Showing posts with label bernie sanders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bernie sanders. Show all posts

Friday, July 19, 2019

Sanders: Good For The Economy

if Sanders became president -- and was able to push his plan through Congress -- median household income would be $82,200 by 2026, far higher than the $59,300 projected by the Congressional Budget Office ...... poverty would plummet to a record low 6%, as opposed to the CBO's forecast of 13.9%. The U.S. economy would grow by 5.3% per year, instead of 2.1%, and the nation's $1.3 trillion deficit would turn into a large surplus by Sanders' second term. .... the share of the population with jobs could be restored to its 1999 level of more than 64%, up from its current 59.6% rate.


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Thursday, July 11, 2019

Bernie Is The John McCain Of The Left

Bernie Sanders is a maverick. More so than John McCain. Today anybody can be a Socialist. But Bernie was a Socialist during the Cold War! Imagine that. That's a maverick.

John McCain ran for president. Twice. He did not win. But he did build stature. He was in the Senate, but he was not just another Senator. I see the same thing happening to Bernie. He will not become Majority Leader. But his megaphone will be big. He will have a loud voice.

I don't see him winning the nomination. He lacks nuance. He stays blind to orchestrated targets. The moneyed interests send the media guys after him. He stays uninformed. He does not respond.

If the entire gamut of Democratic candidates is today talking about Medicare For All, it is because Bernie hammered the point in 2016. That's to his credit. That Bernie did so well in 2016 gave a lot of people confidence that perhaps Obamacare was just a stepping stone to Medicare For All. And there is broad public support. The idea is popular among Republicans.


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Wednesday, May 29, 2019

A Sanders-Warren Ticket



Two Out Of Three: Kamala, Andrew, Pete
2020: The Year Of The Social Democrat
Andrew Yang: Universal Basic Income, Elizabeth Warren: Wealth Tax
Biden's Lead Is Name Recognition




I am looking at these numbers and I am thinking, this is looking like a Sanders-Warren ticket. That would be a good ticket. Only a political earthquake of that magnitude could give America something like Medicare For All. And these two would also be winning candidates. They would not take punches lying down from the big bully.

I think it is important for the impressive Democratic roster to run a clean campaign. Do not engage in personal attacks. Run on the strength of your ideas. All the good ideas have to be hammered into the Democratic platform. Win or lose, Andrew Yang's idea of a Universal Basic Income has to make it through. Win or lose, Kamala Harris' idea of fining companies for paying women less for the same work has to make it through.

President: Bernie Sanders
Vice President: Elizabeth Warren
Secretary Of State: Kamala Harris
Secretary Of Labor: Andrew Yang
Secretary Of Urban Affairs: Pete Buttigieg
UN Ambassador: Tulsi Gabbard
Texas Governor: Beto O'Rourke
Chancellor Of The Obama Library: Joe Biden





DNC makes it more difficult to qualify for 3rd debate Unlike the first and second rounds of debates, when candidates must cross either a donor or polling threshold to qualify, candidates will need to surpass both bars to make the stage for the third and fourth debates. For the September event, candidates will have to hit 2 percent in four qualifying polls, versus 1 percent in three polls for the first debates, and they will need 130,000 individual donors, up from 65,000.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019

2020: The Year Of The Social Democrat

2020 is going to be the year of the Social Democrat. The New Democrat reign lasted from 1992 to 2016. Now the mainstream talk inside the Democratic Party is that of the Social Democrat. The most popular ideas are those pushed by the Social Democrats.

Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival

The New Democrat claimed to have moved to "the center," wherever that was, whatever latitude and longitude. The Social Democrat has a strong, uncompromising focus on human capital and the environment, is unapologetic about tackling inequality. But the Social Democrat also must have an energized sense of the role of tech entrepreneurship in the solutions of tomorrow. In that sense, the Social Democrat occupies the revitalized center. The Social Democrat is not giving a leftward lurch to the party and abandoning all hopes of victory.

Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival

The Universal Basic Income that Andrew Yang is talking about only truly works the way it is supposed to work when new technology has given the economy massive increases in productivity. In one projection the US starts seeing annual growth rates of 50%. You can not talk down those tech entrepreneurs. They are part of the solution.

Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival

The wealth tax that Elizabeth Warren is talking about is the saving grace for capitalism. Inequality is as much an existential threat as climate change. 


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Andrew Yang: Universal Basic Income, Elizabeth Warren: Wealth Tax

Andrew Yang is not a one trick pony, although he almost exclusively talks about the Universal Basic Income. His website has the richest policy proposals of any candidate with the possible exception of Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren's central idea is the idea of the wealth tax. I fully support. These are two ideas that can not lose, no matter if Andrew Yang and Elizabeth Warren win or not.

That is why the presidential campaign is so important. That is why the debates are so important. These two ideas have to be hammered into the political discourse.

Bernie Sanders, similarly, talks about Medicare For All. Many candidates do. But Bernie has been the most vocal. He was talking about it also in 2016. This is also an idea I like. Obviously, three people are not going to win. There will eventually be only one winner.

