Bernie speaks

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  • #56429
    wv
    Participant

    link:http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/24/clinton-has-his-vote-sanders-vows-stand-firm-against-dem-backsliding
    Clinton Has His Vote, But Sanders Vows to Stand Firm Against Dem Backsliding

    Sanders plans to use the Democratic Party platform—which he was instrumental in shaping and has called “the most progressive” in the party’s history—as a template

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) plans to hold the liberal establishment’s feet to the fire come January, vowing to work toward making the political revolution a reality once the task of electing Hillary Clinton to the White House is accomplished.

    “Was I shocked to find out that the DNC was partial toward Clinton? Not exactly. That’s something we knew from day one.”
    —Sen. Bernie SandersIn an interview with the Washington Post published Monday, Sanders said he intends to use the “leverage” he accumulated during his historic primary bid to promote the very agenda that propelled him to win “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.”

    According to John Wagner at the Post, who conducted the interview with Sanders at his home in Vermont on Friday:

    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 reforms he supports.

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

    He named Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) as potential allies in this effort.

    Sanders plans to use the Democratic Party platform—which he was instrumental in shaping and has called “the most progressive” in the party’s history—as a template, characterizing it as “more progressive than Clinton’s campaign agenda,” Wagner wrote.

    And he shunned the sort of centrist “compromise” that has many progressives wary of Clinton.

    “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.”

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    Taking a page from Warren’s book, Sanders also vowed to pressure Clinton to fill her cabinet with progressives, rather than Wall Street insiders.

    Wagner reports:

    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, who has been campaigning for Clinton since he conceded the presidential nomination in July, also downplayed the discord revealed through recent WikiLeaks disclosures of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails. In one of those emails, Podesta refers to Sanders as a “doofus;” others appear to confirm a establishment bias against Sanders and toward Clinton.

    “Trust me, if they went into our emails—I suppose which may happen, who knows—I’m sure there would be statements that would be less than flattering about, you know, the Clinton staff,” Sanders told the Post. “That’s what happens in campaigns.”

    Still, the senator did concede that the emails reveal “[t]he way they do politics is very different.”

    And as for the Democratic National Committee’s apparently seeking to bolster Clinton’s candidacy, Sanders scoffed: “None of that is a shock to me. Was I shocked to find out that the DNC was partial toward Clinton? Not exactly. That’s something we knew from day one.

    #56430
    joemad
    Participant

    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 reforms he supports.

    I certainly hope so…… Bernie gets it and seems to genuinely care…… these are common sense proposals that should’ve been enacted already.

    #56432
    wv
    Participant

    Citigroup picks Obama’s cabinet. What a shock.
    w
    v

    link:http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/photo_of_the_week_president_who_let_citigroup_20161029

    …“You have a chance to shape history,” President Obama told a crowd of 9,000 people at a campaign stop for Hillary Clinton in Orlando, Fla., on Friday. “Hillary needs your help. I need your help. America needs your help. Let’s get to work.”

    Two weeks earlier WikiLeaks revealed how the Clinton/Obama-led corporate wing of the Democratic Party works. An email sent in October 2008 and hacked from the personal account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta showed Citigroup executive Michael Froman submitting names for dozens of positions in then-candidate Obama’s anticipated presidential Cabinet.

    “The cabinet list ended up being almost entirely on the money,” wrote David Dayen of the New Republic about the leaked message. “It correctly identified Eric Holder for the Justice Department, Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security, Robert Gates for Defense, Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff, Peter Orszag for the Office of Management and Budget, Arne Duncan for Education, Eric Shinseki for Veterans Affairs, Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services, Melody Barnes for the Domestic Policy Council, and more.”

    “For the Treasury, three possibilities were on the list: Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Timothy Geithner.”

    Geithner ended up as Obama’s treasury secretary, while Summers was a key author of the response to the 2008 recession as director of Obama’s National Economic Council. And these men ensured that Froman’s Citigroup continued to benefit from the largest bailout the federal government gave during the financial crisis… see link

    #56439
    Zooey
    Moderator

    See that Donna Brazile fed Clinton a debate question prior to a March debate with Bernie?

    Later she becomes DNC chair to replace Wasserman Schultz. What a shock. So the DNC chair is nakedly favoring Clinton, so she gets replaced…with a nakedly pro-Clinton person. That’s how that problem was corrected.

    I dunno. On Facepalm right now, I see lots of former Bernie supporters brainwashing themselves into Clinton supporters, and it makes me sad. Let’s not forget who and what she is, people.

    #56442
    wv
    Participant

    let’s not forget who and what she is, people.

    ————-

    Well, we got bnw to remind us of what she is,
    should we forget.

    That’s your role, bnw 🙂

    w
    v

    #56444
    nittany ram
    Moderator

    See that Donna Brazile fed Clinton a debate question prior to a March debate with Bernie?

