January 31, 2016

Bernie Sanders' Small Donor Fundraising Continues To Set Records, $20 Million in ONE month.

Bernie Sanders' Small Donor Fundraising Continues To Set Records
Almost all of the $75 million his campaign raised in 2015 came from small donors.
by Paul Blumenthal, Money in Politics Reporter * 01/31/2016 * The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign raised $33.6 million in the last three months of 2015 and another $20 million in January alone, the campaign announced Sunday. The campaign further stated that 1.3 million people have made 3.25 million donations to Sanders' run -- a record number of donors at this stage in a presidential campaign.

“The numbers we’ve seen since Jan. 1 put our campaign on pace to beat Secretary Clinton’s goal of $50 million in the first quarter of 2016,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said in a statement. “Working Americans chipping in a few dollars each month are not only challenging but beating the greatest fundraising machine ever assembled.”

The vast majority of Sanders' money has come from donors giving under $200. This contrasts with Hillary Clinton's campaign, which has raised the majority of its funds from donors giving maximum contributions of $2,700. Clinton’s campaign has also raised substantial sums from small donors, but Sanders’ ability to remain competitive with Clinton’s fundraising by relying solely on small contributions is unprecedented.

The Sanders camp said that the fourth quarter total will show 70 percent of the campaign's donations came from small donors. Further, the $20 million it reports to have raised in January came almost exclusively from online donations averaging $27 a piece.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-fundraising_us_56ae4f7ee4b0010e80ea7bdb

January 31, 2016

Bernie Sanders Calls Hillary Clinton's Emails 'A Very Serious Issue'

Bernie Sanders Calls Hillary Clinton's Emails 'A Very Serious Issue'
Just because he called them her "damn emails" doesn't mean he doesn't think they're important.
by Elise Foley * 01/31/2016 * HuffPo

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is still steering clear of directly attacking opponent Hillary Clinton over her email controversy, but said Sunday it's a "serious issue" -- and that his past statement that he was "sick and tired of hearing about [her] damn emails" doesn't mean he thinks she did nothing wrong.

Clinton, a former secretary of state, is under renewed scrutiny for her use of private email during her time at the State Department. The agency announced Friday that it had withheld 22 emails determined to be "top secret" from public release, although at the time they were sent they were not marked as classified.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, about his memorable "damn emails" remark in an October debate and whether it meant he didn't think Clinton erred in her use of a private email account.

"Nope, nope. That is not, I think, a fair assessment," Sanders replied on CNN's "State of the Union." "That is, I think, a very serious issue. There is a legal process taking place, I do not want to politicize that issue. It is not my style."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elise-foley/

January 31, 2016

Now that Hillary, Bernie & O'M have agreed on more debates, how about one on HEALTHCARE?

Hosted and organized by Physicians for a Nat'l Health Program

Doctors group welcomes national debate on ‘Medicare for All’
Nonpartisan physicians group calls single-payer reform ‘the only effective remedy’ for nation’s continuing health care woes and urges focus on facts, not rhetoric

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 22, 2016
Contact: Mark Almberg, PNHP communications director, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org

Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of 20,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance, released the following statement today by its president, Dr. Robert Zarr, a Washington, D.C., pediatrician.

The national debate on single-payer health reform, or "Medicare for All," that has emerged in the course of the presidential primaries is a welcome development. But unfortunately a number of misrepresentations about single-payer national health insurance – and the prospects for its attainment – have crept into the dialogue and are potentially misleading the public.

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2016/january/doctors-group-welcomes-national-debate-on-‘medicare-for-all’

January 30, 2016

Hillary isn't making sense. How does 'debate' on Bernie's single payer plan equal Obamacare repeal?

Hillary isn't making sense. How does 'debate' on Bernie's single payer plan equal Obamacare repeal?
By Ian Reifowitz * Saturday Jan 30, 2016 * Daily Kos

I’m a bit, shall we say, confused by Secretary Clinton’s criticism of Senator Sanders’ call to implement a single payer health care plan. On Friday she declared that such a plan is an "idea that will never, ever come to pass." We can agree or disagree on the soundness of that prediction, but that’s at least a coherent statement. Then she continued:



People can't wait. You daughter calls and says she has a mass in her forehead, you can't wait. You quit your job to take care of your sick daughter -- something I think a lot of us can relate to -- you can't wait.
In the words of Tom Hanks’ character in “Big”: I don’t get it. What she’s saying literally makes no sense. Talking about, debating, and either passing—or failing to pass—a single-payer health care plan won’t force anyone having a health emergency to “wait” for anything. Doing so won’t take health care coverage away from anyone. Doing so won’t “repeal” one iota of the Affordable Care Act until and unless a new law is not only passed but implemented.

