OMNI
Newsletters Compiled by Dick Bennett.
Bernie
Sanders.
For a comprehensive, transparent
understanding of Bernie Sanders read his Our
Revolution (2016). Part One presents
a summary political autobiography. Part
Two offers a 10-point “Agenda for a New America.”: 1. Defeating Oligarchy, 2. The Decline of the
American Middle Class, 3. Ending a Rigged Economy, 4. Health Care for All, 5.
Making Higher Education Affordable, 6. Combating Climate Change, 7. Real
Criminal Justice Reform, 8. Immigration Reform Now, 9. Protecting our Most
Vulnerable, 10. Corporate Media and the Threat to Our Democracy.
This vision of an enlarged New Deal now
struggling to emerge is simultaneously a systematic critique not only of the Republican
Party but of the Democratic Party. During
the recent months of Democratic presidential candidates’ debates, some of the
candidates projected only a shadow of the possibilities of our country for the people’s
freedom and equality, others asserted pieces of this wholeness, but only
Elizabeth Warren got close. If you wish
to make an informed choice, Our
Revolution is essential.
For more, read Bernie’s Where Do We Go From Here: Two Years in the
Resistance (2018), giving 38 important events and statements from June 2016
to August 2018.
--Dick 3-12-20
Bernie
Sanders and Joe Biden Comparison and Contrast by Abel Tomlinson.
March
9, 2020.
CONTENTS
I. War and Peace
II. Climate Catastrophe
III. Health Care
IV.
Trade
V. Israel-Palestine
VI. Social Security
VII. Wall Street, 1%, Corporations
VIII. CANDIDATES’ CHARACTER AND MENTAL HEALTH
I. War & Peace
BIDEN
Important
Short Film on Biden’s Leading Role for Iraq War:
WORTH THE PRICE? Joe Biden and the
Launch of the Iraq War (Narrated by Danny Glover)
WORTH
THE PRICE? is a short documentary reviewing the role of then-Senator
Joe Biden (D-DE) in leading the United States into the most devastating foreign
policy blunder of the last twenty years.
Produced
and directed by Mark Weisbrot and narrated by Danny Glover, the film features
archival footage, as well as policy experts who provide insight and testimony
with regard to Joe Biden’s role as the Chair of the United States Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations in 2002.
Joe Biden championed the Iraq
war. Will that come back to haunt him now?
The Iraq war has been a prominent, even decisive issue, in
recent US presidential elections. That will make Biden’s history a liability
Mon 17 Feb 2020
Joe
Biden has an issue that hasn’t played out yet in this election:
his role in the launch of the Iraq war.
The Iraq war has been a prominent, even decisive issue, in some
recent US presidential elections. It played a significant role in the surprise
presidential primary victory won by a freshman senator from Illinois named
Barack Obama in 2008. His heavily favored Democratic primary opponent, Hillary
Clinton, had voted in the US Senate to authorize the war, and Obama
didn’t let her forget it during that contest.
In 2016, Donald Trump invoked the Iraq war against opponents in his own surprise victory in
the Republican primary. And then he used it against Clinton, most likely with significant effect, in the general
election that followed.
Biden did vastly more than just vote for the war. Yet his role
in bringing about that war remains mostly unknown or misunderstood by the
public. When the war was debated and then authorized by the US Congress in
2002, Democrats controlled the Senate and Biden was chair of the Senate
committee on foreign relations. Biden himself had enormous influence as chair
and argued strongly in favor of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the
authority to invade Iraq.
“I do not believe this is a rush to war,” Biden said a few days before the vote. “I believe it
is a march to peace and security. I believe that failure to overwhelmingly
support this resolution is likely to enhance the prospects that war will occur
…”
But he had a power much greater than his own words. He was able
to choose all 18 witnesses in the main Senate hearings on Iraq. And he mainly
chose people who supported a pro-war position. They argued in favor of “regime change as the stated US policy” and warned of “a nuclear-armed Saddam sometime in this decade”. That Iraqis would “welcome the United States as liberators” And that Iraq “permits
known al-Qaida members to live and move freely about in Iraq” and that
“they are being supported”.
