Why I’m Working Hard For Bernie

StewartAcuff

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Monday July 13, 2015 · 6:24 AM PDT

2015/07/13 · 06:24

There are a lot of great reasons that I’m working as hard as I can for Bernie Sanders.

But the two most important reasons I’m committed to Bernie are named Samuel Martin Acuff and Sydney Elizabeth Acuff. They are my son and daughter, the loves of my life, the priorities that overwhelm all other priorities. They are extraordinary teenagers, and I want them to have the opportunities I’ve had.

Syd is sure she wants to go to college. I think Sam will, but he’s too busy with lacrosse, drumming, and skateboarding to be sure yet.

There is no guarantee they will get to go to college unless, as in my day, tuition is essentially free. Independent living expenses will be tough but doable, because they will work–like I did. I did everything from working as a day laborer for a sewer department to washing dishes to delivering pizza to being a not-very-good cook.

So I was able to support myself.

And my tuition was essentially free. Back in the day, the federal government actually wanted young Americans to go to college so we got three percent loans. My grades were good enough that Mizzou paid for my tuition and books.

I’m working for Bernie so that all our kids have the option of college.

I want my kids to make a comfortable living–not rich but not poverty. When my younger brother hit the bottom, he went into a building trades apprenticeship. He learned a trade and how to read blueprints, and eventually got a job. He now has a comfortable job.

Sydney talks about acting and teaching. She will get a degree in both. I hope she makes it as an actor. If she doesn’t, I want her to have a great life as a union teacher–that means adequate funding for education.

Sam talks about being a firefighter. Nothing could make me happier. Like his ol’ man, he has a little adrenalin addiction. He would make a great firefighter in the IAFF. I want his life and safety protected by a strong living with good benefits–and I want him to draw good wages.

That’s another reason to support Bernie.

• I want my kids to live on a healthy planet with energy generated sustainably.

• I don’t want my kids or their kids to be afraid of war.

More reasons to support Bernie.

To use a saying from the Bible, later used by a great philosopher named Kierkegaard, I am sickened unto death at the country we leave our kids unless we change now.

Please join me in support of Bernie for a better country, a better world, and a much better future.

Image source: BernieSanders.com

Poverty is growing and democracy is dying

StewartAcuff

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Monday July 06, 2015 · 2:00 AM PDT

2015/07/06 · 02:00

The Pope is right. Unfettered and unrestrained greed and market "magic" and capitalism have failed the world.

The recent column from David Brooks about the Pope's new Papal Encyclical is arrogant and intellectually dishonest. For a partisan whose party lies repeatedly, loudly, and hypocritically about scripture, the column is remarkably adolescent.

Brooks' column reads like an adolescent's term paper for an old Milton Friedman professorial adherent.

I am not a Catholic, but I am a very imperfect Christian.

Mr. Brooks, Jesus did not live, teach, nor die for your teaching, "the irony that the best social programs harvest the low but steady motivations of people as they actually are." And the Pope is not teaching your Biblical ignorance.

The Pope is absolutely right.

We do face one huge problem in the world, both social and environmental. That cannot be argued. Brooks claims that poverty is being alleviated around the world, but poverty is growing in America and democracy is dying. Even though fracking has displaced some of the use of other carbon fuels, it still poisons our water and ruins our land.

How much better off would we be if the resources invested in fracking and other carbon-based fuels were instead invested in the technologically sound, clean and green energy of the future?

Mr. Brooks, your religious beliefs are your own. But do not deign to lecture Pope Francis on the teachings of Jesus. Please, no more moral admonishment from your party about God.

Read all of Matthew 25. Read Isaiah. Read Jeremiah. There is a reference to the wisdom of the serpent, but it is not holy.

Image source: @EcoWatch

The 4th of July

StewartAcuff

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Saturday July 04, 2015 · 9:57 AM PDT

2015/07/04 · 09:57

Time to celebrate independence

Freedom from tyranny

The long struggle to free all Americans

And to extend America’s promise

To all her people, right?