    Later she becomes DNC chair to replace Wasserman Schultz. What a shock. So the DNC chair is nakedly favoring Clinton, so she gets replaced…with a nakedly pro-Clinton person. That’s how that problem was corrected.

    I dunno. On Facepalm right now, I see lots of former Bernie supporters brainwashing themselves into Clinton supporters, and it makes me sad. Let’s not forget who and what she is, people.

    Voting for Clinton doesn’t make you a supporter. It could mean you’re just more afraid of the alternative. I plan to vote for Clinton and I know exactly who she is. I think a lot of other people voting for her do too. I know a lot of people who are voting for Clinton but only a few of them like her. It’s just that the alternative is worse. Heck, protecting reproductive rights for women alone makes her a better choice.

    #56450
    bnw
    Blocked

    let’s not forget who and what she is, people.

    ————-

    Well, we got bnw to remind us of what she is,
    should we forget.

    That’s your role, bnw 🙂

    w
    v

    Yes sir!. It should trouble everyone that I am the sharpest tool in this shed.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #56451
    bnw
    Blocked

    See that Donna Brazile fed Clinton a debate question prior to a March debate with Bernie?

    Later she becomes DNC chair to replace Wasserman Schultz. What a shock. So the DNC chair is nakedly favoring Clinton, so she gets replaced…with a nakedly pro-Clinton person. That’s how that problem was corrected.

    I dunno. On Facepalm right now, I see lots of former Bernie supporters brainwashing themselves into Clinton supporters, and it makes me sad. Let’s not forget who and what she is, people.

    Voting for Clinton doesn’t make you a supporter. It could mean you’re just more afraid of the alternative. I plan to vote for Clinton and I know exactly who she is. I think a lot of other people voting for her do too. I know a lot of people who are voting for Clinton but only a few of them like her. It’s just that the alternative is worse. Heck, protecting reproductive rights for women alone makes her a better choice.

    Then vote for that duplicitous, corrupt, lying, treasonous WARMONGERING Hildabeast!

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #56453
    bnw
    Blocked

    Bernie is an embarrassment. These email revelations are repeated kicks to his nuts and not a peep from him. I suppose getting Hildabeast to assume all of his campaign debt is all that really matters to him. The dope actually said he didn’t care about her emails during a debate. Generals get years in prison while peasants like yours truly would be given life in prison for just ONE email offense of hers.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #56456
    Zooey
    Moderator

    Bernie is an embarrassment. These email revelations are repeated kicks to his nuts and not a peep from him. I suppose getting Hildabeast to assume all of his campaign debt is all that really matters to him. The dope actually said he didn’t care about her emails during a debate. Generals get years in prison while peasants like yours truly would be given life in prison for just ONE email offense of hers.

    Where have you been?

    What Bernie said is that he already knew all of this, so these revelations are old. It was an ongoing complaint from Bernie and his supporters throughout the primaries. He reacted to all of this months ago.

    #56457
    Zooey
    Moderator

    Sure, I know that.

    But you and I are not Friends on Facepalm, so I haven’t seen your measured response.

    I am not talking about voting for Hillary.

    I am talking about people who I see run the Hillary pennant up their flagpoles, and get genuinely excited by her, who used to see her shortcomings.

    You are excluded from my disdain.

    {but only because I like Linda so much}

    #56460
    wv
    Participant

    A term I’d never heard before: “Social narcissism”

    “Sleepwalking into Oblivion”
    (chris hedges)

    “…Because of this mass indoctrination, we have become infected by what Daniel Boorstin in “The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America” calls “social narcissism.” The bottomless narcissism of Trump and the Clintons caters to this social narcissism. They reflect back to us our desperate longing for, as well as celebration of, entertainment, celebrity, wealth, power and self-aggrandizement. It is not only advertising and public relations, as Boorstin pointed out, that carry out the incessant manufacturing of illusions that feed social narcissism. Journalists, book publishers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, positive psychologists, self-help gurus, the Christian right and talk show hosts all feed the mania for illusion. They all chant the insane mantra that reality is never an impediment to what we desire. We can have anything we want if we work hard, get an education, believe in ourselves, grasp that we are exceptional and see the impossible as always possible. It is magical thinking. And magical thinking is the only real commodity the elites have left offer to us. Make American Great Again. Or American already is great. Take your pick of idiotic clichés…

    ….Candidates Trump and Clinton have no plans to halt our slide to oblivion. They are part of the circus. They, like all of the other elites, profit from the system that is destroying us. They lack the incentive and probably the capacity to challenge the structures and assumptions that define corporate capitalism. They function as high priests. They peddle the illusions. They laud our ingenuity and strength. They preach the inevitability of human progress and American exceptionalism. They tell us what we want to hear. They appeal to our emotions, as does all of mass culture. They do not acknowledge reality. That would spoil the show.