The lies about al-Qaida were perhaps the most transparently
obvious of the falsehoods created to justify the Iraq war. As anyone familiar
with the subject matter could testify, Saddam Hussein ran a secular government
and had a hatred, which was mutual, for religious extremists like al-Qaida. But
Biden did not choose from among the many expert witnesses who would have
explained that to the Senate, and to the media….continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/17/joe-biden-role-iraq-war
‘Their blood is on your hands':
Veterans confront Joe Biden over support for Iraq war
Group
confronts former vice president for past support 'enabling a war that killed
thousands of our brothers and sisters'
Alex
Woodward New York
Military
veterans confronted Joe Biden over the former vice president's past support for
the Iraq War, which the Democratic presidential nominee had voted to support
when he was a senator, a move that one anti-war veterans group says should
disqualify him from the presidency.
During a
campaign event in Oakland, California on 3 March, Michael Thurman asked Mr
Biden: "We are just wondering why we should vote for someone who voted for
a war and enabled a war that killed thousands of our brothers and sisters [and]
countless Iraqi civilians."… "You are disqualified, sir," Mr
Thurman said as Mr Biden was ushered from the event. "My friends are dead.
... Their blood is on your hands."…"We fought in your damn
wars," Mr Thurman said. "You sent us to hurt civilians."…Continued:
Biden gives George W. Bush a “Liberty
Medal,” and War Veterans Protest
Iraq &
Afghanistan Veterans Blockade George W. Bush Veteran's Day Speech
Dozens of
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans blockaded entrances to the "Liberty
Medal" ceremony in Philadelphia on Sunday, where Joe Biden was honoring
war criminal George W. Bush. Part of About Face: Veterans Against the War
(formerly Iraq Veterans Against the War), the veterans stayed in the streets
for hours making noise and speaking out against the endless war policies that
parties have so-often pursued. #veteran #veteransday #antiwar
BERNIE
Bernie leads Iraq War opposition in U.S. Congress
Flashback: Rep. Bernie Sanders Opposes Iraq War
217,096 views Nov 14, 2015
Thirteen years ago, on October
9, 2002, then-Rep. Bernie Sanders strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq and
made the following statement on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Floor
Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_om-x323Em0
Full
Text of Floor Speech: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/video/flashback-rep-bernie-sanders-opposes-iraq-war
Excerpt: “Mr. Speaker, in the brief time I have, let
me give five reasons why I am opposed to giving the President a blank check to
launch a unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq and
why I will vote against this resolution. One, I have not heard any estimates of
how many young American men and women might die in such a war or how many tens
of thousands of women and children in Iraq might
also be killed. As a caring Nation, we should do everything we can to prevent
the horrible suffering that a war will cause. War must be the last recourse in
international relations, not the first. Second, I am deeply concerned about the
precedent that a unilateral invasion of Iraq could
establish in terms of international law and the role of the United Nations. If
President Bush believes that the U.S. can go to war at any time against any
nation, what moral or legal objection could our government raise if another
country chose to do the same thing?
Third,
the United States is now involved in a very difficult war against international
terrorism as we learned tragically on September 11. We are opposed by Osama bin
Laden and religious fanatics who are prepared to engage in a kind of warfare
that we have never experienced before. I agree with Brent Scowcroft, Republican
former National Security Advisor for President George Bush, Sr., who stated,
``An attack on Iraq at this time would
seriously jeopardize, if not destroy, the global counterterrorist campaign we
have undertaken.''
Fourth,
at a time when this country has a $6 trillion national debt and a growing
deficit, we should be clear that a war and a long-term American occupation ofIraq could be extremely expensive.
Fifth,
I am concerned about the problems of so-called unintended consequences. Who
will govern Iraq when Saddam Hussein is removed
and what role will the U.S. play in ensuing a civil war that could develop in
that country? Will moderate governments in the region who have large Islamic
fundamentalist populations be overthrown and replaced by extremists? Will the
bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority be exacerbated?
And these are just a few of the questions that remain unanswered.
If
a unilateral American invasion of Iraq is not
the best approach, what should we do? In my view, the U.S. must work with the
United Nations to make certain within clearly defined timelines that the U.N.
inspectors are allowed to do their jobs. These inspectors should undertake an
unfettered search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and destroy them when
found, pursuant to past U.N. resolutions. If Iraq resists
inspection and elimination of stockpiled weapons, we should stand ready to
assist the U.N. in forcing compliance.”\
II.
Climate Change
BERNIE
BERNIE
SANDERS’S CLIMATE PLAN IS MORE RADICAL THAN HIS OPPONENTS’ — AND MORE LIKELY TO
SUCCEED
IF
YOU TRIED to design a program with the aim of
offending the top brass of the world’s most powerful corporations and the
politicians whose careers they bankroll, you’d get something like what Bernie
Sanders unveiled today in his $16.3 trillion Green New Deal
platform. That’s part of the point. “We need a
president who has the courage, the vision, and the record to face down the
greed of fossil fuel executives and the billionaire class who stand in the way
of climate action,” the plan’s opening salvo states, going on to echo a famous line from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “We need a president
who welcomes their hatred.”