Without regard to race, creed, color,

Gender, sexual orientation, language,

Place of birth, choice of love

No, not this 4th, not now

But the 4th is not just about Independence

It’s when Vicksburg, Ms fell to Union forces

Opening up the Mississippi River to the

Union from Minnesota to New Orleans

The 4th of July, the very same day is when

Union forces drove Lee’s Army of the

Confederacy from the battlefield of blood

At Gettysburg. That great struggle to free

African-Americans turned the irreversible

Corner on the 4th of July, 1863 and the

Union began to win ushering in a longer

Struggle for freedom and justice and

Equal rights for all finally realized in

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the

Voting Rights Act of 1965.

And now it no longer counts?

800,000 lives in the Civil War

Numberless lynchings–do you know what

A lynching is? It ain’t just a hanging

It’s hours of sadistic torture with whippings

And castration and burnings and sadism

Of every sort.

And now this Supreme Court says that’s ok

The states have the right to deny what so

Many died for and suffered for

Is the Supreme Court of these United States

That ignorant or that redneck, peckerwood

Mean. I’ve seen ’em mean and they enjoy it

Like the peckerwood beat Ann Richards

For Governor–if rape is inevitable just lay

Back and enjoy it.

Tears will run down my cheeks this

4th of July for what our own Supreme Racist

Court has cost These United States

And the folks who meant to settle these

Questions once and for all on the 4th of July

At Vicksburg and Gettysburg

And at Selma and Birmingham and Albany

And Montgomery and Greensboro and

South Carolina State in Orangeburg

And in the sears and scars in the hearts

And souls of so many Americans

Who struggled to make America real.

Really, this 4th of July you five men

Decide none of that mattered, not the

Midnight screams and babies without

Daddies and six little girls in church in

Bombingham. None of it mattered.

Not the integrity of a nation?

Mr. 5 Supreme Court justices may you

Hear the screams at Gettysburg and see the

Hunger at Vicksburg, may you see

John Lewis and his clubbing and

Viloa Liuzza and her shooting on Hwy 80

Mr. 5 Supreme Court justices may you

Hear the screams of Chaney, Goodman and

Schwerner as they were tortured to death

Outside Philadelphia, Miss. May you hear

The wails of the parents of 6 little girls in

Bombingham, Al.

May your soul and heart rest uneasy.

This is sin of the most awful sort.

But your action is in vain.

We ain’t goin’ back. Never.

Take your best shot. Kill us. Our souls

Rise up. Throw us in prison. Our hearts

Sing out. We ain’t goin’ back.

Throw everything you got at us.

We will take it and keep on comin’.

We are already assembled on the

Battlefield of justice and we will keep

Comin’ on until we roll you over.

Image source: frankieleon on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Bernie Sanders CAN Be President

StewartAcuff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday July 03, 2015 · 7:50 AM PDT

2015/07/03 · 07:50

If you believe Senator Bernie Sanders:

• has the best ideas
• has values that connect to yours
• cares about you and your family
• has proved his integrity over a lifetime of public service

then you have a responsibility to speak out for him.

The question of Bernie’s electability is over. He can win.

Bernie will win if we all take a stand as free Americans who refuse to cower to the corporations and fabulously wealthy who have ruined so many lives in America.

Bernie will win if we think for ourselves, and do what’s best for our kids instead of letting the Washington media and pundits think for us.

If you believe in freedom, you must exercise it! Starting this moment, right now. Share this post. Speak out on Twitter and Facebook.

Bernie has raised $15 million since April 30th from 250,000 people like you and me, average Americans who love freedom and democracy, their kids, and America.

He has had record crowds everywhere he goes.

Like you and me, he knows we must have a grassroots movement to save democracy in America.

Bernie will not say for us to just leave it to him. He will say the burden of fixing the 40 year assault on our elders, workers, our kids who want an opportunity in life, and all average Americans is much lighter if we all carry our share.

What Bernie wants is what we need.

We need:

• Millions of liveable wage jobs.
• To fix our embarrassing infrastructure.
• To beat Walmart and the Koch Brothers.
• A Medicare system for all.
• To bust up the banks who ripped our economy apart and destroyed $5 trillion of America’s wealth including too many pensions, then told us the banks were too big to fail.
• Strong unions and the freedom to join unions and form unions wherever we work.
• Free college for our kids.
• To expand Social Security so we don’t work ourselves to death as happened to my mother, a schoolteacher.

That’s what Bernie wants. And we need some compassion for one another.

Speak out now, today. It is time. Freedom ain’t free.