But all three of these ideas must win.

And there is the Green New Deal. It is not a specific idea right now. It is more of a conversation. It is more the outlines of a paradigm. And the face associated with it is not even running, can't run. But it is the biggest idea of all. And it also must win. All four ideas must win.

The one who will win will win. But the campaign has to be conducted in such a respectful way that all the candidates together build a platform that includes these wonderful ideas.




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Monday, May 20, 2019

US China Trade War: A Meeting Of The Hot And Cold Fronts

At some level, it feels like the current US-China trade war was inevitable. It would have happened no matter who had been president. It is as if a hot front and a cold front that were moving towards each other finally met. It has been a tectonic shift perhaps, and not the whim of a whimsical president.

Donald Trump ran for president as a white supremacist. A white supremacist is not attempting to be fair. He is attempting to establish or retain supremacy, or hegemony. The migrant on the Mexican border might not have the power. But China is a similar size economy. White supremacist thinking, meet China!

It is true the US has lost a big chunk of its manufacturing base. But then there was a time when the US also lost a large chunk of its agricultural jobs. Absent sound analysis and a vision for a transition, the blame game fills the vacuum. China did it! Something fundamental is happening. The solution lies along the lines of what Andrew Yang and Bernie Sanders are suggesting. You have to give everyone a Universal Basic Income. Because, if anything, automation is about to accelerate. Retraining is not going to do it. You have to make health care universal. You have to invest in human capital. But all this is Spanish to Donald Trump. He started by blaming Mexican immigrants and ended up at China. Well, looks like China is no pushover.

If the US is running trade deficits not only with China but also Germany, maybe one has to point out that Germany is a democracy like the US, it is a market economy like the US. What's going on? The US trade deficit with Germany is wider.

Almost 160 million people from outside visited China last year. And over 120 million Chinese went abroad and chose to come back. That proves China is not North Korea. On the other hand, obviously, China lacks free speech. They say you are free to speak your mind on most things, just don't challenge the political monopoly of the Chinese Communist Party.

Every surveillance opportunity modern technology throws in the air, the Chinese police jumps at it. There is no counterbalancing force to question that tendency.

There are reports that close to a million ethnic Muslims in the west of China might have been detained for "retraining" purposes. These are likely not vocational training camps. At vocational training camps, you are free to move in and out. China goes unchallenged when it does something like that. Challenging China on trade is perhaps an indirect way of challenging China on the ethnic Muslims. At some point it was inevitable it was going to happen.

The South China Sea is a sore spot. That is where China's exports and imports pass through. And so it is understandable China is paranoid about the South China Sea. But that is why you cooperate on freedom of navigation. But China talks like the South China Sea were a Chinese province. Talk about clashing worldviews. This tension could have been contained in the South China Sea for only so long. At some point, it was going to spill over into something like trade. And now we have it.

And it is also just competition. The two leading economies are competing. Instead of killing the World Trade Organization, they could help reimagine it. Trump's white supremacist fantasy to bark at China to scare the smaller trade partners into submission is not healthy for world trade. And he might not even be around in 2021. The word is, winter is coming. The US is expected to see a recession by 2020. Recessions are not known for reelections.

New Twist In The Trade War: China Devalues Its Currency


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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Bernie Is Leading

And taking AOC around the country like she were his running mate!


Ronald Reagan also ran and lost one time. Then he ran again four years later.

Bernie is in better physical shape than Ronald. Because Bernie runs. Not run for president, which he does. But run as in jogging.

Bernie also has some other parallels with Ronald Reagan. He is very, very clear about a few basic things that also happen to be fundamental. That clarity comes from deep conviction.

He is a breath of fresh air.

It was Bernie who put Medicare For All on the national map. Now every Democrat running is for it. That is an achievement. It just makes sense. Medicare For All is arithmetic.

So right now it is looking like:

President: Bernie Sanders
Vice President: Kamala Harris
Fall 2020 Campaigner: AOC
UN Ambassador: Tulsi Gabbard
Secretary Of Labor: Andrew Yang
Texas Governor: Beto
Senate Majority Leader: Elizabeth Warren
Secretary Of Urban Affairs: Pete

Trump predicts 'Crazy Bernie Sanders,' 'Sleepy Joe Biden' will be 2 Dem 'finalists' in 2020 race
The 2020 Race Is Going Just Like Bernie Sanders Wanted The senator from Vermont is starting to think he will not only win the Democratic nomination, but beat Trump and become president...... The campaign is moving toward its internal $280 million target and savoring polls that have Sanders just behind Joe Biden, whom Sanders and his team expect will only go down once he gets in the race. The number of candidates keeps growing, lowering how many people it would take to come in first, beyond the 15 percent to 20 percent of primary voters who will stick with him no matter what...... Americans want Medicare for All, but are just anxious that Sanders wouldn’t be able to manage that or any of the other big changes that he’s promising. They believe a tightly-run campaign would demonstrate that he could run the country, too. .... he’s the only candidate with a sizable chunk of the electorate that won’t waver, no matter what, so a field that keeps growing and splitting support keeps making it easier...... Medicare for All has become a litmus test for many progressives, as has free public college tuition. ...... there was a band of young white guys in hockey jerseys playing a song about “cosmic dust” ahead of the Pittsburgh rally and staffing tables of merchandise with Sanders as a Sesame Street character and “Let it FUCKING Bern” written over a picture of a marijuana leaf

When Trump is calling Bernie "crazy," he is talking about Bernie's Einstein hair.