Sanders outlines an expansive system, building on the resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey in April, that would generate publicly
owned clean energy and 20 million new jobs, end fossil fuels imports and
exports, revivify the social safety net, redress historical injustices like
environmental racism, and make prolific investments toward decarbonization
at home and abroad — among many, many other things. It would not only
transition American society away from fossil fuels but renegotiate decades-old
nostrums, championed by the right, about the respective roles of the government
and the economy.
“It definitely is the biggest and boldest plan and vision
out there,” Evan Weber, political director for the Sunrise Movement, told The
Intercept, “both in the sheer scale of it and also in a lot of the
mechanisms for achieving that scale, that really seem like [Sanders is] pushing
the boundaries of how American society currently is structured.”
There
are novel, meaty policy proposals that make Sanders’s proposal stand out from
an already ambitious field: a cash-for-clunkers and financial assistance
program to scale up electric vehicle usage, and plans to boost public transit ridership
65 percent by 2030; a requirement that the Congressional Budget Office work
with the Environmental Protection Agency to give new legislation a “climate
score,” like the budget scores it currently doles out; and abiding by the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to ensure the
free, prior, and informed consent by Indigenous peoples….Contiued: https://theintercept.com/2019/08/22/bernie-sanders-climate-policy/
NAOMI KLEIN
INTERVIEWS BERNIE SANDERS ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Naomi Klein
December 3 2018, 11:37 a.m.\
III.
Healthcare
BIDEN
'What More Do You Need to Know?' Health
Insurance Stocks Drive Wall Street Rebound on Biden Super Tuesday Wins
"Biden is the preferred
candidate for the financial markets."
Health
insurance industry stocks surged Wednesday morning in the wake of former Vice
President Joe Biden's strong showing in the Democratic presidential primary's
Super Tuesday contests, opening up 600 points after traders appeared to bet the
candidate's resurgence would box out any chance of single-payer universal
healthcare."What more do you need to know," tweeted journalist Jack Mirkinson of the market's spike.
Sanders has made Medicare for All a centerpiece of his campaign. The healthcare industry has poured millions in ad buys against Sanders after the Vermont senator won primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.
"The industry has long seen Biden as their white knight," said Dr. Adam Gaffney, the president of Physicians for a National Health Program and an outspoken Medicare for All advocate…Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/04/what-more-do-you-need-know-health-insurance-stocks-drive-wall-street-rebound-biden
IV.
Trade
BIDEN
Biden’s
NAFTA Vote Is a Liability in the Rust Belt
His record on trade could make
him a target for both the left and right.
By
May 14, 2019, 3:00 AM CDT
Joe
Biden has emerged as the Democratic front-runner thanks to a perception that
his working-class roots and chummy relations with labor leaders make him the
likeliest candidate to take back the Upper Midwest and beat Donald Trump. But
that scenario is complicated by the former vice president’s decades-long record
of backing free-trade deals that have helped hollow out the manufacturing core
in several important electoral states.
From
his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement as a Delaware senator
to his backing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership as Barack Obama’s vice
president, Biden played a key role over the last 30 years in advancing a trade
agenda that’s now being reassessed by many experts and early proponents as its
costs, including job losses, are becoming clearer.
Biden’s
record on trade is already drawing attacks from the left and right. Besides
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a former House member, Biden is the only one of the
22 Democrats running for president who voted for Nafta. The 1993 pact reduced
barriers with Mexico and Canada, increasing trade and economic growth in all
three countries. But it also led to an exodus of U.S. manufacturing jobs to
Mexico and hurt wages for U.S. workers who held on to their jobs. Throughout
the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump pilloried Nafta as a “disaster” and “the
worst trade deal ever,” a message his top advisers believe was pivotal in
helping him carry critical Rust Belt states once considered Democratic
strongholds.
“Nafta
still resonates in the industrial Midwest and Rust Belt,” says Stanley
Greenberg, a veteran Democratic pollster who recently conducted focus groups on
trade in Michigan and Wisconsin. “There’s still a lot of anger because it
symbolizes, for many people, the indifference about the outsourcing of jobs and
the favoring of elite economic interests in international trade agreements.”…Continued:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-14/biden-s-nafta-vote-is-a-liability-in-the-rust-belt
BERNIE
Bernie Beats Trump (and Biden) on Trade
There is simply no question that
Sanders's approach to trade prioritizes workers and the environment, and not
corporate convenience.
