bashing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a presidential candidate, Clinton joined the chorus of opponents. She ended up on the opposite side of then-President Barack Obama, even though she had spoken warmly about the prospects of such a treaty as secretary of state.

Looking ahead to 2020, something similar is likely to take place on the issue of health care. Because of changing attitudes that already are underway within the party, it will be difficult for any Democrat seeking the nomination not to support some kind of single-payer health-care plan, even if big questions remain about how it could be accomplished.

Sanders used his 2016 presidential campaign to advocate a universal health-care plan that he dubbed “Medicare for All”. The more cautious Clinton, who saw flaws in what Sanders was advocating, argued instead for focusing on improvements to the Affordable Care Act.

Sanders has now introduced a “Medicare for All” measure in the Senate, and his co-sponsors include several other prospective candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Meanwhile, a majority of House Democrats have signed onto a single-payer plan sponsored by Representative John Conyers Jr. (Democrat-Michigan) that goes much further. This has happened even though some of those who like Conyers's idea in principle question whether it is ready for prime time, not only because of the potential cost and the absence of a mechanism to pay for it, but also because of other potential policy flaws as well.

The pressure to embrace single-payer plans grows out of shifts in attitudes among Democrats. The Pew Research Center found in June (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/23/public-support-for-single-payer-health-coverage-grows-driven-by-democrats) that 52 percent of self-identified Democrats now support a government-run health-care system. That is up nine points since the beginning of the year and 19 points since 2014. Among liberal Democrats, 64 percent support such a plan (up 13 points just this year) and among younger Democrats, 66 percent say they support it.

Health care isn't the only area in which Democratic attitudes are shifting significantly. Others include such issues as the role of government and the social safety net; the role of race and racial discrimination in society; and immigration and the value of diversity.

A few days ago, the Pew Center released a comprehensive survey (http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/1-partisan-divides-over-political-values-widen) on the widening gap between Republicans and Democrats. The bottom line is summed up by one of the opening sentences in the report: “Republicans and Democrats are now further apart ideologically than at any point in more than two decades.”

This poll is the latest in a series of surveys dating to 1994. Together they provide not just snapshots in time, but also an arc of the changes in public opinion. Republicans moved to the right harder and earlier than Democrats began moving left, and their base remains more uncompromising. But on a number or questions, the biggest recent movement has been among Democrats.

In its new survey, Pew found the widest partisan gap ever on the question of whether government should help those in need — primarily because of recent shifts among Democrats. From 2011 to today, the percentage of Democrats who say government should do more to help those in need has jumped from 54 percent to 71 percent.

Only a minority of Republicans (24 percent) say government should do more for the needy, and that figure has barely moved in the past six years. The Republicans shifted their views from 2007 through 2011, the early years of the Obama presidency, during which their support for a government role dropped by 20 percentage points.

Two related questions produce a similar pattern among Democrats. Three in four Democrats say that “poor people have hard lives because government benefits don't go far enough to help them live decently,” up a dozen points in the past few years.

Eight in 10 Democrats say the country needs to continue to make changes to give blacks equal rights with whites, up 18 points since 2014. And more than 6 in 10 say “racial discrimination is the main reason many black people can't get ahead these days,” up from 4 in 10 three years ago.

Meanwhile, only a quarter of Republicans agree with the statement on government benefits, fewer than 4 in 10 say the country needs to continue to do things to provide equal rights for blacks, and just 14 percent cite racial discrimination as the main reason many blacks can't get ahead.

Members of both parties have become more positive in their attitudes about immigration in recent years, but the partisan gap remains huge — 42 points in the new survey. Today, 84 percent of Democrats say immigrants strengthen the country through hard work and talents, up from 48 percent in 2010. In 2010, 29 percent of Republicans agreed with that statement; today, that's risen to 42 percent.

Why have Democratic positions moved so dramatically and so recently on these questions race and government and immigration? Though it is not explicitly addressed in the survey, one possible reason is a reaction to the 2016 campaign and the Trump presidency.

President Trump obviously found strong support for his controversial views on immigration, whether his call to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border or to bar refugees from countries mostly in the Middle East. Those pronouncements helped him win the presidency. But those policies and the rhetoric that often preceded them also produced a strong backlash from the president's opponents.