Image sources: @BernieSanders and @HuffingtonPost

Philly Crude Oil Tanker Kayak Flotilla

StewartAcuff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 01, 2015 · 2:00 AM PDT

2015/07/01 · 02:00

My Goddaughter, Elizabeth Arnold, who's an anti-fracking activist wrote today's blog. It is another reminder of why I'm supporting Bernie Sanders for President in 2016. Bernie opposes fracking and fights tirelessly for the environment!

In solidarity,
-Stewart

Written by Elizabeth Arnold

As kayaktivists in Seattle were preventing Shell from heading to the Arctic to Drill recently, here in Philly we put a crude oil tanker kayak flotilla on the river at the annual Tidal Schuylkill Boat Parade to raise awareness about the danger of oil trains and to promote the national week of action. I wanted to share some pictures with you all from the event. Notice the real oil trains in the background in some of the pictures.

Rob and I are in our version of hazmat suits and we had a couple other brave rowers as well. Encouraging Development of a Green Economy and POW had a table on shore with info on oil trains and the fracked fossil fuel hub Phil Rinaldi (CEO of the PES refinery here in Philly) is promoting as Philly’s energy future.

The Boat Parade was sponsored in part by the PES refinery. By the end of the day the organization putting on the parade, Bartram’s Gardens said they will never take refinery money again, and gave half the earnings from the event to the folks at our table.
If you need help planning an action for the National Week of Action to Stop Oil Trains July 6-12th, download the Stop Oil Trains Week of Action Organizing Toolkit!

Also, check out stopoiltrains.org to see some of the events that are already on the map.
Our communities are not sacrifice zones for fossil fuel profit. This is where we live, love, share, struggle and thrive.

*Also in the boat parade was a canoe against fracking and the fracked pipeline they want to build from western PA to Philly.

**To see the full album of Boat Parade pictures by photographer Karen Kirchhoff visit the FB event page.

Images (in order of appearance): www.forestethics.org and Karen Kirchhoff

Pope Francis Offers A New Vision

StewartAcuff

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Monday June 29, 2015 · 2:00 AM PDT

2015/06/29 · 02:00

“We need to reject a magical conception of the market, which would suggest that the problems can be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or individuals… Finance overwhelms the real economy. The lessons of the global financial crisis have not been assimilated, and we are learning all too slowly the lessons of environmental deterioration.”

“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years… The earth’s resources are also being plundered because of short-sighted approaches to the economy, commerce and production.”

– excerpts from the Papal Encyclical of Pope Francis

And so we have the outlines of a new, very powerful analysis and vision for social and environmental justice strongly delivered in the new Papal Encyclical of Pope Francis. It is very rare for a document calling for such fundamental change to put people and the earth before profits and the powerful–especially from the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion people.

It would be an awful tragedy for those of us who’ve struggled for justice against the most terrible forces of greed and evil to discount this Encyclical, because we have our own criticisms of the Catholic Church or even Pope Francis.

Rather it is crucial that we see the Pope’s words as evidence, vindication, and powerful assistance in a building struggle or movement across the world.

We will not defeat the forces of greed and evil, which continue to force their will on our common home and our common good and our common humanity just by being right or correct. This fight in which we are engaged must be won with power from average people leveraged by moral authority.

Isn’t that the ultimate lesson to left us by Dr. King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela?

So we read this wonderful Encyclical as an extremely important ally joining our struggle for justice.

And some of us read this letter as evidence of an inexorably growing movement for justice and common humanity.

“[The] common good calls for social peace, the stability and security provided by a certain order which cannot be achieved without particular concern for distributive justice; whenever this is violated, violence always ensues. Society as a whole, and the state in particular, are obliged to defend and promote the common good.”

There is much, much more.

Image source: @Earthjustice

Trade Unionists Back Bernie for President!

StewartAcuff

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Friday June 26, 2015 · 6:18 AM PDT

2015/06/26 · 06:18

Over 1,000 local union leaders and members back Bernie Sanders for President!

Grassroots labor initiative urges Democratic primary support for Sanders by AFL-CIO and national unions

Over 1,000 union activists from around the country today kicked off Labor for Bernie 2016.

Initiated by trade unionists who have worked closely with Senator Sanders for many years, the Labor for Bernie 2016 network includes elected officers, shop stewards, organizers, and rank-and-file members from all 50 states and 57 different labor organizations.