It
is an indisputable fact that over the last few decades American workers have
seen their wages stagnate and jobs disappear. Unfortunately, they have found
little relief in the policies of either the Democratic or Republican parties.
Quite the contrary, at least since Bill Clinton's promotion of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (known as NAFTA) in 1994, American policy makers
have been doing much to hurt and little to help the ailing American working
class.
In order to see why Bernie is the
best choice for laborers in America, his stance on trade must be distinguished
from both Biden's waffling and Trump's hollow rhetoric.
This
has been combined with a media narrative that does more to confuse than clarify
American trade policy. Any presidential candidate, Democrat or Republican, that
criticizes existing or pending trade agreements is duly labeled a
"populist" and sidelined as beyond the pale of rational policy
discussion. It has become standard practice to lump Donald Trump and Bernie
Sanders together, tarring them both as
populists, with the obvious implication that Sanders is just the left-wing
version of that unhinged Republican.Indeed, serious policy discussion was abandoned in favor of pat formulas about the populist disdain for trade. Witness James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "Both Trump and Sanders downplay the enormous economic benefits of globalization for American consumers of all incomes, and their proposals are vague and could well be harmful if implemented."
This is sheer nonsense. And it is more important than ever to dispel such claims, given the narrowing of the 2020 Democratic field, with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders competing to be the champion of American workers. In order to see why Bernie is the best choice for laborers in America, his stance on trade must be distinguished from both Biden's waffling and Trump's hollow rhetoric.
The basic fact is, both as a legislator and vice president, Joe Biden has supported free trade agreements like NAFTA (under Clinton) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (under Obama). And yet as a presidential contender, Biden has backed away from these deals to avoid alienating American workers. It is not difficult to see that this is sheer political expediency. Barack Obama used the same strategy in his run in 2008.
Sanders, by contrast, has been consistently critical of trade deals that are crafted to benefit corporations rather than workers. He was clear in 1993 about why he opposed NAFTA, arguing that the "essence of NAFTA is that American workers will be forced to compete against desperate and impoverished Mexican workers," which "will only benefit the ruling elites" of those countries. And during the 2016 primary, Hillary Clinton did an about-face on the Trans-Pacific Partnership—which she had praised as the 'gold standard' in trade agreements—after Bernie vehemently criticized it….Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/03/08/bernie-beats-trump-and-biden-trade
V. Israel-Palestine
Bernie Sanders won't attend AIPAC
conference, saying Israel lobby provides platform for “bigotry”
Sanders
slams leading pro-Israel lobby for foregrounding bigots who "oppose basic
Palestinian rights.”
IGOR DERYSH FEBRUARY 25, 2020
10:00AM (UTC)
Sen. Bernie
Sanders, the apparent frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race, said on
Sunday he would not attend this year's American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) conference, saying that the group offers a platform to leaders who
"express bigotry."
Sanders
wrote on Twitter that he would not attend the conference held by the
pro-Israel lobbying group because he is "concerned about the platform
AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian
rights." The comment appeared to reference Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, who Sanders ripped as "racist."
"The
Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the
Palestinian people," he said. "As president, I will support the
rights of both Israelis and Palestinians and do everything possible to bring
peace and security to the region."…Continued: https://www.salon.com/2020/02/25/bernie-sanders-wont-attend-aipac-conference-saying-israel-lobby-provides-platform-for-bigotry/
BIDEN AND KLOBUCHAR WILL
SPEAK VIA VIDEO AT PRO-ISRAEL AIPAC CONFERENCE AFTER SANDERS AND WARREN SAY
THEY WON'T ATTEND
Former Vice President
Joe Biden and his fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar
have opted to address the 2020 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, while several other candidates
pledged to stay away after calls from progressive groups to boycott the event.
AIPAC announced on Twitter Friday that the
candidates would be delivering video messages to the conference. Former New
York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is expected to take part in the conference in
person. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend,
Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg have all announced that they will not be
participating….Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/biden-klobuchar-will-speak-via-video-pro-israel-aipac-conference-after-sanders-warren-say-they-1489818
Biden
calls Sanders’ pitch to leverage Israel aid ‘bizarre’
OELWEIN, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden said Saturday
that it is “bizarre” for Bernie Sanders to propose withholding U.S. military
aid from Israel if the government there doesn’t moderate its treatment of
Palestinians.