The 2016 campaign ended up highlighting issues of national identity — race and immigration and the shifting character and face of the country — in often divisive ways that unleashed the kind of ugliness seen in Charlottesville in August.

The Democratic Party is being shaped by the Trump presidency and by reactions to the president among rank-and-file Democrats. Party leaders have been taking notice since Trump was sworn in as president and have moved as well.

Those who seek the party's nomination in 2020 understandably will be guided by these sentiments. But they must find a way to harness the movement into a political vision that is attractive to voters beyond the Democratic base — a vision that is grounded not just in anti-Trump resentment but in fresh and sound policies as well. In such polarized times, that will not be easy.


• Dan Balz is Chief Correspondent at The Washington Post. He has served as the paper's National Editor, Political Editor, White House correspondent and Southwest correspondent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/shifting-attitudes-among-democrats-have-big-implications-for-2020/2017/10/07/a1741398-aae1-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/shifting-attitudes-among-democrats-have-big-implications-for-2020/2017/10/07/a1741398-aae1-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on October 21, 2017, 06:55:37 pm

from The Washington Post....

The party is over…

Technology's direct access has kneecapped the GOP and Democrats.
We may miss them.


By DAVID VON DREHLE | 7:31PM EDT - Friday, October 20, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_800w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/10/20/Editorial-Opinion/Images/Congress_69777-c37b0-2494.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/10/20/Editorial-Opinion/Images/Congress_69777-c37b0-2494.jpg)
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont). — Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press.

WITH control of Congress, the White House and a majority of state governments, the Republican Party can claim to be stronger than at any time since 1928 (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/11/17/republican_party_the_strongest_its_been_in_80_years.html). On the other hand, many Democrats believe that their party's edge among younger voters and growing non-white demographic groups has them on the brink of a new reign of power (http://thenewpress.com/books/brown-new-white).

The truth is, both parties are in crisis — and may be headed for worse.

The Republican ascendancy is riddled with asterisks. The party's control of Congress has only exposed deep and bitter divisions, as the pirates of Breitbart and talk radio turn their guns (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/16/trump-basically-endorsed-bannons-war-on-mcconnell-and-the-republican-establishment) on House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wisconsin) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky). Too riven to redeem its oft-sworn pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare, the fractured majority is now struggling to unite around tax cuts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/20/republicans-are-celebrating-tax-cuts-that-are-still-a-long-way-from-becoming-reality), the golden calf of the GOP. As the saying goes, power is what power does — in this case, not much.

At the White House, Republicans rule in name only. The man in the Oval Office owes zilch to the party, having mowed down more than a dozen GOP leaders representing every band of the party's ideological spectrum in his 2016 coup. In office, he continues to train his Twitter flamethrower (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/what-you-need-to-know-about-trumps-twitter-feud-with-corker/2017/10/08/08355552-ac6c-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_video.html) on Republicans much of the time. Meanwhile, the state-level GOP is waging civil war from Alabama (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/moore-vs-strange-polling-opens-in-alabama-republican-primary/2017/09/25/9c7192f8-a253-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html) to Arizona (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-gops-identity-crisis-has-overtaken-arizonas-senate-race).

The internal bloodletting is at least as fierce, though perhaps less public, among Democrats. They, too, nearly lost control of their presidential nomination last year. Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) showed scant desire to be a Democrat through his long political career in Vermont, but he has decided late in life to pursue an ideological takeover. The septuagenarian revolutionary continues to galvanize the left wing against leading Democrats, and neither he nor his people are interested in making nice.

In California, for example, veteran Senator Dianne Feinstein's announcement that she would seek a fifth full term provoked howls from the Sanders set. The former mayor of San Francisco is too centrist for them. Emboldened, the top-ranking Democrat in the state Senate, Kevin de León, has jumped into the primary (http://www.dailynews.com/2017/10/17/why-kevin-de-leons-challenge-to-sen-feinstein-matters-win-or-lose). Although he may not be as progressive as the left would prefer, the mere fact of his challenge in the heart of Democratic America will cast a klieg light on party disunity.

What makes today's conflicts inside the major parties different from intramural elbow-throwing in the past? The rapid rise of unmediated democracy, enabled by the digital revolution.