Bernie Sanders Imagines a Progressive New Approach to Foreign Policy Sanders had scarcely talked about foreign affairs in his 2016 campaign, but his framework had a natural extensibility. Under way in the world was a simple fight, Sanders said. On one side were oligarchs and the right-wing parties they had managed to corrupt. On the other were the people. ....... He begins the 2020 Presidential campaign not as a gadfly but as a favorite, which requires a comprehensive vision among voters of how he would lead the free world. ..... “reconceptualize a global order based on human solidarity.” ..... In 2016, he had asked voters to imagine how the principles of democratic socialism could transform the Democratic Party. Now he was suggesting that they could also transform how America aligns itself in the world..... Basic impression: same guy. ....... “How many people in the United States understand that we overthrew a democratically elected government in Iran to put in the Shah? ...... One condition that Americans had not digested was the bottomlessness of inequality. ....... “Twenty-six of the wealthiest people on earth own more wealth than the bottom half of the world’s population. Did you know that? ..... “twenty-six people, 3.6 billion people. How grotesque is that?” ...... “When I talk about income inequality and talk about right-wing authoritarianism, you can’t separate the two.” ....... his thesis had always been that money corrupted politics, and now he was tracing the money back overseas ...... as emergencies in Libya, Syria, and Yemen have deepened, the reputation of Obama’s foreign policy, and of the foreign-policy establishment more broadly, has diminished ....... She and others now see in Sanders something that they didn’t in 2016: a clear progressive theory of what the U.S. is after in the world. “I think he’s bringing those views on the importance of tackling economic inequality into foreign policy ........There has been, he went on, “a bipartisan assumption that we’re supposed to love Saudi Arabia and hate Iran. And yet, if you look at young people in Iran, they are probably a lot more pro-American than Saudis. ...... But they also have more democracy, as a matter of fact, more women’s rights, than does Saudi Arabia...... Sanders seemed to oscillate between proposing a characteristically transformational reimagining of American policy at the grandest scale and, in specific cases, more complicated approaches ...... In Sanders’s account of global affairs, Americans have been as likely to be villains as heroes. Six trillion dollars had now been spent on the war on terror since 2001. “It’s an unbelievable amount of money,” he said. “Is this going to go on forever?” Seven hundred billion dollars was being sent annually to the military, he noted. “Do we really need to spend more than the next ten nations combined on the military, when our infrastructure is collapsing and kids can’t afford to go to college?” ......... whether the most powerful nation on earth is excessively capitalist or sufficiently democratic....... whether the existential challenges of climate change create a moral imperative for deep structural reforms, including the abolition of the filibuster and the Electoral College ....... it was hard to see much evidence for the global popular movement against the right that he hoped to ignite. ...... That is the optimistic scenario: that climate change will bring about a new spirit of international coöperation........ Power revealed steeliness in Obama, and an instinct for the consensus, and caution. ..... he has bent the Party’s policies and priorities so that they largely match his. ...... the fiery-sermonizer figure is in retreat, and he is sounding notes of caution. Most of the other Democrats running for President have embraced broad structural reforms: the Electoral College must go, and perhaps the filibuster. Not Sanders. On Palestine, he now invokes the tradition of Carter and Clinton. If the newer candidates must demonstrate and defend their beliefs, then Sanders is undertaking a more subtle task, in trying to accomplish a turn in his public character as he nears eighty: to extricate the person from the ideology, and to suggest that he is not just a revolutionary but also a safe pair of hands.
Bernie Sanders acknowledges 'serious problem' at the border, demands 'sensible immigration reform'
This is how Bernie Sanders thinks about foreign policy The senator wants to create a global democratic movement to end oligarchy and authoritarianism..... has a consistent foreign policy thesis: income inequality and authoritarianism are intricately linked. .......... Create a global democratic movement that counters authoritarian leaders from Russia to Saudi Arabia as a way to improve the lives of billions around the world....... “The United States must seek partnerships not just between governments, but between peoples” ...... the senator explained that the US shouldn’t pick sides in ongoing geopolitical feuds, like Saudi Arabia vs. Iran or Israelis vs. Palestinians. ..... Musgrave had the same concern. “Financial firms in London, Geneva, and New York, including their intermediaries in places like the Caymans and the Channel Islands, play a big role in helping to preserve international oligarchs’ wealth,” he told me. “Presumably a President Sanders could deal with New York’s role in domestic politics — but how would he seek to shut down other countries’ financial networks?” ...... Sanders seems to think authoritarianism and oligarchy cause most of the world’s problems. “It comes a little close to a ‘Theory of Everything’” ...... When he was in the House of Representatives in 1998, Sanders famously grilled then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin on IMF loans to repressive governments. And in 2015, he blasted the IMF for imposing austerity measures on Greece as a condition to receive economic aid during its financial crisis. ...... “At a time of grotesque wealth inequality, the pensions of the people in Greece should not be cut even further to pay back some of the largest banks and wealthiest financiers in the world.” ...... “It’s a vision in which international economics would be subordinated to a vision of political relations and human rights that would be as big a departure from Clintonism as Trumpism, just in a different direction,” Musgrave said.
Bernie faces voters in the heart of Trump country
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Thursday, February 07, 2019