The remarks
highlight a nuanced but significant distinction between the Democratic
presidential contenders. Biden and Sanders support a “two-state solution” for
Israel and the Palestinians, and both men have criticized political leaders on
each side of the long-standing conflict. But Biden’s take, offered during a
question-and-answer session with Iowa voters, hewed a more traditional U.S.
establishment line by reaffirming a financial commitment to Israel regardless
of its actions toward Palestinians.
The former
vice president, while casting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a
“counterproductive” and “extreme right” leader and accused Palestinian leaders
of “fomenting” the conflict and “baiting everyone who is Jewish,” while
suggesting that some on the U.S. political left give the Palestinian Authority
“a pass” when criticizing Israeli leadership.
“In terms of
Bernie and others who talk about dealing with Zionism, I strongly support
Israel as an independent Jewish state,” Biden said in rural northeastern Iowa.
He added, “The idea that I’d withdraw military aid, as others have suggested,
from Israel, is bizarre. I would not do that. It’s like saying to France,
’Because you don’t agree with us, we’re going to kick you out of NATO.”
Sanders, a
Vermont senator, elevated the matter in late October when he said the U.S.
should “leverage” its billions of dollars in annual Israeli aid. “My solution
is to say to Israel: ‘You get $3.8 billion every year. If you want military
aid, you’re going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the
people of Gaza.’ In fact, I think it is fair to say that some of that should go
right now into humanitarian aid.”…Continued: https://apnews.com/f78dd392f8250caf2c8a9f9655e6fef2
VI. Social Security
FACT CHECK: JOE
BIDEN HAS ADVOCATED CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY FOR 40 YEARS
AS
EARLY AS 1984 and as recently as 2018, former Vice
President Joe Biden called for cuts to Social Security in the name of saving
the program and balancing the federal budget. Last week, Sen. Bernie
Sanders highlighted
Biden’s record on Social Security in prosecuting the
case that Biden isn’t the most electable candidate. The issue could be raised
again in Tuesday night’s debate.
After a Sanders campaign newsletter continued the attack
on Biden’s Social Security record, the Biden campaign complained to
fact-checkers at Politifact that his comments were being taken out of
context. Placed in context, however, Biden’s record on Social Security is far
worse than one offhand remark. Indeed, Biden has been advocating for cuts to
Social Security for roughly 40 years.
And after a Republican wave swept Congress in 1994,
Biden’s support for cutting Social Security, and his general advocacy for
budget austerity, made him a leading combatant in the centrist-wing battle
against the party’s retreating liberals in the 1980s and ’90s.
“When
I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as
well,” he told the Senate in 1995. “I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant
veterans’ benefits. I meant every single solitary thing in the government. And
I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I
tried it a fourth time.” (A freeze would have reduced the amount that would be
paid out, cutting the program’s benefit.)…Continued: https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/
Bernie Sanders
Introduces Bold New Bill to Expand Social Security. FEB 13, 2019NEWS
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/bernie-sanders-introduces-bold-new-bill-to-expand-social-security/
In an effort to strengthen one of the nation’s most popular
programs as the GOP pushes for cuts, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and several
congressional Democrats on Wednesday introduced the Social Security Expansion
Act to ensure that seniors can retire in dignity and “everyone with a
disability can live with the security they need.”
Confronting an economic landscape in which half of older
Americans have no retirement savings and 20 percent of seniors are forced to
live on income that barely exceeds the federal poverty line, Sanders’
legislation would significantly expand Social Security benefits and ensure the
program remains solvent for at least the next five decades by subjecting all
income over $250,000 to the Social Security payroll tax.
Sanders officially introduced his legislation at a press
conference alongside Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Democratic Sens. Kirsten
Gillibrand (N.Y.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), and Cory Booker (N.J.)…Continued: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/bernie-sanders-introduces-bold-new-bill-to-expand-social-security/
VII. Big Money and Wall Street
Here Are The Billionaires Backing Joe Biden’s Presidential Campaign
This
article reflects Federal Election Commission filings as of Sept. 30, 2019.
Go here to see the latest billionaire donor count:
Forty-four
(Now over 60) billionaires and their spouses have donated to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, according to a review of the latest federal filings, making the former vice president one of the biggest
billionaire beneficiaries of the 2020 field.
The list
includes famous names like former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and arts patron Eli Broad.