For generations, the major parties have served as rival department stores anchoring opposite ends of America's political shopping mall. They chose which products to offer and favored certain ones with their most prominent displays. They marshaled big budgets for advertising and thus loomed over the boutiques and specialty stores — the greens, the libertarians and so on — serving smaller clienteles.

Smartphones and the Internet are killing big retail by connecting buyers directly to products. The same is in store for the major parties. Donald Trump went directly to the voters through Facebook and Twitter; they, in turn, swept him past Republican gatekeepers to commandeer the mannequins and display cases of the GOP. Likewise, Sanders has found plenty of volunteers and cash to support his attempted hostile takeover of the Democratic Party.

Voters no longer need — nor, in many cases, want — a political party to screen their candidates and vet their ideas. They prefer to build their own movements, often with stunning speed. The change is not limited to the United States. Britain's major parties didn't want Brexit (http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/26/europe/uk-brexit-labour-corbyn/index.html), but it's happening. Major parties in France didn't want Emmanuel Macron (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-timeline/timeline-macrons-rise-from-unknown-adviser-to-french-election-favorite-idUSKBN1820HP); now he's president.

America's winner-take-all elections strongly favor the two-party system (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/27/why-are-there-only-two-parties-in-american-politics). (Parliamentary systems, with their proportional representation, encourage smaller, more numerous, parties.) But unless the Republicans and Democrats find ways — pronto — to adapt to the rise of unmediated democracy, their systemic advantage could become an Alamo where defenders of party discipline and coalition-building make their doomed last stand.

Already we've seen a party lose possession of its most precious commodity: its presidential nomination. We've seen a rump minority (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-hard-line-republicans-who-pushed-john-boehner-out) in the House bounce former speaker John A. Boehner from his post and cast a hungry eye on his successor (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-coup-freedom-caucus_us_59b75e13e4b027c149e1c8b0). In Kansas in 2014, an independent businessman, Greg Orman (http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article177959541.html), cowed the Democratic Party into sitting on the sidelines of a U.S. Senate race. He's thinking about trying it again in next year's gubernatorial election.

Whether the future belongs to independent candidates connecting with voters outside the parties or to Trump-inspired hostile takeovers of nominations (probably it will be a combination), the future is dim for the major parties as we've known them. They were too often arrogant, unresponsive and borderline corrupt, but they vetted candidates, gave them training and fostered the compromises that hold teams together. We may miss them when they are gone.


• David Von Drehle writes a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post. He was previously an editor-at-large for TIME magazine, and is the author of four books, including Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year (https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/080507970X) and Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/080214151X).

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Fred Hiatt: France's president blew up his country’s two-party system and is pushing serious reform. Could it happen here? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/frances-president-blew-up-his-countrys-two-party-system-and-is-pushing-serious-reform-could-it-happen-here/2017/09/24/874a0430-9f7b-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html)

 • Gary Johnson: Our two-party system has failed, just like our founders said it would (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gary-johnson-our-two-party-system-has-failed-just-like-our-founders-said-it-would/2016/09/07/f82f9bf4-73aa-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html)

 • Charles Lane: Are we headed for a four-party moment? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/are-we-headed-for-a-four-party-moment/2015/08/12/c20576be-4108-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html)

 • Joe Scarborough: Trump is killing the Republican Party (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-killing-the-republican-party/2017/07/16/048056dc-68c4-11e7-a1d7-9a32c91c6f40_story.html)

 • Fareed Zakaria: The Democrats' problem is not the economy, stupid (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-democrats-problem-is-not-the-economy-stupid/2017/06/29/50fb7988-5d07-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/both-political-parties-may-be-doomed/2017/10/20/4c6cf8b2-b5ca-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/both-political-parties-may-be-doomed/2017/10/20/4c6cf8b2-b5ca-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on October 10, 2018, 01:32:56 pm

from The Washington Post…

Bernie Sanders plans nine-day blitz for Democratic
candidates on mid-term ballot


The senator from Vermont will hit several states that could bolster a 2020 presidential run.

By JOHN WAGNER | 3:57PM EDT — Tuesday, October 09, 2018

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_899w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2018/09/12/Production/Magazine/Images/Sanders_Labor_Day_88059-ef1aa.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2018/09/12/Production/Magazine/Images/Sanders_Labor_Day_88059-ef1aa.jpg)
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) speaks during an August campaign stop for Florida's Democratic gubernatorial
nominee, Andrew Gillum, in Tampa. — Photograph: Chris O'Meara/Associated Press.


SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (Independent-Vermont) plans to launch a nine-day blitz on the campaign trail next week for Democrats on the ballot in November, including stops in several states that would be crucial to a 2020 bid for the party's presidential nomination.

An itinerary shared by a Sanders aide includes several stops in Iowa, where Sanders finished a close second to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic caucuses, as well as South Carolina and Nevada, two other states that appear early on the nominating calendar.

Sanders, who is actively weighing a 2020 presidential bid, is also set to make appearances in Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Colorado and California.

Since falling short in 2016, Sanders has traveled extensively around the country, but mostly to promote issues he is championing. His upcoming tour, starting on October 19, will be his most aggressive effort to support Democratic candidates on the ballot in November.

Sanders is on the ballot himself this year, trying to win a third term as a senator from Vermont. His 2016 presidential campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, is among those who have publicly urged him to run again for president in 2020.

This month's campaign swing is to include appearances on behalf of candidates for the House and Senate, as well as governor in some states.

Iowans won't see most of the best-known presidential candidates in person until after the midterms. But some Democratic candidates have already made stops, including Senator Cory Booker (New Jersey), who spoke Saturday at the Iowa Democratic Party's Fall Gala.

J.D. Scholten, the Democrat running in Iowa's 4th Congressional District, said he welcomes Sanders back to the state.

“We're excited,” Scholten said. “In the 1980s, a Democrat campaigned for this very district by talking about inequality and the 1 percent versus the 99 percent. And he'd win with 60 percent of the vote. That's who I've modeled my campaign after.”


__________________________________________________________________________

David Weigel contributed to this report.

John Wagner (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/john-wagner) is a national reporter who leads The Washington Post's new breaking political news team. He previously covered the Trump White House. During the 2016 presidential election, Wagner focused on the Democratic campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley. He earlier chronicled Maryland government for more than a decade, a stretch that included O’Malley's eight years as governor and part of the tenure of his Republican predecessor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. He came to The Post from The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he served as the paper's Washington correspondent, covering the 2004 presidential bid of Senator John Edwards and the final years in office of Senator Jesse Helms.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Senator Bernie Sanders weighs in on his potential 2020 presidential plans (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/postlive/find-out-whether-sen-bernie-sanders-plans-to-run-for-president-again-in-2020/2018/06/06/e7ad01c4-6997-11e8-a335-c4503d041eaf_video.html)

 • The Trailer: The Invisible Primary is underway in Iowa (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paloma/the-trailer/2018/10/07/the-trailer-the-invisible-primary-is-underway-in-iowa/5bb901a01b326b7c8a8d1880)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanders-plans-nine-day-blitz-for-democratic-candidates-on-midterm-ballot/2018/10/08/0709a148-cb50-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanders-plans-nine-day-blitz-for-democratic-candidates-on-midterm-ballot/2018/10/08/0709a148-cb50-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on October 10, 2018, 10:15:09 pm
good luck bernie hahaha


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 05, 2019, 11:30:37 am

Bernie has the right idea: tax the crap out of the super-rich when they kick the bucket.

And close up all the tax loopholes whereby they use trusts and other means to avoid paying inheritance taxes.




from The Washington Post…

EDITORIAL: Bernie Sanders's estate tax plan would
reduce the federal debt and help even the playing field


The super-rich should pay more in inheritance taxes.

By THE WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD | 6:57PM EST — Sunday, February 03, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/tJp7pjZw5ortp3q2eKOs4yr8D6s=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/M4YGXCBIAII6TGCNTOH3UAB6QE.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/tJp7pjZw5ortp3q2eKOs4yr8D6s=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/M4YGXCBIAII6TGCNTOH3UAB6QE.jpg)
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on January 30.
 — Photograph: Win Mcnamee/Getty Images.


IT WILL NOT be a question of whether prominent 2020 Democratic presidential candidates favor hiking taxes on the very wealthy. It will be a question of how they propose to do it. Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat-Massachusetts) last month suggested a wealth tax of 2 percent per year on fortunes of more than $50 million, an idea that is constitutionally questionable and logistically difficult (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/elizabeth-warren-wants-a-wealth-tax-it-might-backfire/2019/01/27/67a795e4-20c5-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html). Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) entered the scene on Thursday with a better plan: substantially hiking the estate tax on huge inheritances (https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/01/31/bernie-sanders-propose-dramatic-expansion-estate-tax-richest-americans-including-percent-rate-billionaires), an alternative to taxing someone's fortune during his or her lifetime.

