November 11, 2015

New McClatchy-Marist poll shows Bernie DESTROYING BOTH Bush AND Trump in Landslide Victories.

Check it out here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251795069

This looks very very good IMHO. K&R's would be most welcome.

November 11, 2015

McClatchy-Marist Poll: Bernie Sanders DESTROYS both Trump and Bush in Landslides.

Coat-tails baby.

In new shock poll, Sanders has landslides over both Trump and Bush
By Brent Budowsky, columnist * The Hill * Nov. 11, 2015

In a new McClatchy-Marist poll, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leads Republican candidate Donald Trump by a landslide margin of 12 percentage points, 53 to 41. In the McClatchy poll, Sanders also leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) by a landslide margin of 10 points, 51 to 41.

The huge Sanders advantage over Trump is not new. In the last four match-up polls between them reported by Real Clear Politics, Sanders defeated Trump by margins of 12, 9, 9 and 2 percentage points.

The huge Sanders advantage over Bush is new. In previous match-ups, the polling showed Sanders and Bush running virtually even, with Bush holding a 1-point lead over Sanders in most of the polls. Future polls will be needed to test whether the huge Sanders lead over Bush in the McClatchy poll will be repeated in future polling or whether the McClatchy poll is an outlier.

It is shocking that the data suggests that Sanders has a lead over Trump that could be SO HUGE that he would win a landslide victory in the presidential campaign, with margins that would almost certainly lead Democrats to regain control of the Senate and could help Democrats regain control of the House of Representative — if, of course, the three polls that show Sanders beating Trump by 9 to 12 points reflect final voting in the presidential election.

It would be equally shocking if future polling shows that the Sanders lead over Bush remains at landslide margins.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/259812-in-new-shock-poll-sanders-has-landslides-over-both

November 11, 2015

Harry Reid Joins Call For Obama To Take Action On Dark Money

I'd like to know where each of our 3 candidates in the Dem Primary stands on this.

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Harry Reid Joins Call For Obama To Take Action On Dark Money
Democrats and reform groups want the president to issue an executive order on campaign finance disclosure.
Paul Blumenthal * Nov. 11, 2015 * HuffPo

WASHINGTON -- Democratic lawmakers, joined for the first time by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), have a message for President Barack Obama: Sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political contributions, including those to groups not bound by campaign finance disclosure laws.

A video released on Wednesday by the liberal group American Family Voices shows 19 Democratic members of Congress reading a letter to the White House penned by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) back in June. Reid's appearance in the video is his first public statement urging the president to sign the executive order.

Reid’s endorsement of the movement, and the video, are part of a delivery of more than 800,000 petition signatures to the White House by groups supporting a political disclosure executive order that occurred on Tuesday. The groups include American Family Voices, Public Citizen, Every Voice, Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause, MoveOn.org and Sierra Club. Supporters are encouraged to call the White House to support the disclosure order.

Proponents of the order see it as a potential piece to the president’s fourth quarter agenda of executive actions. They argue it will allow Obama's administration to put a stamp on an issue that he has largely ignored, aside from opting out of public financing for his general election run in 2008, which helped increase the amount of money in politics.

“Their legacy on this issue is something that they haven’t established yet,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch.

November 11, 2015

Al Gore: "not ready for Hillary".

Al Gore is not ready for Hillary. At least, not yet.
By NICK GASS * 11/10/15 * Politico

"It's still too early, in my opinion, to endorse a candidate or pick a candidate," the former vice president told People magazine Tuesday in an interview to preview his 24-hour climate-change telethon, which starts on Friday.

Gore, who has in the past described Clinton as "extremely capable," went on to say that any predictions about how the race will turn out would be "premature," adding that the "election is still a full year away. I think I'll wait to wade into it."
The Democrats' 2000 nominee gave no indication that he would make another run for the White House himself.

"I have taken no steps whatsoever in the direction of a candidacy and my answer has been the same for 10 years now — or more — and you probably heard my answer before: I'm a recovering politician and the longer I go without a relapse, the less likely one becomes," he told the magazine.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/al-gore-hillary-clinton-215700#ixzz3r8lgMtGA

November 10, 2015

'Fifteen Bucks and a Union': Bernie Sanders Marches With Striking Workers

'Fifteen Bucks and a Union': Bernie Sanders Marches With Striking Workers
'Thank you all for coming out and standing up for justice, standing up for dignity, and for saying loudly and clearly that people in this country that work 40 hours a week deserve a living wage.'
Tuesday, November 10, 2015 * Common Dreams * by Nadia Prupis

As thousands of low-paid workers staged demonstrations across the U.S. on Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke to a Fight for $15 rally in Washington, D.C. to credit their movement with recent victories and reiterate his support for a $15 federal minimum wage.

"Thank you all for coming out and standing up for justice, standing up for dignity, and for saying loudly and clearly that people in this country that work 40 hours a week deserve a living wage," Sanders, who is running for president as a Democrat, told the crowd as they marched in the rain on Capitol Hill.