There are also lesser-known tycoons like casino and real estate scion Neil Bluhm and Marcus & Millichap founder George Marcus, who have hosted $1,000-a-head fundraisers for the former vice
president, according to pool reports. Marcus described Biden as “probably the
most sterling individual that we could imagine would occupy the office of the
White House.” Altogether, Forbes found 26 billionaires and
18 billionaire spouses who have contributed to the campaign (Now over 60
billionaires total)….Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2019/12/07/here-are-the-billionaires-backing-joe-bidens-presidential-campaign/#541652d159e7
'Money Is Not Speech and
Corporations Are Not People': Sanders Unveils Plan to Get Corporate Money Out
of Politics
"You can't take on a corrupt
system if you take its money."
The Sanders plan aims to end the corrupting influence of dark money by dramatically curbing the ability of corporations to dominate giving to political parties, replacing the Federal Election Commission with a new enforcement agency, establishing public funding for all federal elections, and pushing for a Constitutional Amendment that makes clear that "money is not speech and corporations are not people."
"Our grassroots-funded campaign is proving every single day that you don't need billionaires and private fundraisers to run for president." —Sen. Bernie SandersThe Sanders campaign said in a statement that the new slate of proposals—which can be read in full here—are designed to end "the greed-fueled, corrupt corporate influence over elections, national party convention, and presidential inaugurations" that currently exists and deliver to the public an election system the puts the America people at the center.
"Our grassroots-funded campaign is proving every single day that you don't need billionaires and private fundraisers to run for president," Sanders said. "We've received more contributions from more individual contributors than any campaign in the history of American politics because we understand the basic reality that you can't take on a corrupt system if you take its money."…Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/07/money-not-speech-and-corporations-are-not-people-sanders-unveils-plan-get-corporate
'All You Need to Know': Biden Reportedly
Weighing Billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Jamie Dimon for Cabinet Posts
"The establishment wing of
the party didn't fall into line behind Biden despite the fact that he'd put
Bloomberg and Jamie Dimon in his cabinet. They did it because of that. This is
who they are."
Joe
Biden is reportedly considering appointing businessman Michael Bloomberg and
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, both billionaires, to powerful leadership
positions should Biden win the Democratic presidential nomination and defeat
President Donald Trump in November.Axios reported Monday that the former vice president and his campaign advisers are weighing Dimon for treasury secretary, a cabinet position tasked with overseeing the U.S. financial system. Biden is also considering Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bank of America vice chair Anne Finucane for the top Treasury post.
Bloomberg, who dropped out of the presidential race last week and immediately endorsed Biden, "would be top possibility to head the World Bank" under a Biden administration, according to Axios.
Progressive observers were appalled, if not surprised, by the preliminary list of potential Biden appointees, which Axios reported just 24 hours before Democratic primary contests in six states.
"This shouldn't surprise anyone. This is who the Dem Party is," tweeted Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept. "The establishment wing of the party didn't fall into line behind Biden despite the fact that he'd put Bloomberg and Jamie Dimon in his cabinet. They did it because of that. This is who they are, their ideology."…Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/09/all-you-need-know-biden-reportedly-weighing-billionaires-michael-bloomberg-and-jamie?fbclid=IwAR0NpyOpUq7GmnAYymlsuInAiUhKiWdCwklhZKB1nmbUQ1YCg7WPC2q5qm8
'Organized Money vs. Organized People':
New Sanders Memo Details Stark Choice Between Biden and Bernie
"Voters face a decision between Bernie's working-class
movement and his message of change, and Biden's effort to—in his own words—make
sure that 'nothing will fundamentally change' for the billionaire class."
Sen.
Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign sent a memo to staffers and surrogates
Monday evening spotlighting "stark" policy differences between
Sanders and Joe Biden on Social Security, trade, and other major issues after
the former vice president received a wave of high-profile endorsements on the
eve of Super Tuesday.
"Voters face a decision
between Bernie's working-class movement and his message of change, and Biden's
effort to—in his own words—make sure that 'nothing will fundamentally change'
for the billionaire class that buys elections."
—Sanders campaign memo
The memo (pdf), authored by Sanders
campaign manager Faiz Shakir and senior adviser Jeff Weaver, characterizes
Biden's endorsements from Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Beto
O'Rourke, and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as part of an effort by
the former vice president to "coalesce the Washington establishment and
its big donors around his campaign to protect the status quo."—Sanders campaign memo
"Heading into Super Tuesday," the memo continues, "the choice in the Democratic primary is now crystal clear: voters face a decision between Bernie's working-class movement and his message of change, and Biden's effort to—in his own words—make sure that 'nothing will fundamentally change' for the billionaire class that buys elections."