The 2020 Season Is Warren, Harris And AOC

It is good so many people are running. It is good that both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, one a socialist, another not a socialist, are running. It is extremely good that it has become normal for a woman to run for president. Two of them are showing really good numbers so far: Warren and Harris.

But the big deal is the Green New Deal. First AOC said a 70% tax on incomes over 10 million. Makes sense to me. It is not that you pay 70% on your entire income when you make 10 million. You only pay 70% for income past 10 million. I don't know about you, but I think that would be a nice problem to have. Why is anyone complaining? Then Warren proposed a wealth tax. Is it 2%? That is minuscule. Long past due. Bernie proposed yet another.

It is capitalism, not socialism, that asks that the gap between the rich and the poor not get too wide. Too wide and the wheels don't grind like they need to.

Trump is looking suspect. Will Mueller merely be background noise for the next two years? Or will Trump be toppled and Pence be beaten in 2020? He almost lost the Senate on the Wall and shutdown issue. It happened fast. If enough Senate Republicans nod, he is gone.

His handling of the shutdown reflects upon the trade war with China. If you were going to take the December deal anyways, why engage in the shutdown? If you were going to take the Chinese offer to get them to buy more soybeans (and a few other things), why create the drama?

Will Trump be impeached? If not, will he be beaten? Which Democrat will win? Will it be a Warren-Harris ticket with Sanders helping hone the basic message? AOC will loom large without even running. If she can get the young people to vote, the Democrats win easy.

Too young to run in 2020, AOC is going to be the most exciting figure in 2020. I can see her crisscrossing the country on behalf of the ticket once the primaries are over. If it is a Warren-Harris in 2020, AOC gets 2028 for Green New Deal 2.0.

AOC represents a generation that did not contribute to the global warming crisis but is set to suffer all its consequences. Howard Dean did not become president. But Deaniac Obama did. Bernie is not going to win, but AOC will carry his torch. It is not capitalism, it is not socialism, it is not this or that. It is a new label. It is a bartender millennial rising up to the challenge. It is a new political outlook (not even ideology) that is to herald the new Age of Abundance.

Harris is Left Coast.

Women have been kept away from the White House for so long, it feels like one woman getting in for one time is not going to be enough. Warren, Harris, and AOC are three generations of women.






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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Education And Health: The Costs Are Supposed To Go Down

If you own a smartphone today you look a millionaire to people from the ancient era of 1969-1989. Your smartphone has a ton of free stuff all of which used to cost a ton of money, if the services were even available, that is.

The entire world is to enter a knowledge economy. Lifelong education has to become true for all human beings.

When you say that some people start doing their back of the envelope math and start seeing a bill for tens of trillions, money that they claim does not exist.

They are thinking in terms of a million dollars worth of services. They are not thinking in terms of a smartphone.

Costs are supposed to go down dramatically, for both education and health. The Internet is the new classroom. All textbooks and lectures are to be digital and mostly free.

There has to be education in every language. Artificial Intelligence will make everything available in every other language. There will not be a total emphasis on literacy. Where literacy does not cover the ground, oral will do.

With a tablet and internet access you should be able to get a high school anywhere.

Teachers don't go away. People are not meant to go away. Human interactions are a big part of the education process.

There is a need for a fundamental rethink. Human capital is the very center of hypercapitalism.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2016

BNN: Bernie News Network

Bernie Sanders should launch a news network. It might not even be cable. It could be a YouTube channel. Considering his crowd is a social media crowd. But it has to be a for profit corporation. It has to be an act of entrepreneurship.

The reason Trump is so buoyant is because he does not feel like he is losing. Trump was never a real estate guy. That was his father. And the world knows Trump is not much of a public policy guy either. Trump has been a brand builder. He has been building that one word: Trump. That's his track record. If you are Donald Trump, you have never been more successful before. Right after he won the Republican nomination he said as much: "This is not about the Republican Party. This is about me."

Trump has been sizing up his crowd. He thinks there are 10-20 million people in the country who can’t get enough of him. That would be enough to sustain a cable news network. That's a billion dollar empire right there. Who says Trump is losing? Or so Trump thinks.