Among those who walked off the job on Tuesday to demand a livable wage and the right to unionize were U.S. Senate cafeteria workers, who are employed as federal contractors—which means they get few benefits and no bargaining rights.

"What you are doing and workers all over the United States are doing, you are having a profound impact," Sanders said. "People are raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. And you know who started it? You did. You started the movement."

"Now we've got to finish the job," he said. "Fifteen bucks and a union."

November 10, 2015

The BIG DIFFERENCE between Hillary & Bernie, that Clintonistas would rather not talk about

The BIG DIFFERENCE between Hillary and Bernie
By EuroYankee * Tuesday Nov 10, 2015 * Kos

No one begrudged the Roosevelts their wealth, nor the Kennedys theirs. Even Mitt Romney was generally considered to have “earned” his fortune. And Donald Trump has become famous almost solely for his success as a businessman. In other words, they “earned” their money in the American way.

But the Clintons? They are simply “America’s Political Family.” They have never done anything else. And yet they have parlayed their political connections into a fortune of $55 million, and they travel in the same circles as the Trumps and the Bushes, etc.. Indeed, it is now widely known that the Clintons went to Trump’s last wedding, and Trump’s daughter Ivanka is best friends with Chelsea Clinton.



And this brings us to the Big Difference. Bernie Sanders is a true believer. He is motivated by a genuine desire to help people, to speak truth to power, and as he says so often in his speeches, he wants to use his political position to “take on the billionaire class.”

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has used her political positions and connections to become PART of that “billionaire class.”

And that is, I think, why people in the US don’t like her. She literally embodies all that is wrong with the calcified, corrupt and money-driven political system that is running America today.

The Clintons and the Trumps are Good Friends

Please, please understand that the Clintons and the Trumps are all FRIENDS. Their children are BFFs and they swim in the same waters, go to the same restaurants, tan on the same beaches – and all rendezvous at Martha’s Vineyard, the Hamptons and so forth for recreation.

We need to break the grip of the ruling political elite – and that is what Bernie Sanders wants to do. Make no mistake – the “Billionaire Class” is a ruling elite in America, and it actually has its supporters among the American populace.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/10/1448117/-The-BIG-DIFFERENCE-between-Hillary-and-Bernie

November 7, 2015

10-DAYS! How long it takes Hillary to parrot Sanders, again. Now on marijuana

Hillary Clinton Calls for Easing Federal Restrictions on Marijuana
by ALEX SEITZ-WALD * NOV 7 2015, 4:58 PM ET * NBC

ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Hillary Clinton called for lowering the federal restrictions on marijuana research at a town hall meeting Saturday on the campus of Claflin University, a historically black university.

The Democratic presidential front-runner called for reclassifying the drug from Schedule 1, the most restrictive class that includes heroin, to Schedule 2.

"I do support the use of medical marijuana," she said. "And I think even there we need to do a lot more research so that we know exactly how we're going to help people for whom medical marijuana provides relief."

"I want to move from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 so researchers can research what's the best way to use it, dosage, how does it work with other medications," she added.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-calls-easing-federal-restrictions-marijuana-n459286

Here's Bernie's announcement on 10/28, 10-days ago, calling for legalization of weed:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bernie-sanders-end-marijuana-prohibition

That is EXACTLY how many days it took Hillary to suddenly "evolve" on Exxon .. unbelievable.
Bernie Calls for Fed. Probe on Exxon, 10-DAYS later, Hillary Parrots Bernie & Makes a Big Splash????
http://www.democraticunderground.com/128068140

November 6, 2015

Clinton's Attacks on Sanders' Gun Record Fly in Face of Her Own 2008 Campaign

Clinton's Attacks on Sanders' Gun Record Fly in Face of Her Own 2008 Campaign
Could Clinton's new stance be another example of political opportunism?
By Zaid Jilani * AlterNet * November 6, 2015

One area where Hillary Clinton has been able to present herself as further to the left of her Democratic primary rival is gun control. During the first primary debate, she assailed Bernie Sanders for his moderate pro-gun control record which included a vote against allowing lawsuits against gun manufacturers and gun shops. At one point during the debate, Sanders talked about a rural-urban divide among gun owners, claiming it must be bridged if we are to have sensible reforms. This drew rebukes from his opponents, Clinton and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley.

But though Clinton may now be a tough advocate of gun control, she wasn't touting the same lines in 2008. That year, she postured as being more of a moderate on gun issues. She highlighted her opponent Barack Obama's past support for handgun bans, and implied he was looking down on gun owners in a direct mail attack sent by her campaign:


At the same time, Clinton touted the same rural-urban divide in gun politics that Sanders talks about today. Here's an excerpt from her debate with Barack Obama where she cites that divide and recommends a state-by-state approach rather than a federal one:

Moderator: Well, with all due respect, I'm not sure I got an answer from Senator Obama, but do you still favor licensing and registration of handguns?

Clinton: What I favor is what works in New York. You know, we have a set of rules in New York City, and we have a totally different set of rules in the rest of the state. What might work in New York City is certainly not going to work in Montana. So for the federal government to be having any kind of, you know, blanket rules that they're going to try to impose I think doesn't make sense.

