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Politico's Jill Lawrence:
How Bernie Fought For Our Veterans
Just before Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders excoriated Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s record to a cheering crowd of 10,000 at a Madison arena on Wednesday night, Walker’s staff tweeted: “Thousands of veterans suffered in VA scandal yet @BernieSanders downplayed it & attacked those who exposed it.”
The tweet, to say the least, was misleading. The Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, now seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has long supported our veterans—even if he doesn’t support all our wars. And in 2014 he accomplished the last thing you might expect from a candidate whose campaign brand is firebrand: He negotiated a major bipartisan agreement with two conservatives to deal with the veterans health care crisis.
In spite of—or perhaps because of—his aversion to war, Sanders has a long history of committed service to veterans. He became chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee in 2013, and that is how he wound up at the negotiating table with Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida.
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Sanders and veterans may not seem like an obvious match, but they have been a constant in his career. When he rose to chair the Senate Veterans Committee in 2013, he noted that the first bill he ever introduced in Congress—in 1991—called for reimbursing members of the National Guard and Reserve for income they lost while deployed in the Persian Gulf War. Now veterans and the committee Sanders once led are touchstones for him as he runs for president.
His connection with them is an extension of what Brenda Cruickshank, a retired Army nurse and immediate past commander of the Vermont Veterans of Foreign Wars, describes as Vermont’s ethos of making sure people are taken care of. Sanders listens to his home-state veterans at town meetings, private meetings and through a veterans council, she says, and his staff does an excellent job when veterans call with questions or needs. “He works for veterans. He’s not just saying that. He does do the work,” she says.
This alternet piece has more on Bernies past stance on I/P:
“The United States of America is pouring billions of dollars into arms and into other types of aid in the Middle East. Has the United States of America used its clout, the tremendous clout that it has by providing all kinds of aid to the Middle East, to demand that these countries sit down and talk about a reasonable settlement which will guarantee Israel's sovereignty, which must be guaranteed, but will begin to deal with the rights of Palestinian refugees,” said Sanders.
A follow-up question asked Sanders if he was calling for sanctions. He said he wasn't, but did say that “you have the ability when you are the United States of America, which is supporting the armies of the Middle East, to demand that these people sit down and support a reasonable settlement.”
“Or else what?” asked another reporter.
“Or else you cut off arms,” suggested Sanders. “If the United States goes into the Middle East and demands a reasonable, a responsible, and a peaceful solution to the conflict that has gone there because of its clout because of the tremendous amounts of money that it is pouring into that region I think we can do it.”
If Bernie is Batman then he had all of Gotham behind him:
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke before the largest crowd drawn by any candidate in 2016 and used his platform to completely annihilate Republican Gov. Scott Walker in his own backyard.
Sanders announced at the beginning of his speech that they drew the most people to a rally of any candidate this year. Sanders responded to Wisconsin Republicans who called him an extremist, “Let me just say a few words to my friends in the Republican Party about extremism. When you deny the right of workers to come together in collective bargaining that’s extremism. When you tell a woman that she can not control her own body, that’s extremism. When you think a woman is a child and can’t purchase a contraceptive, that is extremism. When you give tax breaks to billionaires and refuse to raise the minimum wage, that’s extremism.”
Bernie Sanders might have been talking about Republicans in general, but he was specifically detailing the record of Scott Walker.
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If Bernie Sanders is Batman, Scott Walker is the Joker, and the unlikely 73-year-old superhero had all of Gotham behind him tonight in Wisconsin.
Bernie speaks to 600 in Rochester:
Sanders Gains in Iowa:
A new poll by Quinnipiac University finds Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is gaining ground on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Democratic Caucus.
52 percent of likely voters surveyed said they would support Clinton while 33 percent supported Sanders. This compares to a 60 - 15 percent Clinton lead over Sanders in a survey conducted in May.
The survey also finds 7 percent would support Vice President Joe Biden, who at the time of this poll has not declared his candidacy. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has support from 3 percent of respondents and Virginia Sen. James Webb has 1 percent. Another 5 percent are undecided.
VOX has more on why
Bernie's 15 Million Is A Big Deal:
Bernie Sanders now has hard numbers — in dollars and donors — to back up the idea that he can run a serious campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
The Vermont senator banked $15 million, a surprisingly robust fundraising haul, in the three months that ended June 30. It's one-third of the $45 million that Hillary Clinton hauled in for the second fundraising quarter of the year. But the number of donors — 250,000 — suggests Sanders will be able to go back to the well to keep his campaign running.
And that means Clinton won't be able to dispatch him anytime soon.