More than a third of these Sanders supporters belong to building trades’ unions, (with 137 coming from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers alone). Other unions that showed significant membership support for Sanders’ presidential campaign include the Communications Workers of America, American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, International Union of Operating Engineers, United Auto Workers, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

This diverse group of labor activists signed an online statement embracing Sanders as the only declared candidate, in either major party, “who challenges the billionaires who are trying to steal our pensions, our jobs, our homes, and what’s left of our democracy.” The entire list of union supporters may be viewed on the new Labor for Bernie 2016 website at www.laborforbernie.org.

With more endorsers signing up every day, the Labor for Bernie 2016 network is urging the AFL-CIO, its affiliated national unions, and major unaffiliated labor organizations (NEA, SEIU, and IBT) to sponsor candidate forums and debates at the grassroots level before making any presidential endorsement decision of their own.

Labor for Bernie 2016 supporters include union members in key primary states (their union affiliation are listed only for identification purposes).

“Telephone workers in New England know Bernie well because he has walked our picket lines and supported our organizing efforts for years,” said Don Trementozzi, president of CWA Local 1400, based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Don continued, “[in] our union’s recent campaign against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Bernie was not on the fence—he was helping us lead the fight against a job-killing trade bill backed by Democrats and Republicans alike.”

“We need a presidential candidate willing to confront big money and its corrupting influence on American politics,” said Steve Abbott, president of CWA Local 7108 in Waterloo and head of the CWA’s Iowa state council. “That kind of leadership is not going to come from someone trying to raise a billion dollars from Wall Street banks and other business interests. We need a voice of our own, not an echo of the Republicans.”

“Bernie is running on a record of real accomplishment for workers, farmers, veterans, and millions of other blue-collar Americans,” said Erin McKee, President of the South Carolina AFL-CIO. “But here’s the real difference between him and all the rest: he’s the candidate who truly believes in the power of grassroots organizing. Bernie has been to South Carolina over the past few years and some of our members got the chance to see that first hand when he met not only with labor unions, but with the fast food workers fighting for $15 an hour and a union.”

“I think everyone is just sick and tired of hearing promises from politicians who say they’ll fight 100 percent for people, but then act for Wall Street,” said Mari Cordes, an RN from the University of Vermont Medical Center and Vice President of Healthcare for AFT-Vermont. “Bernie Sanders has never strayed from his working class roots. Not only has he been true to his word in Vermont for the last 35 years, he has rallied real hope across the country—as a four-term mayor, eight-term Congressman, and now two-term U.S. Senator.”

“I stand strong for Bernie for President in 2016.” –Mari Cordes, RN

“The reason I support Senator Sanders is simple: Bernie has a long track record of supporting workers and their right to unionize,” said John Murphy, a Carpenter’s Local 40 steward from Lowell, Mass. “Just recently he was standing with FairPoint workers on their picket lines and offering them aid and support. When members ask me if Bernie can win, I tell them, that’s up to us!”

Labor for Bernie 2016 is a volunteer effort neither funded nor directed by the Sanders for President campaign. To join this grassroots mobilization, download useful organizing materials, or learn more about Bernie’s past and present support for workers and their unions, go to: www.laborforbernie.org

Image sources: @BernieSanders

The Confederate Battle Flag, The Stars and Bars

StewartAcuff

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Wednesday June 24, 2015 · 4:14 PM PDT

2015/06/24 · 16:14

The racist, terroristic slaughter of nine Black Americans was carried out by a white man who has loudly and proudly discussed his hatred of Black Americans. The horrific act happened in Charleston, a city which still flies the Confederate Battle Flag — a symbol of racism, hate, slavery and treason. As a result, the debate over the flag has been reignited.

I am a white Tennessean and Missourian who is proud if his own African-American, American Indian and Scots-Irish forebears from the South.

I am not proud of what most white Tennesseans and Missourians did in the civil war.

I hate the memory of some of the South’s strongest warriors in my home states. I hate what Missouri bushwhackers and terrorists led by Quantrill’s raiders did to innocent Kansans, because Kansas was against slavery. I hate what brutal Tennessee guerrilla and terrorist General Forrest did.

And I hate the terrorism and treason slavery of the Confederate army.