The country has an estate tax, but the rate and the amount exempted from the inheritance tax have bounced around as Republicans and Democrats have fought a tug of war over its terms. The number of estates hit with some level of inheritance tax has plummeted (https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/2017-tax-law-weakens-estate-tax-benefiting-wealthiest-and-expanding-avoidance) from more than 50,000 in 2001 to fewer than 10,000 in recent years. The 2017 GOP tax law doubled the inheritance tax exemption from $11 million per couple to $22 million per couple, driving the number of estates liable to pay the tax below a negligible 2,000 per year (https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ES_20180608_tcja_summary_paper_final.pdf).

This was just the latest victory in Republicans' push to protect wealthy heirs at the expense of the federal purse, and one of the most obvious giveaways to the super-wealthy in the 2017 tax cut law. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out that (https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/2017-tax-law-weakens-estate-tax-benefiting-wealthiest-and-expanding-avoidance), even for those heirs getting more than $22 million, the latest estate tax reform amounted to giving them a $4.4 million tax break on the newly exempted portion of their inheritance. The price tag for the federal government (https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/2017-tax-law-weakens-estate-tax-benefiting-wealthiest-and-expanding-avoidance) is $83 billion over a decade — or, put another way, $83 billion in extra debt over a decade.

Mr. Sanders wants to roll back the GOP reform — and more. He would insist that estates worth more than $3.5 million pay at least 45 percent on money over that threshold, with higher tax brackets scaled to the size of the fortune in question. The rate would be 77 percent — the top rate from 1941 to 1976 — on estates worth more than $1 billion. Because such a plan would spur estate planners to seek legally creative ways to avoid inheritance taxes, Mr. Sanders would also close some loopholes currently used as tax avoidance vehicles. Mr. Sanders estimates that his plan would raise $315 billion over a decade.

That revenue is badly needed. Federal debt as a share of the economy has spiked. Rising generations face huge challenges paying for the health care and pensions of their retiring parents. Meanwhile, the very wealthiest Americans have done extremely well in recent decades, with a drift toward an ever-higher concentration of national wealth at the top. Weak inheritance taxes have contributed to this trend. Critics charge that the estate tax taxes income twice, first when it is earned and second when it is inherited. Yet it also serves as a backstop against avoidance of other types of taxation, in which the wealthy excel.

Rich heirs would still be rich after paying a Sanders tax. But their unearned head start over their less fortunate cohort would be shorter, and the government would have more resources to help promote opportunity for everyone else.


__________________________________________________________________________

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Related to this topic:

 • Catherine Rampell: Elizabeth Warren wasn't the first candidate to propose a wealth tax. Trump was. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/elizabeth-warren-wasnt-the-first-candidate-to-propose-a-wealth-tax-trump-was/2019/01/31/d2523af4-259b-11e9-81fd-b7b05d5bed90_story.html)

 • The Washington Post's View: Elizabeth Warren wants a ‘wealth tax’. It might backfire. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/elizabeth-warren-wants-a-wealth-tax-it-might-backfire/2019/01/27/67a795e4-20c5-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html)

 • The Washington Post's View: How House Democrats can advocate for a fairer, more effective tax system (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-house-democrats-can-advocate-for-a-fairer-more-effective-tax-system/2019/01/12/d8e0f6c4-15d5-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html)

 • David Moscrop: Canada doesn't have an inheritance tax. For the sake of democracy, that needs to change. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/08/07/canada-doesnt-have-an-inheritance-tax-for-the-sake-of-democracy-that-needs-to-change)

 • Jim Goodman: Stop pretending the estate tax has anything to do with us family farmers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/11/15/stop-pretending-the-estate-tax-has-anything-to-do-with-us-family-farmers)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanderss-estate-tax-plan-would-reduce-the-federal-debt-and-help-even-the-playing-field/2019/02/03/61c41caa-266b-11e9-90cd-dedb0c92dc17_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanderss-estate-tax-plan-would-reduce-the-federal-debt-and-help-even-the-playing-field/2019/02/03/61c41caa-266b-11e9-90cd-dedb0c92dc17_story.html)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 05, 2019, 04:51:01 pm
that's all that stupid lefty thinks about all day stealing other peoples money
bernie is a silly old fuckwit and all he ever talks about is money
he should get a job and save up lol

he wants to turn America into Venezuela
and they are not doing too well

good luck Bernie trying to get your filthy hands on the rich people's money the swamp creatures might have another idea


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 05, 2019, 05:17:24 pm

It is the super-rich who steal money from ordinary folks.