Nothing wrong with launching a cable news network. Except this so called white nationalism is plain ignorant racism. One should take pride in language, culture, religion, heritage. That's positive, that is legitimate nationalism. But hatred and bigotry is not nationalism. But free speech is free speech.

The Bernie crowd needs to run for public office at all levels. And it needs a news channel of its own. It can be set up for little on YouTube. A small staff feeding on a decentralized network of volunteers could do it. The thing is on YouTube there is no limit to how much you can upload, and people can watch on their own schedules. A 10 million strong crowd would bring bumper profits to the ad supported YouTube channel.

This is the crowd that will put in place the Universal Basic Income. This is not the socialism crowd. This is the hypercapitalism crowd that puts human capital, financial capital and technological capital on equal pedestal.

The world is about to enter an era of unprecedented productivity gains, largely technology driven. Jobs disappearing is great news. But there has to be accompanying political innovation. Considering where America can be in 2050, America is Third World today.  

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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

The Bernie Crowd Needs To Get In Line

The time to show enthusiasm is now. It is not about making the right noise. It is about getting things done. How much gets done is in direct proportion to the size of the mandate in November. Don't walk away now and in a year complain you are not getting it. Exhibit political literacy. Prepare to run for public office at all levels in all 50 states. That is what idealism looks like. But don't be walking away now. Every Democrat in over a hundred years has run against a Republican but this is the first time a Democrat has the option to kill the Republican Party. But it will not happen without total unity. There is a very real chance of Dems taking the House. If you want stuff done, get the House.

Show some sportsmanship. Bernie lost. But his agenda did not lose. His ideas carry on. But the government machinery asks for a mandate, or the levers don't move.

Not lukewarm unity, but total unity, enthusiastic unity. If you want to see things happen.

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Sunday, July 24, 2016

Warren Did Not Run, Bernie Did Not Win

The left and the center are together under the Democratic Party umbrella. The Clintons forged the New Democratic formula after the party had become lifeless for being too taken by the pure left. They dread going back there. Even if the ground reality has changed.

The Bernie crowd has had to google the word socialism. This is the crowd that will deliver the Universal Basic Income. This crowd will steer the conversation from liquid water physics to steam physics.

You do that by running for office at all levels. That is the only way.

Hillary won. She picked who she wanted to pick. That is what winning means. You get to pick.

For now the best bet progressives have is to work towards a large mandate. I hope Warren goes to every state.

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Friday, July 01, 2016

Sanders Lost

His attempt to get 100% of his ideas onto the party platform is sexist, in that he is refusing to face the fact that he lost.

Sanders is itching for a convention fight

On the other hand, this pressure makes sure Elizabeth Warren makes it to the ticket. Warren was the first choice for people who rallied to Bernie and Bernie knows it.

If Bernie wants as much of his ideas to see the light of day as possible, he should do the opposite of what he is doing. He should get 200% behind Hillary and Warren.

How Tim Kaine went from 'wild card' vice presidential pick to shortlist favorite for Hillary Clinton

Right now Hillary is leading in all battleground states, is the only one with a ground game, and could put the South into play.

With Warren Hillary gets a unified convention, 300 million in grassroots money, a disappeared Bernie, and a chunk of Republican women. Without Warren she is looking at a fractured convention.

Deliver the House to Hillary Warren to effectively fight global warming.

Forget Terrorism, Republicans Are America’s Greatest Existential Threat. Americans face greater threats of extreme weather, seal level rise, water scarcity, heat waves, and wildfires, and biological systems disturbance.


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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Warren Would Be A Good Pick

Bernie Sanders floats Elizabeth Warren as possible VP

Warren would bring all the crazy millennials, lefties, revolutionaries, and socialists on board. It would be like Bernie minus the penis. Besides, that crowd is the future. It is destined to go from strength to strength.

With Warren on board, you will see a lot of Republican women ditch the party, what with a dick on the ticket!

The ticket just might manage to take back the House.

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Monday, April 11, 2016

Hillary Clinton: Nothing To Do With The Panama Papers

The Liberals of the Bernie brand have plenty of good things to talk about, plenty of legitimate points to make. Excuse me if English is not my first language, but is this the left wing pulling a right wing? Blaming Hillary for Panama, of all things? I am calling this facts-free sexism, completely unhinged from facts and logic.

Liberals and the New Democrats should compete, as they are, but they should do so cleanly, and with the ultimate goals of working together for the greater cause. Liberals should make an effort to remember why they used to lose elections all the time, and the New Dems should face the fact that the ground reality is not as desperate as it was in 1991, and bolder moves are now possible.

And, by the way, I am for free trade, I always have been. Blaming free trade for the loss of American jobs is like blaming China's strong economy for the fact that America is not doing better, when the fact is China saved America big time in 2008. Free trade can be better architected, but don't blame the poor in poor countries because you can't get organized better and get your government to invest more in your education and health.