If we end up in gridlock while discussing single payer, the Affordable Care Act remains in place. Surely Secretary Clinton knows this. Surely anyone who has even the slightest clue about how laws work in this country knows this. Yet she seems to be telling voters something different. She’s leaving them with the impression that even having a “terrible, terrible national debate” about single payer will somehow weaken or destroy the Affordable Care Act.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/30/1477293/-Hillary-isn-t-making-sense-How-does-a-debate-on-single-payer-equal-Obamacare-repeal

January 30, 2016

Saw this on Facebook (Occupy) but photobucket is down, for maint, so I can't DU-post it cleanly

but I thought it was post-worthy so I'm sharing, if anyone wants to steal it
and post it cleanly, have at it.

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyPortland/photos/a.169681516447399.43488.169658036449747/976534002428809/?type=3&theater

January 29, 2016

Elizabeth Warren: Prosecute Corporate Crime Better Than Obama (to Clinton & Sanders)

Elizabeth Warren Challenges Clinton, Sanders to Prosecute Corporate Crime Better Than Obama
by David Dayen * Jan. 29 2016 * The Intercept

Three days before the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has released what might have been her closing argument had she been a candidate in the presidential race. It’s a thorough indictment of a rigged system in Washington that allows corporate criminals to go free while those without the same power and influence get severely punished.

The report — a 12-page booklet titled “Rigged Justice: How Weak Enforcement Lets Corporate Offenders Off Easy” — cites 20 well-documented civil and criminal cases from 2015 “in which the federal government failed to require meaningful accountability.”

Of the 20 cases, which span Wall Street, the auto industry, pharmaceuticals, natural resources, and more, only one resulted in any convictions to executives, and that was for a misdemeanor — in the Upper Big Branch mine case, where 29 Americans died.

The focus on how laws are enforced rather than the intricacies of the law itself carries on a theme Warren has stressed throughout primary season — that personnel is policy, that who you will put in power in those key regulatory positions matters as much as your 10-point plan.

The Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps — and their allies in the press — have been arguing increasingly harshly over who has the most perfect or most attainable policies. But the real issue, as Warren sees it, comes in installing the personnel to carry out the laws on the books that protect public safety and the economy.

https://theintercept.com/2016/01/29/elizabeth-warren-challenges-clinton-sanders-to-prosecute-corporate-crime-better-than-obama/

January 29, 2016

Clinton: It's the M$M's fault that Bernie is pulling ahead of her in Iowa & NH

This is truly rich. Who knew?

Is media driving Bernie momentum?
By Jonathan Easley and Amie Parnes * 1/29/16 * The Hill

Veteran Democrats and some Hillary Clinton supporters say the media’s thirst for a competitive contest has led it to overplay the rise of Bernie Sanders. They acknowledge that Sanders is running strong in Iowa and New Hampshire – the first two states to vote, but say that is largely because the predominantly white progressive electorates are tailor-made for his candidacy.

~snip~

“It's a media driven story because reporters want an exciting race,” said one former senior Obama administration official, who is neutral. “They want to recreate the 2008 campaign but let's face it, it's not.”

Ironically, just weeks ago it was Sanders supporters who were complaining about the media. At the time, Clinton appeared to have pulled away from Sanders, and his campaign complained about a “Bernie blackout.”

Since then, the media narrative has shifted to Sanders’s rise and whether Clinton is set for repeat of her 2008 failure against then-Sen. Barack Obama.

http://linkis.com/thehill.com/blogs/pu/Mz6nG

January 29, 2016

Why Bernie Sanders Is Winning the Hearts and Minds of America

Why Bernie Sanders Is Winning the Hearts and Minds of America
by Tom Weis * Thursday, January 28, 2016 * Common Dreams

If you’re lucky, once in your lifetime, maybe twice if you’re really lucky, you’ll get an opportunity to support a presidential candidate who speaks to your values on a very deep personal level. For me, that chance came the day Bernie Sanders announced his presidential campaign. My reason for supporting Bernie Sanders for president can be summed up in one word: authenticity.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is the real deal and people feel it in their guts. We know he’s on our side. A profile in political courage and integrity, Bernie Sanders is a patriot who has been fighting for economic and social justice all his life. Finally, we have a candidate who is not only willing, but eager, to take on Wall Street, the media elites and the corrupt political establishment. This is why I joined the political revolution on Day 1 and why millions of Americans from all political stripes are Feeling the Bern.

