January 19, 2016

Bernie Sanders Set the Tone in the South Carolina Democratic Debate

Charleston—If presidential debates really were scored liked boxing matches, you’d have to call tonight’s bout a split decision. Bernie Sanders supporters will have been cheered by their candidate’s counter-punching against the Clinton attacks, telegraphed in the press all week, on his call for truly universal health coverage. And they did cheer, loudly, at his relentless jabs at our corrupt political system, which persistently thwarts any effort to reform our rigged economy.

Meanwhile, partisans of Hillary Clinton will point with pride to her effective flurry of blows on gun control, her obvious command of foreign policy (and inscrutable smile when asked about her relationship with Vladimir Putin), and, most of all, the way she used President Obama as a human shield all night long. It was as if Clinton was following her own weird variation of a rope-a-dope strategy: Instead of draping herself over her opponent, she wrapped her arms around an imaginary Obama and held on for dear life. From healthcare to the economy, her answer was always: I Heart Obama. At one point she even turned a question about her ties to Wall Street into an attempt to depict Sanders as an enemy of Obama

(Snip)
But there were moments—like the exchange between a visionary O’Malley and a presidential-sounding Sanders on climate change—where it was possible to forget Clinton was even on stage. For a candidate whose appeal is so tied to her inevitability, that can’t be encouraging.

http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-set-the-tone-in-the-south-carolina-democratic-debate/

January 19, 2016

Hillary Blames Bernie for an Old Clintonite Hustle, and That's a Rotten Shame

The Clintons have no shame, that much you can count on. That stupefying arrogance was on full display in the most recent presidential campaign debate when Hillary Clinton countered Bernie Sanders' charge that she was compromised by her close ties to Goldman Sachs and other rapacious Wall Street interests with the retort:

(Sen. Sanders, you're the only one on this stage that voted to deregulate the financial markets in 2000, ... to make the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission no longer able to regulate swaps and derivatives, which were one of the main causes of the collapse in '08.)

Hillary knows that the disastrous legislation, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA), had nothing to do with Sanders and everything to do with then-President Bill Clinton, who devoted his presidency to sucking up to Wall Street. Clinton signed this bill into law as a lame-duck president, ensuring his wife would have massive Wall Street contributions for her Senate run.

Sanders, like the rest of Congress, was blackmailed into voting for the bill because it was tucked into omnibus legislation needed to keep the government operating. Only libertarian Ron Paul and three other House members had the guts to cast a nay vote. The measure freeing Wall Street firms from regulation was inserted at the last moment in a deal between President Clinton and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who had failed in an earlier attempt to get the measure enacted. Clinton signed it into law a month before leaving office.



http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/9018360?

January 19, 2016

How Bernie Sanders Made Burlington Affordable

As the city’s mayor in the 1980s, he championed an unusual model of publicly supported housing. It’s still working.
By Jake Blumgart
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2016/01/bernie_sanders_made_burlington_s_land_trust_possible_it_s_still_an_innovative.html

Bob Robbins bought his home in 1995 amid a bout of long-term unemployment. Living with his wife and two kids in a rundown rental in Burlington, Vermont, he wanted to stabilize the family’s housing before his children started kindergarten.

Prospects seemed bleak. The family’s savings had dwindled after his unemployment insurance gave out. But in 1993 Robbins saw a newspaper advertisement for something called the Burlington Community Land Trust. He visited its offices and learned about its generous grants for low-income home ownership. The innovative offer would significantly lower the price by allowing the couple to purchase only the house, while the trust paid for the land it sat on. Within two years, his family owned a home in a small town just to the east of the city. The Robbins family bought its home through a conventional realtor and a commercial bank while also entering a covenant with the land trust to lease the land upon their home sits upon. This reduced the costs of their mortgage and down payment substantially.

They’re far from alone. Across the land trust’s portfolio today, there are about 565 other homes that enjoy similar terms, not to mention 2,100 rental and cooperative units. Half of these holdings are located within the city of Burlington itself, which had a total of 16,897 housing units as of 2010, meaning that about 7.6 percent of the stock sits on the nonprofit’s land.

(snip)
“I’ve talked with people across the country and they would die to have the kind of political support we’ve had over the years,” says Robbins, who went on to serve on the land trust’s board from 1997 to 2006. “We are where we are because we have that political commitment, we aren’t just a lonely nonprofit but a real partnership with government. We’re delighted to have Bernie still out there. I hope he goes all the way.”

January 19, 2016

Live link to Bernie and some pics

Live link
http://www.wbrc.com/category/297855/wbrc-live-video?sf19134820=1


"Some people told me Alabama was a conservative state. I guess not."
-- @BernieSanders in Birmingham, Alabama
https://twitter.com/NicholsUprising






3/4 of supporters at Boutwell Memorial Auditorium in Birmingham for @BernieSanders (cam couldnt capture whole scene)
https://twitter.com/tamaragitt


https://twitter.com/JamieseWBRC


Bernie has stopped talking while waiting for paramedics for someone at the rally
Assistance is on the way. @BernieSanders watches and waits. Rally on hold until situation is cleared up. @WBRCnews


Packed house in Birmingham #Alabama w/ @BernieSanders ready to join a political revolution #
https://twitter.com/DREAMerJ_D


https://twitter.com/JamieseWBRC

January 18, 2016

Sanders surges in debate that gets at core of Democratic divide

Bernie Sanders dominated Sunday night’s Democratic debate here, overpowering Hillary Clinton in a format she typically controls. With polls showing Clinton on the ropes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders’ strong performance may have further imperiled Clinton’s once-inevitable path to her party’s presidential nomination.