The numbers track with the strategy senior Sanders adviser Tad Devine outlined in a recent interview with Vox. The campaign hopes to end the year with 1 million contributors and do well enough in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries to entice them into giving again and again, Devine said.
H.A. Goodman @ The Huffington Post writes about
endless war:
Americans want soldiers to protect them from ISIS and other threats, but who's protecting our veterans? Who in Congress or in the 2016 presidential race will bring home the hundreds of American soldiers sent back to Iraq by President Obama? Senator Bernie Sanders is against sending Americans into perpetual wars and as The Boston Globe writes, "many veterans believe he's gone to war for them." A recent article titled Bernie Sanders' surge is partly fueled by veterans explains how this member of the Veterans' Affairs committee has spent his entire career working to help veterans and their families
While CNN published an article titled Poll: Clinton's honesty and trustworthy problem extends to swing states, Senator Bernie Sanders has no such trust dilemmas with veterans. Even in 2003, with 72% of Americans supporting the Iraq War, Sanders still had the foresight to vote against sending Americans into a quagmire. In early 2015, when 62% of registered voters supported sending American ground troops to fight ISIL, Sanders stated that Muslim countries should send their own ground troops to fight ISIL, not America. Because he's consistently put principles above poll numbers or political expediency, Sanders is the only candidate in 2016 willing to protect American soldiers and their families from perpetual counterinsurgency wars like Vietnam and Iraq.
With Bernie in the race America's vocabulary is expanding as you can see in the op-ed piece,
'Bernie Sanders Will Fight Inequality:
Egalitarianism is the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities at the core of our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. However, today we are in danger of losing the democracy our Founding Fathers envisioned to oligarchy. It’s well documented that, since the late 1970s, the lower and middle classes have received short shrift from politicians and the upper percentile (upper class) of society concerning shares of the American economic pie.
Statistics don’t lie. The upper percentile’s share of national income (wealth) stood at 33 percent in 1943, never rising above 35 percent until the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan in 1981. The Gipper was able to slash the income tax rates on the upper percentile from 70 percent to 28 percent by the late 1980s, allowing this group to increase its share of national income to the never-before-seen 50 percent. There’s a word for this, and, including the more recent drastic and unwarranted increase in the salaries and bonuses of corporate directors, managers and university presidents, the word is obscene.
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f we are to experience a return to the democracy envisioned by our Founding Fathers, there is only one presidential candidate who’ll attempt to lessen inequality while promoting egalitarianism within society, his name is Bernie Sanders. There’s only one political party that will enact his proposed legislation, the Green Party, neither beholden to the upper percentile. Happy Independence Day.
Single mothers 'Feel The Bern' writes Elizabeth Cohen
@ ObserverWhy Bernie Sanders Is More Attractive To Single Moms Than Hillary
I am a Bernie mama. Specifically, a single mother who is finding herself increasingly supportive of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. There are a lot of us—think of it as a loose club.
We have no bylaws per se, nor do we ever formally meet. We don’t have tee shirts or bumper stickers…yet. But if we run into one another, say, on the street, or end up having coffee, it comes up and quite quickly there can be no doubt about our solidarity. The world, especially as it regards our kids, is looking mighty Bernie to us. Which is to say we feel this Bernie Sanders guy is a candidate we can get behind, because it is ever more clear that he is behind us, and this monumental task we have before us of launching young humans into the world—pretty much alone.
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First, the biggie. What sort of world are we leaving to our children? It is looking like a environmentally distressed, politically unstable, economically challenged, possibly toxic planet, run by agribusiness and multinational corporate interests. From our kid’s point of view, it is a bit like inheriting a house with termites, rot, black mold and a lot of liens—with angry and possibly violent neighbors on either side. The only candidate who has made addressing this the bedrock of a campaign, that I have seen, is Mr. Sanders. There is the sense, listening to him, that the world is wildly off kilter, and he would pursue a sort of multifaceted triage, if elected. In my opinion, and the single mamas I chat up, triage is what we need right now.
Leah Jessen with the Daily Signal writes, '
Sanders Talks Real Issues With Iowans:
Bernie Sanders, the second-term independent senator from Vermont, spoke on “real issues” at Iowa Central Community College today, promising that his policies would “strengthen families” if he were elected president.
Sanders, who is running as a Democrat in 2016, stated a top priority of his is combating the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling—allowing unlimited campaign spending by corporations—because it “touches on every other issue.”
“It’s not only overturning Citizens United … I want you to be able to get up and run for office without having to bow down and beg wealthy people for campaign finance support,” Sanders said to the crowded college lecture hall.
“Everybody has one vote. That’s what democracy means to me,” he continued.