In a remarkable November speech at Georgetown University, Bernie Sanders passionately articulated the rationale for his candidacy by saying, “We need to develop a political movement which, once again, is prepared to take on and defeat a ruling class whose greed is destroying our nation." Sign me up.

If you’ve watched the Democratic debates (I feel your pain if you’ve suffered through the rancor of the Republican ones), you’ve probably noticed something else about Bernie Sanders: he’s tough, but he’s not a gutter fighter. He’s got class. Senator Sanders is a gentleman and a statesman who shares the public’s appetite for mature political discourse.

He also has his priorities straight: never did I think I would see a presidential candidate in their first nationally televised debate use their opening statement to talk not about themselves, but about the challenges facing our nation. That was a watershed moment in American political history and speaks volumes about the man’s character. He knows this campaign is not about him. It’s about us.

Whole Article Here: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/28/why-bernie-sanders-winning-hearts-and-minds-america

January 29, 2016

This article needs to be vetted by 20,000 Doctors, who I think may disagree

Doctors group welcomes national debate on ‘Medicare for All’
Nonpartisan physicians group calls single-payer reform ‘the only effective remedy’ for nation’s continuing health care woes and urges focus on facts, not rhetoric

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 22, 2016
Contact: Mark Almberg, PNHP communications director, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org

Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of 20,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance, released the following statement today by its president, Dr. Robert Zarr, a Washington, D.C., pediatrician.

The national debate on single-payer health reform, or "Medicare for All," that has emerged in the course of the presidential primaries is a welcome development. But unfortunately a number of misrepresentations about single-payer national health insurance – and the prospects for its attainment – have crept into the dialogue and are potentially misleading the public.

Most of these misrepresentations, or myths, have been decisively refuted by peer-reviewed research. They include the following:

Myth: A single-payer system would impose an unacceptable financial burden on U.S. households. Reality: Single payer is the only health reform that pays for itself. By replacing hundreds of insurers and thousands of different private health plans, each with their own marketing, enrollment, billing, utilization review, actuary and other departments, with a single, streamlined, tax-financed nonprofit program, more than $400 billion in health spending would be freed up to guarantee coverage to all of the 30 million people who are currently uninsured and to upgrade the coverage of everyone else, including the tens of millions who are underinsured. Co-pays and deductibles, which have been rapidly rising under the Affordable Care Act, would be eliminated. Further, the single-payer system’s bargaining clout would rein in rising costs for drugs and medical supplies. Lump-sum budgets for hospitals and capital planning would control costs even more.

MORE: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2016/january/doctors-group-welcomes-national-debate-on-‘medicare-for-all’

January 28, 2016

For Clinton & Krugman, 'Hardheaded Realism' Amounts to Protecting Interests of the Richest People

For Clinton & Krugman, 'Hardheaded Realism' Amounts to Protecting the Interests of the Richest People in America
The demeaning attacks on Bernie Sanders speak volumes about Hillary Clinton's worldview.
By Les Leopold * AlterNet * January 27, 2016

Here are three telling quotes about this year's election:







Team Hillary (which includes economist/columnist Paul Krugman) is worried about major defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. Their counter-attack is clear—Bernie is all pie in the sky, he isn't facing up to the realities of Washington. And as Krugman puts it, Sanders and his supporters are letting "idealism veer into destructive self-indulgence."

But these demeaning attacks say much more about Clinton than they do about Sanders. In effect Clinton is admitting (as is Krugman) that we have to accept American plutocracy as a given that, at best, can be modified around the edges. Neither Clinton nor Krugman believe a progressive populist uprising (that Sanders is calling for and counting on) could possibly modify our elite-driven system. After all, if such a movement is possible, Hillary is likely to lose. Therefore it must be declared impossible, off the table, unrealistic and so on.

Clearly Clinton and Krugman accept that elite rule not only shapes our current sense of reality, it is our permanent reality.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/clinton-and-krugman-hardheaded-realism-amounts-protecting-interests-richest-people