The Sanders campaign should focus on getting deeper into the policies, and crunching the numbers, and better organizing the supporters. There are obscure, underpaid academics who have already written detailed policy papers of the journal article quality for everything Sanders has proposed, I am sure. The Sanders campaign just needs to go find them. Talk numbers but also talk slogans. Present the investments in education and health in the context of the larger budget. How you would tweak it, things like that.

Linking Hillary to Panama is a mirror image of the right wing blaming Hillary for Benghazi. It is like there is this small patch of land somewhere in Latin America where Islamist terrorists and American far right militia gather and train each other on warfare.

The Bernie campaign does not need that if it wants to actually make change happen. This path burns bridges.

I actually happen to think much of what Bernie wants can happen. But you do have to do the work. You do have the get into the nitty gritty, you do have to crunch the numbers, you do have to tweak the budget, you do have to build coalitions. Mostly you do have to better organize. Build a grasseroots structure to survive.

Hillary In The News
A Strong Critique Of Sanders From A Very Smart Liberal
The New Democrat Philosophy Vs The Liberal Philosophy
Hillary's Narrow Lead
A Close Race
This Might Not Go Well
Bernie: The Progressive Ronald Reagan?
Bernie II?
One Person, One Vote, One Voice Democracy And America And The Democratic Party
White House, Senate, House, 2016


She's Not With Us
She's not with us!!!!
Posted by Liberal Rhetoric Click on Friday, April 8, 2016
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Saturday, April 09, 2016

A Strong Critique Of Sanders From A Very Smart Liberal

Sanders Over the Edge by Bernie Sanders
he seemed to go for easy slogans over hard thinking. ...... Predatory lending was largely carried out by smaller, non-Wall Street institutions like Countrywide Financial; the crisis itself was centered not on big banks but on “shadow banks” like Lehman Brothers that weren’t necessarily that big. .......

Yet going on about big banks is pretty much all Mr. Sanders has done.

....... this absence of substance beyond the slogans seems to be true of his positions across the board. ..... a politician’s policy specifics are often a very important clue to his or her true character — I warned about George W. Bush’s mendacity back when most journalists were still portraying him as a bluff, honest fellow, because I actually looked at his tax proposals ...... Given her large lead in delegates — based largely on the support of African-American voters, who respond to her pragmatism because history tells them to distrust extravagant promises — Mrs. Clinton is the strong favorite for the Democratic nomination......

The Sanders campaign has brought out a lot of idealism and energy that the progressive movement needs.



I guess arithmetic is necessary. You do have to start and end with slogans. But there is that territory where you have to end up with concrete proposals, and see how you will make the budget work. I think many of Bernie's ideas actually are workable. But perhaps the policy work has not been done. It does not even have to be the campaign. I would be surprised if some obscure academic has not worked them out on his own.

I wish there were a way to fuse the idealism many of Bernie's young supporters feel and bring them about into governance. Part of that is a back and forth about becoming better educated about the political process. But the legroom is more than the New Democrat thinking of 1992 will have us believe.

I have not been following this election too closely. I definitely have not read up deeply on the various policy proposals.

FDR would send out the Labor leaders, go build the pressure on me. The idealists of today could perform a similar role. 
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The New Democrat Philosophy Vs The Liberal Philosophy

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Official White House photo of Preside...
English: Official White House photo of President Bill Clinton, President of the United States. Русский: Президент США Билл Клинтон,официальное фото Белого Дома. Ελληνικά: Επίσημη φωτογραφία Λευκού Οίκου του Προέδρου Μπιλ Κλίντον, Προέδρου των ΗΠΑ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Clintons came to power in 1992 selling what was known as the New Democrat philosophy. It was about moving to the center. It was ditching some of what was called the liberal baggage, both socially and on economic matters. Dems were also going to be tough on crime, Dems were also going to cut taxes. The Democrats had been out of power for so long, so consistently that a desperate party went for it. And Bill Clinton won two elections. It is true the black community also was lifted as the rising tide seemed to be lifting all boats.

But now that necessity is not there. The Dems will win in November no matter who the Republican nominee is and no matter who the Dem nominee is. The New Democrat compulsion like in 1992 is not there.

Bernie Sanders was a Liberal before, during and after 1992. He stayed a Liberal all along. He is a conviction Liberal. He is so Liberal, he refused to be a Democrat that entire time.

Is this a fight to finish where one philosophy wins and another loses but lives to see perhaps another day? Or is there a fusion possible? Could the New Democrat philosophy and the Liberal philosophy melded into one? Will an attempt be made?

Bill Clinton's outburst at the Black Lives Matter protesters was partly a calculated move to try and grab the liberal white voters, especially in his age group. But it might primarily have been a New Democrat knowing no other way. And it was partly also Bill Clinton liking some attention.

But at some level Bill Clinton fundamentally missed the point. The BLM movement is pointing at a structural problem in the country's criminal justice system.