And I hate the stars and bars that are still used to symbolize that slavery, terrorism, and treason.

Any serious amateur historian can tell you that flag was carried to protect and advance slavery. Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens of Georgia admitted that the cornerstone of the Confederacy was that the natural state of Black people was as slaves to the superior white race.

The bumper sticker and buttons that defenders of that flag wear, “Heritage Not Hate” is bullshit… It was and is heritage of hate.

I know something about this debate. As President of the Atlanta AFL-CIO I helped lead the fight to take the stars and bars out of the Georgia flag. I suffered a backlash.

But led by determined African-American legislators, we carried on that fight.

Finally, we elected the best governor in Georgia history, Roy Barnes, who drastically changed the flag. For his decision and courage to do the right thing, he was defeated for a second term.

The Confederate Battle flag is a symbol of racism and hatred to anyone who gives it half a thought.

It is a huge disgrace that the Confederate flag flies at full mast right now on the South Carolina Capitol grounds.

Image source: @NatUrbanLeague

Three Economists Speak Out Against the TPP

StewartAcuff

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Monday June 22, 2015 · 6:25 AM PDT

2015/06/22 · 06:25

Three very important economists have made important statements regarding the TPP.

Larry Summers, who almost always favored neoliberalism and trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said, "What we call trade agreements are in fact agreements on the protection of investments and the achievement of regulatory harmonization... Our challenge now is less to increase globalization than to make the globalization we have work for our citizens." It is unthinkable that Summers would have said such a thing in previous trade fights.

Bob Kuttner and Paul Krugman of course support organized labor and reflect our values. But in their analysis of the TPP's defeat last week, they share remarkably similar views and admiration for organized labor. They also say a lot in the lines and between the lines about what is happening in America today. Take heart from our victory and change underway in America.

The American people are sick of corporate power and rule by the elite and are beginning to stand up to it.

Bob Kuttner is a serious and progressive economist. He said, "The proposed TPP was the latest in a series of deals that are mostly about the use of 'trade' agreements to allow corporations to do end runs around national regulation. This is basically special interest legislation for elites... The labor movement is not motivated just by the loss of factory jobs but by the entire ideological assault on the security of ordinary wage earners and consumers."

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman stated, "The Democratic Party is becoming more assertive about its traditional values... Changes in the Democratic Party may take a while to change America as a whole. But something important is happening, and in the long run it will matter a great deal."

Image source: @keithellison

TPP Battle Continues

StewartAcuff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 19, 2015 · 2:00 AM PDT

2015/06/19 · 02:00

The House passed the controversial, standalone Trade Promotion Authority bill on Thursday.

“Supporters of dangerous, job-killing trade treaties have regrouped after failing to pass a trade package last week. They’ve changed up their tactics and just passed a so called ‘clean’ version of Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the House of Representatives.
Now they are desperately trying to jam this bill through the Senate, where there could be votes as early as next week.” (Credo)

Republicans and some Democrats with Obama are tying to do an end run against the will of the American people, the interests of our country, and almost all workers in the world by using a bunch of anti-Democratic procedures to pass fast-track for TPP.

Please email and call your Senators TODAY and tell them to vote NO on TPP, TPA, and any other bill remotely related to TPP.

Sign the Credo petition for Senate Democrats.

Get your Senator’s phone number and tell them to VOTE NO on “fast track.”

We know this is legislation for the rich and powerful and against the American people. We have to stop the bullshit. This is serious.

• The TPP will give multinational authority over American sovereignty on corporate issues, tax policy, workers wages and working conditions, the environment, and our safety and health.

• People in the developing world are against it. Even Vietnamese workers are against it.

• We believe in the American people, not the damn corporations and wealthy already ruining our lives and our country,

• A vote for TPP or TPA is against American workers, values, and democracy.

Go to Bernie Sanders’ website, and sign up to support someone who believes in democracy!! And please do like I do and send him a little money every month.

And tell the corporations to go to hell.

Image source: www.stopfasttrack.com

Some of the reasons I’m supporting Bernie Sanders.

StewartAcuff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 18, 2015 · 3:05 AM PDT

2015/06/18 · 03:05

Early this morning, I wrote some of the reasons I’m supporting Bernie Sanders.