"With Biden bankrolled by a super PAC and boosted by billionaire donors, the primary is far from over," the document declares. "We are now entering the phase of the primary in which the differences between Bernie and Biden will take center stage."
David Sirota, speechwriter and senior adviser to the Sanders campaign, echoed that message in social media posts on Monday.
"It is organized money versus organized people," Sirota tweeted, "as it always ends up being in every consequential battle in history."
The memo points to Biden's decades-long record of advocating for cuts to Social Security, a history the Sanders campaign argues could harm Biden's chances in a potential general election match-up with President Donald Trump.
"Joe Biden spent 30 years trying to cut Social Security, while Bernie fought those cuts and pushed to expand the program," the memo says.
The document also highlights Biden's votes as a Delaware senator in favor of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the 2005 bankruptcy bill. By contrast, Sanders voted against each of those.
"These differences make clear that the choice between these two candidates is stark—it is a choice between the party's core economic and social justice agenda, and the Washington establishment's agenda that aims to protect and enrich the wealthy and well-connected," the memo says. "The differences also spotlight how Bernie's agenda is a far more popular general election agenda than Biden’s."
Read the full memo: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/03/organized-money-vs-organized-people-new-sanders-memo-details-stark-choice-between
VIII. Mental Health and Character
Biden Is Showing Signs of Cognitive
Decline. This Should Worry Anyone Who Wants to Beat Trump
"If these were
just isolated incidents, perhaps they could be chalked up to lack of sleep or
the side effect of some medication. But there’s a pattern here and we need to
confront it if we’re going to put our faith in this man to not only beat Trump
but also govern the country."
“We
hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women are created, by the…you
know…you know the thing.”
On the eve of Super Tuesday, Biden gave a speech before a
massive crowd in Texas. Riding high off the momentum of his big win in South
Carolina and a wave of last-minute endorsements from his erstwhile primary
opponents, he finally had his chance to seize the mantle of frontrunner from
Sen. Bernie Sanders. He needed to say something rousing and patriotic, so he
went with an old standard: The Declaration of Independence.
But he struggled to recite the words every child in America
memorized in grade school: “We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men
and women are created, by the…you know…you know the thing.”
Lesser missteps have killed whole presidential bids in the past—the textbook example being the
“Dean scream”—but there was a near-total blackout among
center-left outlets like CNN and MSNBC. Conservative media ran wild with it,
foreshadowing the kind of attack ads that will appear in the general if Biden
should get the nomination.
The only mention in mainstream media the Daily Show, which showed a
clip of it along with several of the former
vice president’s recent “gaffes.” It was
played for laughs, with host Trevor Noah mugging at the camera comedically, but
with so much on the line right now, this is no joke.
Sure, politicians are under a lot of stress and they
occasionally make some egregious flubs, like the time Obama said he had been to 57 states. But when
it’s happening with great frequency to a politician pushing 80 who previously
had surgery for a brain aneurysm, maybe it’s a sign of something more serous.
These aren’t just gaffes. So far Biden has:
- Forgotten which state he was in
- Forgotten Obama’s name
- Called Chris Wallace “Chuck”
- Said
he was a “candidate for the United States Senate” and if you don’t like
him, you can vote for the “other
Biden.”
- Made
up an easily debunked story about being arrested in South
Africa
- Claimed 150 million—about half of the
American population—had been killed in gun violence since 2007
- He’s
had numerous strange and hostile encounters with voters, including calling
one “fat” and another a “lying dog-faced pony soldier”
If these were just isolated incidents, perhaps they could be
chalked up to lack of sleep or the side effect of some medication. But there’s a
pattern here and we need to confront it if we’re going to put our faith in this
man to not only beat Trump but also govern the country.
With all four remaining contenders over age 70, the candidates’
health is a legitimate topic to discuss, but so far the focus has
overwhelmingly been on Bernie Sanders, who had a stent procedure last fall.
Debate moderators have quizzed him about it. His health has been the subject of
countless articles. He’s almost daily being hounded to release more medical
records, which his campaign has likened to
“birtherism.”
If Bernie’s heart is fair game, then so is Joe’s brain.
The mainstream media tells on itself with this double standard.
From James Carville calling Sanders’ Nevada win a “victory for Putin” to Chuck
Todd likening Bernie’s supporters to Brownshirts—outlets like MSNBC and CNN
have shown a naked hostility to Sanders.
Since Biden represents the establishment’s best bet to deny
Sanders the nomination, the centrist media will go to great lengths to downplay
his cognitive decline while presenting Bernie as knocking on death’s door.