Paul Begala of team Clinton does not
dismiss Bernie's crowds:
Newsrooms were impressed Wednesday evening as 2016 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., drew a crowd of nearly 10,000 at a campaign rally in Madison, Wis.
Even with the impressive turnout this week, Sanders, an avowed socialist, trails far behind Clinton in the polls. Still, according to Democratic strategist and longtime Clinton ally Paul Begala, Sanders has tapped into a real, raw energy, and the former first lady should be taking notes.
"We're never going to have a coronation in my party," he said. "Never. Never. Sen. Sanders has tapped into something real."
This is a good thing, he said Thursday on CNN, because primaries should be competitive.
Part of Sanders' strength, he added, comes from the senator's economic message. But Clinton can go toe-to-toe with Sanders on this issue, he added.
Bernie-Mentum:
Sanders, an independent seeking the Democratic nomination, has called for a political revolution, warning of America's creep towards oligarchy where candidates are "beholden to the billionaire class."
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has the name recognition and the infrastructure. Republican Jeb Bush is winning the money war.
But "Bernie-mentum" has seen unprecedented numbers of voters lining up to hear the mantra from Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist who in the 1980s served as mayor of Burlington, where he nurtured a progressive environment that lives to this day.
He is capitalizing on disillusionment with America's weak economic recovery and an ever-widening rich-poor gap.
More than 800 people turned out for him at a university in Iowa, the state that votes first in the 2016 nominating process.
In Minnesota some 4,000 people heard Sanders rail against income inequality, a message the 73-year-old has been promoting for decades.
Rich Rubino writing for the Huffington Post:
Open Season On The Elites:
Democratic Presidential candidate Bernard Sanders is drawing overflow crowds. He is garnering support at the grassroots level, and is raising "eye-popping" amounts of cash from small donors. Some of his enthusiastic adherents seem to believe there is no God but Bernie Sanders.
Part of the reason for this insurgence is not only what Sanders is proposing, but also who he is attacking. Insurrectionist candidates like Sanders often make a splash on the national radar by excoriating "the elites." On the Democratic side of the ledger, the elites are the "billionaire class" from Wall Street and multinational corporations. They are portrayed as having what Sanders calls: "unquenchable greed," and exerting too much influence over policy makers. Sanders told CNBC: "What I think is obscene, and what frightens me, is again when you have the top one-tenth of one percent owning as much as the bottom ninety."
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So far in the 2016 Presidential election cycle only Bernie Sanders has opened fire on the elites. It probably won't be long, however, before other candidates take aim at the elites, be they cultural or economic elites. Elites are always a very popular target for candidates.
Bernie's Best Week Ever:
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Senator who started off his presidential campaign with a BYOB-style house party, is having his best week ever, capping it off with news that he’s raised $15 million on the campaign trail.
It’s a far cry from the $45 million Hillary Clinton raised, but it’s solid for a guy who has been characterized as an afterthought in the race.
More
Bernie-mentum:
"Bernie-mentum." No one is quite sure how to spell it, but Bernie Sanders supporters definitely feel the growing momentum for their underdog candidate.
“Hopefully, Webster dictionary will recognize it as a new word soon,” said volunteer Tyson Manker of Jacksonville, Illinois, who drove five hours to help at Sanders’s massive rally in Madison, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night.
Sanders drew the biggest crowd of any of the 2016 presidential contenders to date at Madison’s Alliant Energy Center: a whopping 10,000 people, according to the Associated Press.
Campaign spokesperson Michael Briggs called the turn-out impressive but not a surprise. “We had been getting indications all along that there was that much interest,” Briggs told ABC News over the phone Thursday morning.
8:15 AM PT: In his quest to not be the most irrelevant candidate for President since Rudy Giuliani Omalley thinks its wise to attack Sanders again:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley, whose own poll numbers haven’t really budged since entering the race, says his rival Bernie Sanders is on the rise partly because voters see him as a “protest candidate.”
“I’m not running for protest candidate, I’m running for president of the United States,” the former Maryland governor said in an interview Thursday night following a campaign stop here that is part of a three-day swing through Iowa to highlight his proposals on climate change.
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Asked what he makes of Sanders’s appeal, O’Malley said: “I think it shows the widespread desire for an alternative to this year’s inevitable front-runner.”
“It doesn’t terribly surprise me,” O’Malley said. “People feel like big money has subsumed, taken over, their politics, and they’re frustrated by it. … People feel like their voices don’t matter. People feel like they’re not being heard, and right now, they want to protest about that.”
Asked if he sees Sanders as a protest candidate, O’Malley said: “I think there’s an element of it … yeah.”
O’Malley said the popularity among Republicans of Donald Trump, the businessman turned presidential candidate, reflects a similar phenomenon