Because it is happening now, let me start with the disastrous Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership. This is not a trade deal. I am extremely disappointed that President Obama is willing to spend all his political capital to pass it. It is a pernicious deal, secretly negotiated by corporate goons to give even more wealth and power to those who’ve created our massive inequality and assault on democracy.

BERNIE HAS FOUGHT THE TPP AS HARD AS HE CAN.The labor movement is fighting this deal as hard as we can, as are environmentalists, human rights activists, people of faith and other people of good will.

We need to keep the heat on our members of Congress to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trade Promotion Authority.

This is a classic question of “Which side are you on?”

• Bernie Sanders has very strongly opposed the awful Trans-Pacific Partnership and all enabling legislation.

• Bernie has fought hard to support workers rights, including the right to organize and bargain collectively.

• Bernie was a very early, vocal, and active supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act. He has stood up for workers every time, when given a chance on picket lines. He even helped the farm workers in South Florida through the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

I was there when the farm workers signed their history making deal for better wages and working conditions with McDonald’s in Bernie’s office.

• Bernie has fought against the Walmartization of the American economy.

• Bernie Sanders is committed to the fight against climate change. He would create hundreds of thousands of family sustaining jobs in green energy and sustainable energy.

• Bernie strongly supports a full court government blitz to create good paying, family sustaining jobs through work on green, sustainable jobs like wind and solar–and by fixing our infrastructure, which is embarrassing and dangerous to America. Whether it’s a second rate rail system, pipes nobody knows the age of, or falling bridges.

Fixing our infrastructure will create good union jobs and increase our productivity.

• Bernie has campaigned against the billionaire class.

• Bernie has long supported doubling the minimum wage. He's supported the Fight for $15 campaign from the beginning.

When you’re living in poverty, the difference between $10 an hour and $15 an hour is huge.

• Bernie has fought against our massive inequality since before it was a popular issue.

• Bernie wants to make public colleges and universities free. Affordable higher education for every American is critical to opportunity and equality. In his position, Bernie is saying our kids deserve the same opportunities as anyone else’s.

• Bernie opposed the bailout of Wall Street and Corporate Welfare.

• Bernie will fight for an overhaul of Wall Street and the big banks. As Bernie has said of the investment banks, if you’re too big to fail you’re too big to exist.

• Bernie wants to go beyond defending Social Security to expanding Social Security. Expanding Social Security and therefore its constituency is the best way to protect it.

• Bernie has consistently supported single payer, Medicare For All to get the money sucking insurance companies out of our healthcare. We need to make sure every dollar spent on healthcare is really spent on the care of our people.

This election will begin a new epoch in American history. I trust Bernie to have the backs of workers, our families, and our quality of life.

Image source: @BernieSanders

We Need a Franklin Delano Roosevelt Moment

StewartAcuff

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday June 17, 2015 · 2:00 AM PDT

2015/06/17 · 02:00

Corporations are fake people that the Supreme Court determined are “people” for the SOLE purpose of undermining and dismantling our democracy.

My longtime friend Harold Meyerson recently wrote a column in the Washington Post in which he said, “Hillary Clinton needs a Sister Souljah moment with Wall Street.” The Sister Souljah moment was when Hillary’s husband, Bill, intentionally dissed Rev. Jesse Jackson by vigorously criticizing one of Jackson’s Black guests, therefore putting space between himself and the Rev.

Hillary and the Democratic Party need much more than a Sister Souljah moment with American corporations and banks.

We’ve had enough rhetoric, symbolism, messages, winks and nods, and legislation that appears to give us little while much is being taken with the other hand.

The Democrats don’t need a Sister Souljah moment.

We need a Franklin Delano Roosevelt moment. We need an Abraham Lincoln moment.

Corporate America and the top .1 of the top 1% are stealing us blind and dismantling our democracy in plain view.

Hello in there, Democrats, we’re getting robbed out here, our lives and our nation are being assaulted every day. We can’t pay the bills. Our kids have no future, cannot go to college without incurring debilitating debt.

The first democracy is being destroyed. Remember, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people?” Apparently now that means the people, which are corporations by the edict of the Supreme Court with its supremely insane, morally and legally bankrupt, immensely stupid Citizens United ruling.

We need a party and party leadership that will act boldly and bravely to protect this nation, its people, and its Constitution.

Image source: @SenSanders

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