Moderator: But Senator, you were for that when you ran for Senate in New York.

Clinton: I was for the New York rules; that's right. I was for the New York rules, because they have worked over time. And there isn't a lot of uproar in New York about changing them, because I go to upstate New York, where we have a lot of hunters and people who are collectors and people who are sport shooters. They have every reason to believe that their rights are being respected....You walk down the street with a police officer in Manhattan, he wants to be sure that there is some way of protecting him and protecting the people that are in his charge.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/clintons-attacks-sanders-gun-record-fly-face-her-own-2008-campaign

November 6, 2015

TPP "Worse Than We Thought": A Total Corporate Power Grab Nightmare. <--Bernie is NOT the ONLY one.

But Bernie is, was -- and always has been -- unequivocally AGAINST the TPP disaster when others
were silent, or calling it a "gold standard". This cuts to the very heart of what true leadership is, or isn't.

Just in this one Common Dreams article, ALL these environmental and pro-democracy progressive groups
are going public, about how the actual TPP text is even WORSE than anyone ever imagined.
* Friends of the Earth
* Citizen's Global Trade Watch
* Global Justice Now
* Democracy for America
* Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
* Food & Water Watch
* Center for Food Safety
* Fight for the Future
* 350.org
* Sierra Club

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'Worse Than We Thought': TPP A Total Corporate Power Grab Nightmare
'President Obama has sold the American people a false bill of goods,' says Friends of the Earth
by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer * Common Dreams * Nov. 5, 2015

"Worse than anything we could've imagined."
"An act of climate denial."
"Giveaway to big agribusiness."
"A death warrant for the open Internet."
"Worst nightmare."
"A disaster."

As expert analysis of the long-shrouded, newly publicized TransPacific Partnership (TPP) final text continued to roll out on Thursday, consensus formed around one fundamental assessment of the 12-nation pact: It's worse than we thought. ~snip~

On issues ranging from climate change to food safety, from open Internet to access to medicines, the TPP "is a disaster," declared Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now.

"Now that we’ve seen the full text, it turns out the job-killing TPP is worse than anything we could’ve imagined," added Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America. "This agreement would push down wages, flood our nation with unsafe imported food, raise the price of life-saving medicine, all the while trading with countries where gays and single mothers can be stoned to death."

Major climate action groups, including 350.org and the Sierra Club, were quick to point out that the text was notable as much for what it didn't say as what for what it did. "The TPP is an act of climate denial," said 350 policy director Jason Kowalski on Thursday. "While the text is full of handouts to the fossil fuel industry, it doesn’t mention the words climate change once."

What it does do, however, is give "fossil fuel companies the extraordinary ability to sue local governments that try and keep fossil fuels in the ground," Kowalski continued. "If a province puts a moratorium on fracking, corporations can sue; if a community tries to stop a coal mine, corporations can overrule them. In short, these rules undermine countries’ ability to do what scientists say is the single most important thing we can do to combat the climate crisis: keep fossil fuels in the ground."

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/11/05/worse-we-thought-tpp-total-corporate-power-grab-nightmare

November 5, 2015

Bernie Sanders Now Has More Donors At This Point Than ANY Other Candidate In History

Bernie Sanders Now Has More Donors At This Point Than ANY Other Candidate In History
by Jason Easley * Thursday, November 5th, 2015 * Politicus

During an interview on NPR, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced that he now has more individual donors than any other candidate in history. (audio available at link below)

Sanders said, “When we began this campaign six months ago, I’d say that 80 percent of the American people did not know who Bernie Sanders was, what I stood for. First polls that I saw had us at three percent or five percent. We have come a very, very long way. We have hundreds of thousands of volunteers in fifty states in this country. We have received more individual contributions, 750,000, than any candidate in American history at this point in the campaign.”

The number of donors is impressive by any standard, but Sen. Sanders also addressed the question that will make or break his campaign. Sanders discussed how he planned to attract the support of African-American Democrats.

Sanders said, “If the elections were held today, just among the African-American vote, we would lose. But I think we have a real path to winning the support of the African-American community for two reasons. Number one, I’m just not well known in the African-American community… That’s just simply the truth. We have to do a lot better job in discussing my record which in the United States Congress is the strongest records of any member in terms of civil rights. Number two, I think even more importantly… the African-American community and the Latino community are struggling in a nation in which our middle class is struggling… the issues that we are focusing on, rebuilding the economy and in the process creating UP TO 13 million decent paying jobs, many of those jobs will be for minority communities. Making public colleges and universities tuition free will benefit everyone in America, but even more so, the African-American community.” ~snip~

To understand why it is important that Sanders has inspired over 750,000 people to donate to his campaign, one must view the Sanders campaign as a political movement. The Bernie Sanders movement isn’t going to end if he does not win the Democratic nomination. Even if he loses the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders will return to Washington as one of the most powerful leaders in the country.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/11/05/bernie-sanders-donors-point-candidate-history.html