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    We vote for slogans, manufactured personalities, perceived sincerity, personal attractiveness and the crafted personal narratives peddled by candidates. Office seekers create the illusion of intimacy established between celebrities and their audiences. We see ourselves in them; admirers of the “winner” Trump see themselves as becoming him. No politician succeeds without such artifice. Today’s politics is just one more product of a diseased culture. Our political leaders are much like the celebrities who, in Boorstin’s words, “are receptacles into which we pour our own purposelessness. They are nothing but ourselves seen in a magnifying mirror.” ……

    ….at the end we fall into despair and rage. It is why huge parts of the country no longer hold genuine political ideas. It is why people vote according to how they feel. It is why hatred and fear are a potent political platform.

    It is why we are sleepwalking into oblivion.

    see link
    http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/american_irrationalism_201610305

    #56465
    Billy_T
    Participant

    My frustration with this election, and our political system in general, is that neither party — or candidate — offers any effective response to the Power Elite, the Deep State, the Establishment. Neither party or candidate provides anything in the way of an “opposition” to empire, war without end, massive inequality, environmental destruction, etc. etc.

    (They don’t want to, obviously.)

    Trump, from everything we’ve seen, merely suggests that he would be much better at running the show for the Power Elite than the current lineup. He would, so he says, cut better deals and “make America great again” — a fascist slogan if there ever was one. In no way, shape or form has he ever offered up even the slightest program or policy that would help the American people in any way. Nothing he talks about does anything to make life better for the 99%. It’s all geared to radically improve the lot of the already filthy rich and corporate America.

    Clinton and the Dems, boiled down, speak for the super-rich too, and may, on good days, include the richest 10%. Trump and the GOP, OTOH, stop at the richest 1%. And so the entire election has been one big lie, from both candidates and both parties, with neither offering up any solutions for what ails us. Instead, Trump and the GOP manufacture phony scandals about emails, and lie to us that any of it matters.

    They can’t talk about the horrible things the Clintons do that really do matter, because they, themselves are even more aggressively destructive along those lines. As in, they demonize HRC and the Dems for supposedly “gutting our military”; for being too “politically correct” and not bombing the shit out of black and brown people in the Middle East; for not destroying enough immigrant families here; and for going too slowly when it comes to privatization and deregulation. None of their critiques of the Clintons or the Dems are based on reality, evidence or facts, and they can’t attack them for legitimate reasons, because they’re actually complicit in that, and worse.

    Anyone who believes Trump is the answer to the Clintons, the Establishment, the Power Elite, the Deep State, is deluding themselves, bigly. He’ll just be more aggressively anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-science and against social justice than the current powers that be in both parties.

    #56467
    wv
    Participant

    #56468
    Billy_T
    Participant

    A follow-up: HRC and the Dems are terrible for the country. No question in my mind about that. They support the existing power structure, and the most odious economic system the world has ever known, capitalism. They are vigorous supporters of the status quo, and at best look out for the interests — again, on their best days — of the richest 10%, only.

    The OBVIOUS answer to HRC and the Dems would be a candidate/party/movement that OPPOSED them in FAVOR of the 99% and the planet. In favor of the American people. In favor of the environment. Against empire, against hierarchy, against inequality and social injustice, wars, coups, “regime change,” etc.

    In no known universe can anyone accurately even suggest that Trump and the Republicans meet ANY criteria for effective, beneficial opposition to that status quo, which includes the Clintons, etc. etc. In no known universe is it accurate to state that Trump will work on behalf of the American people overlooked by the duopoly. He will, in fact, take the horrific stuff that HRC and the Dems do (and want to do) and double down on it. He will, in fact, be far more aggressively against the best interests of the American people.

    We are going to get one or the other, one party or the other, and that’s why we’re essentially fucked.

    #56490
    bnw
    Blocked

    Bernie is an embarrassment. These email revelations are repeated kicks to his nuts and not a peep from him. I suppose getting Hildabeast to assume all of his campaign debt is all that really matters to him. The dope actually said he didn’t care about her emails during a debate. Generals get years in prison while peasants like yours truly would be given life in prison for just ONE email offense of hers.

    Where have you been?

    What Bernie said is that he already knew all of this, so these revelations are old. It was an ongoing complaint from Bernie and his supporters throughout the primaries. He reacted to all of this months ago.

    Wrong again. On purpose? Dementia? Because that isn’t what Bernie said. Bernie downplayed the importance of the email scandal. Downplayed it so Hildabeast could then campaign against Trump not on the issues but that Trump is such a bad person. Nothing substantive on the issues from Hildabeast against Trump. I do agree with Bernie that there are real issues that should be addressed in a presidential campaign and the email scandal directly deals with Hildabeast’s fitness for the office. All he did was give her a big pass and she of course was grateful towards him and his “bucket of losers” (Hildabeast’s term) supporters.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

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