By avoiding paying their share of tax, they bludge off everyone else.

Hence why the super-rich need to be slammed when they kick the bucket.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 06, 2019, 10:00:36 am
Bernie colluding with Russia ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7NA_RZ8UfE


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 06, 2019, 06:05:41 pm

Hahahahahahahahahahahah ;D
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/03/9449248-6672199-image-a-141_1549425480958.jpg)

Bernie Sanders gave a foul reaction to Donald Trump, who aggressively shot down his socialist agenda


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 06, 2019, 06:30:24 pm

Bernie is an angel compared to Donald J. Trump who has so far leeched more than $64 billion from American taxpayers for his junkets to just one location...


• Trump's travel to Mar-a-Lago alone probably cost taxpayers more than $64 million (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/05/trumps-travel-mar-a-lago-alone-likely-cost-taxpayers-more-than-million)


Remember when Trump criticised then-President Barak Obama for playing too much golf and said that if he was elected president, he'd stay in Washington D.C. working for the American people?

Well, like everything else that oozes out of Trump's mouth, he was full-of-shit then and he is still full-of-shit.

Whenever Trump's mouth moves, you KNOW with 100% CERTAINTY that Trump is telling LIES, because Trump is a perpetual LIAR.

President Bernie Sanders would have been a REAL president. President Trump is a “FAKE PRESIDENT!”

And he's a gutless, spineless, yellow-bellied coward too!

Corporal Bone Spurs should be his real name.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on February 06, 2019, 11:56:47 pm
Bernie pooed his diaper ;D

(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/06/03/9449248-6672199-image-a-141_1549425480958.jpg)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on February 28, 2020, 12:14:20 pm

(https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Biden-South-Carolina-ONLINE-COLOR-1020x666.jpg) (https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/murky-waters-for-democrats)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 03, 2020, 02:34:44 am
(https://assets.infowars.com/2020/02/273335_image.jpg)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 04, 2020, 01:23:12 pm

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESD8ijJU4AENu1W.jpg) (https://twitter.com/rodemmerson/status/1234264031118053376)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 05, 2020, 12:51:48 pm
(https://assets.infowars.com/2020/03/273758_image.jpg)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=266&v=I3iFIJMFDBI&feature=emb_logo


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 08, 2020, 08:41:21 am

from The Washington Post…

Why Trump fears Biden most (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/06/why-trump-fears-biden-most/)


(https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/WHGGJPZDQNHZLC3IOZYVFRUKGA&w=666) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/WHGGJPZDQNHZLC3IOZYVFRUKGA&w=1440)


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 08, 2020, 11:04:29 am
Joe gets his head cut off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3zpvu9La5A


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on March 08, 2020, 11:13:21 am

Trump was supporting Bernie because he is terrified of facing Joe, who will walk all over him.

Joe Biden is intelligent, unlike Trump who is as dumb as dogshit. And Trump knows it.

Trump's mate, Putin, has been desperately trolling to try to get Bernie as Trump's opponent in the upcoming elections.

It looks like Putin has failed. Oh dear, oh dear. Trump will be highly pissed off, but won't be able to slag off Putin over it because Putin still has those photographs (and video footage) of Trump, Russian prostitutes and golden showers to get even with Trump if Trump pisses off Putin too much.


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 08, 2020, 01:12:58 pm
you're white trash deranged commie full of piss talk

Joe is an idiot that's why Obama wouldn't support his run hahaha


Title: Re: Bernie … Bernie … Bernie …
Post by: Im2Sexy4MyPants on March 08, 2020, 01:26:39 pm
joe is demented he doesn't know where he is
soon he will be doing wall paintings with his own poo as you do