This is a political contest, not a marathon. The more relevant
qualification here isn’t whether your ticker is in top shape but whether you
have the mental acuity to appear in public on a daily basis and coherently make
the case for your platform.
Sanders hasn’t fallen ill since his procedure. He has, however
remained mentally sharp, maintaining flawless message discipline. He’s
prepared for every question and always expertly pivots with grace to his core
issues whenever there’s a risk he might falter.
The same can’t be said for Biden. Even his own campaign staff
has little confidence in his ability to communicate with the public. The
Hill reported back
in August 2019 that they were “nervous” about his “verbal flubs” and that he
tended to make them more often “later in the day.”
Handlers can often be seen pulling Biden away when he gets into
tense confrontations with ordinary people. He has repeatedly told voters to “go vote for someone else.”
So far, his campaign has preferred small, intimate events to the
kind of gigantic rallies Sanders has staged. The rationale is ostensibly
strategic—“retail” vs. “wholesale” politics—but there is another explanation,
i.e. that they’re trying to limit his exposure.
As Politico notes, his
campaign hopes to avoid damage caused by Biden’s “longstanding penchant for
going off-message in unscripted environments,” which is a diplomatic way of
describing his rambling diatribes and extended anecdotes that don’t seem to go
anywhere.
But when the general election comes, it will be harder to
stage-manage Biden. He’ll have to do more and larger events. It will be harder
to contain him once he’s facing the press every single day. The facade of basic
competency won’t stand up to scrutiny once the spotlight is on him twenty-four
seven.
He’ll likely face more questions about his son Hunter and his
relationship with the Ukrainian company Burisma, which nearly 60 percent of independent
voters consider a scandal. If he responds to these questions
with anything other than a concise, calculated answer, he’ll be perceived as
crooked.
Of course, Trump is most likely suffering from some kind of
dementia as well, but he’s better at managing it. Trump’s ability as both
showman and conman enables him to mask his incoherence or transform it into an
entertaining spectacle. Biden tries to come off as presidential—to project
gravitas—which is hard if you’re having trouble stringing sentences together.
Aside from his dubious claim to electability, Biden’s selling
point is supposedly his political moderation, but Trump has already started to
use his condition to construct a different narrative. He told a crowd at his
North Carolina rally this week that Biden actually won’t be running the
country—he’s too senile. Instead, his Marxist handlers will be in charge.
I honestly
don’t think he knows what office he’s running for. He’s not going to be running
it. Other people are going to. They’re going to put him into a home and other
people are going to be running the country and they’re going to be super left
radical crazies.
As ridiculous as this attack is, it will be effective on some.
If not, Trump will use a different smear. He’ll say Biden is corrupt— ex. the
“Senator from MBNA”—or that he represents the liberal elite. Biden needs to be
able to manage his own personal narrative or else Trump will create it for him,
and he can’t do that if he isn’t quick on his feet.
Sanders has proven much better at this. In the debates, he has
deftly redirected the many redbaiting attacks against him from his Democratic
opponents. Most recently, he was accused of being soft on leftist dictators for
saying positive things about Cuba. His response was to point out that Obama
said similar comments and then shift the focus to Michael Bloomberg’s dealings
with Saudi Arabia and China.
So while all candidates have liabilities, Biden’s are all
compounded by his biggest: his mental decline.
The Democratic establishment could make an issue out of this if
they chose to. It’s not a matter of ableism or tact. There were no qualms about
using Trump’s mental fitness (or lack thereof) as a pretext to get him removed
from office.
Instead, great pains are taken to minimize or obfuscate Biden’s
cognitive decline. It speaks to the establishment’s priorities that they are
willing to overlook a catastrophic fault in their preferred candidate. It’s not
that he’s their best chance to beat Trump but rather that he’s their only chance to defeat
Bernie Sanders.
BERNIE SANDERS BEATS DONALD TRUMP AND DEMOCRATS ON CHARACTER AND
EMPATHY IN NEW POLL
Bernie Sanders performs better
than any of his 2020 rivals on the issues of personal character and empathy,
according to a new poll.
The USA Today/Ipsos survey
published on Saturday found voters had greater admiration for the Vermont
senator's personal characteristics than they did for President Donald Trump or
other contenders in the Democratic primary field.
Asked for their views on the
character of candidates, 40 percent of those polled said they admired Sanders
while just 26 percent said the same about the commander-in-chief.
Former Vice President Joe Biden
came in second place, with 31 percent of voters admiring his character while 30
percent said the same of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend mayor Pete
Buttigieg….Continued:
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