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Friday, April 08, 2016

Hillary's Narrow Lead

Bernie has won many states in a row, and Hillary's already narrow lead among elected delegates has become narrower. But what if it gets narrower still at the end of the day, but Bernie does not surpass it? Then the superdelegates could stay with Hillary, and that gives her a huge lead, and she is the nominee. And that is the most likely scenario right now, unless Bernie wins California by a wide, wide margin. More likely, New York and California cancel each other out. Hillary carries New York by 10% and loses California by 10%.

Bernie, in that scenario, will have shaped the race, shaped the party, shaped the platform, energized the young voters mostly, but does that mean the two end up on the same ticket, kind of like Reagan and Bush in 1980? If the race stays close, that is a plausible scenario. Such a ticket would make the party strong in November.




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A Close Race

Here’s How Bernie Sanders Could Win the Nomination
The worst is over for Bernie Sanders. The primaries in the South are finished ..... The preponderance of delegates will be from the diverse, affluent, blue states along or near the coasts, like California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and the District of Columbia. ...... his two weaknesses: diversity and affluence. ...... The metropolitan East Coast and coastal California are among the most affluent regions of the country. Mr. Sanders has struggled in places with high median incomes, even when those areas have a liberal reputation — like Boston or Northern Virginia, which anchor both ends of the Northeast megalopolis. ...... Mr. Sanders isn’t likely to win big in California, either. ..... he might still need to win California by more than 100 delegates, or at least 20 points, to close Mrs. Clinton’s delegate lead. ......

It requires Mr. Sanders to win in places where so far he has tended to lose, and often by a lot.

New York Democratic Polls 2016: Clinton’s Lead Grows
Bernie Sanders has won seven of the last eight nominating contests, but early polling shows he faces a big challenge in New York. ....... There are 247 delegates at stake in the New York primary and the delegates are divided proportionally based on the results.
Bernie v. Hillary
Bernie Sanders is surging in California ..... The poll shows Sanders has more support among voters younger than 40, while older voters prefer Clinton, who also has the overwhelming support of African-American voters. ..... June 7 Democratic primary
Superdelegates could jump Clinton ship: James Robbins
But Democratic-establishment delegates not likely to 'Feel the Bern' unless Hillary faces an indictment. ...... The superdelegate system is working exactly the way it was intended: to empower Democratic party insiders and beat down anti-establishment challengers. ..... Hillary Clinton holds a commanding 669 delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, 1739 to 1070 .... most of her lead comes from the 473 theoretically unpledged super delegates who have lined up behind her. Take them out of the equation and the race is much tighter. Switch them to Sanders and he is the front-runner. ..... ashington state. Bernie Sanders won a blowout victory with 73% of the vote. Yet Clinton can claim 10 of the state’s 17 unpledged delegates, or almost 60%. Is this unfair? Yes, but it is unfairness by design. ...... In most cases, superdelegates are superfluous. ...... In April 1992, poor showings by Bill Clinton in the Wisconsin and New York primaries kept many superdelegates on the sidelines, and there was speculation that the Democrats might face a brokered convention. It all sounds vaguely familiar. ...... Superdelegates lined up early behind Clinton in 2008 as well, but left the fold for Barack Obama as her campaign faltered
Clinton moves goalposts again; girds for New York battle
The campaign is now taking an even longer view, with April now being the month they hope to put Sanders away. ..... She leads Sanders 54% to 42% ...... To take on Sanders in New York, Clinton will cast the Vermont senator as an overly-idealistic, pie-in-the-sky lawmaker who won't be able to achieve many of the things he is proposing. ..... "Some of his ideas for how to get here won't pass, other just won't work, because the numbers just don't add up and that means people won't get the help that they need and deserve," Clinton said to applause from the audience at the Apollo Theater...... "Now my opponent says 'well, we just aren't thinking big enough,'" Clinton added. "Well, this is New York, nobody dreams bigger than we do. But this is a city that likes to get things done. And that is what we want from our president, too."
Obama gets candid about Hillary Clinton's candidacy
the President making the case that it was near time for the party to rally around Clinton and prepare for a tough general election context. .... "He talked about how some people are not excited about her candidacy.
Donald Trump on Elizabeth Warren: 'Who's that, the Indian?'
"His insecurities are on parade," she wrote minutes earlier, "petty bullying, attacks on women, cheap racism, flagrant narcissism." ..... Last Monday, Warren on Facebook called Trump "a bigger, uglier threat every day that goes by."...... "It's time for decent people everywhere -- Republican, Democrat, Independent -- to say No More Donald," she continued. "There's no virtue in silence."
John Kerry: U.S. presidential race 'embarrassing'
Secretary of State John Kerry called the state of the U.S. presidential race "embarrassing" and says he is regularly asked about the election in meetings abroad. ...... "Every meeting I have, everywhere, people are asking what is happening with the United States, 'What are you doing to yourselves?' " ...... President Barack Obama seconded Kerry's sentiment in remarks Tuesday, saying foreign impressions of the GOP race were damaging the United States' reputation. ...... "I'm getting questions constantly from foreign leaders about some of the wackier suggestions that are being made," Obama said during an appearance in the White House briefing room. "I have to emphasize that it's not just (Donald) Trump's proposals. You are also hearing concerns about (Texas Sen. Ted) Cruz's proposals, which in some ways are just as draconian when it comes to immigration." ...... Later, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the damage has come in the form of less productive meetings with foreign leaders, who are intent on hearing Obama or Kerry explain the political battle. ....... The business mogul turned politician also called NATO "obsolete" and said member states "should start paying their fair share."
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This Might Not Go Well