Touting his surging poll numbers in the two key early states, Sanders was prepared and in command throughout the two-hour debate sponsored by NBC News and YouTube. In previous appearances, Clinton has easily dominated the stage. But turning in his strongest debate performance yet, Sanders drove the conversation – brushing aside her attacks as he doggedly returned to his core message of political revolution.

In the long arc of a primary campaign that began with warm relations between the two top candidates only to turn acrimonious over side issues, Sunday night was the first time voters saw the core divide between Clinton and Sanders.

They clashed over their approach to governing – revolution or evolution – in a way broadly hinted at since the day each got into the race but was somewhat obscured until now.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sanders-surges-debate-gets-core-democratic-divide

January 18, 2016

Robert Reich:Some thoughts on tonight’s Democratic debate

1. Once again I was struck by the intelligence and public spiritedness of all of the Democratic candidates relative to what we’ve heard from the Republican hopefuls. Any Democratic candidate on that stage tonight would make a far superior president to Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or any of the other blowhards and xenophobes now seeking the Republican nomination.

2. I wasn’t surprised but was disappointed that Hillary Clinton went into such a fierce attack against Bernie Sanders. His traditional position on guns is understandable given the rural state he represents in the Senate, and he’s modified it considerably as a presidential candidate who will be representing all of America. I thought her attack on his health care plan misleading, given that American families and businesses will save far more from it in lower health costs than any additional taxes they’ll be paying. Nor is it fair to characterize it as a threat to the Affordable Care Act because Bernie's plan simply takes that Act to the next logical step. Finally, I thought it inappropriate for her to attack Bernie for his differences with President Obama; they are principled differences on specific policies, which hardly makes him “hostile” to the President.

3. Hillary presented herself as an experienced politician who is prepared to assume the presidency, while Bernie presented himself as the leader of a political revolution. Both characterizations seem fair. If you assume Washington is not changeable and that the vicious cycle of wealth and power dominating our politics and economics is unalterable, Hillary's experience is relevant; she will make a first-class president for the system we now have. But if you believe Washington must be changed, and that system can be altered for the benefit of the many and not the few, Bernie’s leadership is more relevant; he is heading up a political movement.
What did you think? And what are your views about tonight’s debate?

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1137541572925104?fref=nf

January 18, 2016

Friends/Flint- we FINALLY got the Dems 2 acknowledge the tragedy. Finally. Thank u Bernie & Hillary

FriendsinFlint- we FINALLY got the Dems 2 acknowledge the tragedy here. Finally. Thank u Bernie & Hillary. Now come here! Actions not words

And yes, thank you Bernie. Yesterday you became the first presidential candidate to demand the Governor's resignation.

One thing's for sure, you'll never hear the issues that got discussed tonight being debated amongst the Republican candidates. #fear #invade

https://twitter.com/MMFlint

January 18, 2016

Winners and losers from the fourth Democratic presidential debate

Please don't faint
by Chris Cillizza

Winners
* Bernie Sanders: Yes, Sanders has one volume: shouting. And, yes, he got tripped up a few times during the debate on his voting record -- especially on guns. But throughout the debate's first hour -- the hour when most people, especially on the East Coast and in the Midwest, were watching -- he was the prime mover in virtually every discussion from Wall Street reform to health care to climate change. He was on offense, accusing rival Hillary Clinton of half-measures and political caution at a moment when boldness is required.

Sanders held his own in the foreign-policy-focused second hour of the debate, something he had not done in debates past. And he had one of his best moments of the exchange at an unlikely time -- in response to a question about his criticism of Bill Clinton's past behavior. Sanders turned the question into one focused on how the campaign he is running is about policy, not personal differences -- to much applause.

More than anything he said, though, it was the passion and disruption that Sanders oozed from every pore over the two hours that should push Democrats on the fence about the race into his camp. Sanders effectively positioned himself as the anti-status-quo candidate, a very good position to have in this electoral environment.

Hillary
(snip)
So, why is she in the loser column? Because she did nothing in the debate to slow the momentum that Sanders is building in Iowa and New Hampshire. Aside from guns, where Clinton scored a clean hit on Sanders, she was unable to effectively cast him as a pie-in-the-sky idealist and herself as the only person who could truly fight -- and win -- for Democratic priorities.

Time and again, she found herself boxed into defending a status quo that the American public -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- are dissatisfied with. This tweet from the New York Times Nicholas Kristof perfectly captures that sentiment:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/17/winners-and-losers-from-the-4th-democratic-presidential-debate/?tid=sm_tw

January 18, 2016

Bernie Sanders rallying and adressing the people for a $15 minimum wage outside the debate(pics)

https://twitter.com/danmericaCNN

Breaking: @BernieSanders just addressed #FightFor15 protestors telling us he is with us to deafening cheers.
https://twitter.com/fightfor15

Breaking: #FightFor15 holding the street at #DemDebate



Thank you to these people and Bernie for fighting for 15
when we got 15 at my job, they cut our hours
We need to make sure this doesn't happen

January 18, 2016

Hours before debate, Sanders shares details of health plan that would raise income taxes

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders would raise income taxes across the board -- and by substantially more on high earners -- to pay for an ambitious single-payer health-care plan, under details released Sunday night.

Under the plan, which was outlined before a Democratic debate here, those making more than $250,000 a year would pay a top marginal income tax rate of 37 percent, up a few percentage points from what they now pay.

Those making more than $10 million a year would pay a new top rate of 52 percent -- significantly more than the current top rate of 39.6 percent.

A shift to Sanders’s “Medicare for all” program also would mean that Americans would pay a 2.2 percent health-care premium, calculated based on their federal income taxes. And employers would pay a new 6.2 percent payroll tax. Economists say payroll taxes are usually passed along to workers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/17/hours-before-debate-sanders-shares-details-of-health-plan-that-would-raise-income-taxes/

https://berniesanders.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Medicare-for-All.pdf