In purely academic terms, three strikes and you are out is not bad if applied to violent crimes, but a fundamentally racist criminal justice system applying that to minor drug offenses is obviously racist and obviously wrong. One dollar can safely be leveraged to 1,000, done right, forget 30, which is where the market crashed in 2008, and ultimately all money everywhere and all monetary transactions will reside on one single, global blockchain, just like there is but one internet, but right now Bill Clinton's mixing up the banks in, I believe, 1999 gets blamed for 2008. W spending a trillion on tax cuts, another three trillion or so on Iraq and Afghanistan, and sending all sorts of wrong signals to Wall Street on greed (how do you outlaw the sin of greed?) is not talked about. But right now even a gifted politician like Bill Clinton comes across as tone deaf on these two issues. In 1992 the Sister Souljah comments was designed to grab the white votes. It might be a similar attempt now, but the ground has shifted. White liberals are not too keen on subtle racial messages that point the other way.

This move might have been a mistake. Or perhaps Bill Clinton is reading the writing on the wall, and is not liking it. The race was not supposed to be neck and neck. A New York primary was not supposed to ever matter. But this time the New York primary might decide who the next president is. Stranger things are known to happen.

But Black Lives Matter is not about Bill Clinton. Well, maybe now it is. Bill Clinton ran as a New Democrat, which basically was elbowing the Liberal, and it worked, but now that Liberal seems to be in vogue.



Bill Clinton needs to go away: Why his presidency has become a political liability
In a widely circulated video yesterday, Clinton defended programs that have ballooned both prison and poverty rates
Bill Clinton is no doubt his wife’s double-edged sword: Though he is among the most charismatic politicians of his era, he’s also prone to saying things that make campaign life rather awkward. The big problem, however, isn’t just that Bill Clinton can’t keep his mouth shut. It’s that his right-leaning New Democrat policy record is a bad fit for today’s liberal politics. ...... Yesterday, speaking in Philadelphia, Clinton responded to protesters by defending two now-very-controversial bills that he signed into law: The 1994 Crime Bill, widely criticized for fueling mass incarceration, and so-called welfare reform, which dramatically reduced poor families’ access to cash aid. ..... At the same time, he insisted that Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with either. And that gets at one of her campaign’s unshakeable dilemmas: They are running on what’s still popular about the Clinton years and trying run away from what’s not. That, of course, is impossible. And in Philadelphia, the balancing act tripped as a frustrated Bill Clinton lashed out at protesters with a full-throated recourse to throwback war-on-crime rhetoric. ..... what’s most remarkable is that Clinton made a case for the laws that just doesn’t add up. On the Crime Bill, he blamed Republicans for the the “increased sentencing provisions,” and said that the law created “a 25-year low in crime” and a 33-year low in the “murder rate.”..........Protesters, he said, were “afraid of the truth” for not letting him speak. But the truth is not what Clinton was speaking...... The number of those living in extreme poverty has skyrocketed since 1996. .....

Hillary Clinton can’t get around running as the Clinton Administration’s second coming.

Though her camp likes to protest that holding her to account for anything she endorsed during the Clinton presidency is unfair, it’s actually appropriate in a purported democracy that has proven itself prone to the allure of political dynasty. Times have changed, and many Democratic voters don’t want to go back to the 1990s. And Hillary Clinton has to answer for it. ....... Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign has been so shockingly successfully precisely because he’s been able to exploit this dissonance.

On welfare cuts, which he voted against and described as a bigoted assault on the poor

, that’s easy. ...... Sanders, however, has said that he did so because it included the Violence Against Women Act, and he did vocally criticize incarceration as a policy solution: “We can either educate or electrocute,” he said. “We can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails.” He also criticized the unsuccessful 1991 Crime Bill, which he voted against, as “not a crime prevention bill” but “a punishment bill, a retribution bill, a vengeance bill.” ......

Sanders on many issues provides a decisive contrast. And many people like what they see.

......... On welfare, Bill Clinton was just plain wrong. On crime, he rightly pointed out that the bulk of the nation’s prison population reside in state facilities; that there was very real public outcry over crime and that people demanded action; and that there was support even from black leaders for the bill. But it was politicians like Clinton who weaponized those public fears for political gain. And today, voters are beginning to understand the costs. And that continues to be a hard square to circle for Hillary.
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