January 19, 2016

Why This Feminist (Kimberley A. Johnson) Is Voting for Bernie Sanders

Why This Feminist Is Voting for Bernie Sanders
by Kimberley A. Johnson * Jan. 19, 2016 * HuffPost

Last July, I had the opportunity to attend Netroots Nation,(NN) and while having lunch with a group of colleagues, Bernie Sanders walked into the restaurant. The group I was with started cheering and Bernie waved to us. As an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) activist and the spokesperson for the women's advocacy group We Are Woman, I wanted to ask Sanders if he would endorse the ERA on the campaign trail.

The president of We Are Woman, Wendy Cartwright, and I quickly made our way to Sanders as he was leaving and I asked him my question: "Will you endorse the ratification of the ERA?"

He replied, "Okay!"

Wendy asked if his answer was enough of an endorsement to create a graphic to post on Facebook. I told her I didn't think it was. He'd been gracious enough to give us an answer, but I felt we really had to nail it down.

Sanders spoke to an enormous crowd later that night. Tenacious Wendy managed to get into the front row and she once again had the opportunity to ask Sanders if he would endorse the ERA. He shook her hand, looked directly into her eyes and said, "Yes, I will." A few weeks later, this quote appeared on his website:



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kimberley-a-johnson/this-feminist-is-voting-for-bernie-sanders_b_9012950.html

January 18, 2016

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrations Overlook His Critiques of Capitalism and Militarism Zaid Jilani

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrations Overlook His Critiques of Capitalism and Militarism
by Zaid Milani * Jan. 18 2016 * The Intercept

America’s celebrations of Martin Luther King, Jr. typically focus on his civil rights activism: the nonviolent actions that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The last few years of King’s life, by contrast, are generally overlooked. When he was assassinated in 1968, King was in the midst of waging a radical campaign against economic inequality and poverty, while protesting vigorously against the Vietnam War.

This was a campaign whose intellectual roots were found in a younger King, who grew uneasy with the excesses of capitalism around him even as he focused on civil rights issues. In the summer of 1952, he wrote a letter detailing these concerns to Coretta Scott, whom he began dating earlier in the spring. In that letter, he concluded that “capitalism has outlived its usefulness”:



https://theintercept.com/2016/01/18/martin-luther-king-jr-celebrations-overlook-his-critiques-of-capitalism-and-militarism/

January 18, 2016

Plz Sign Petition to WH Asking for Domestic Terrorists in Oregon to be arrested asap

Arrest Ammon Bundy and the armed occupiers of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.

President Obama,

We respectfully request that you end the armed occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge immediately. At the very least, you owe the American people an explanation as to why the area has not been isolated. Members of their organization can come and go as they please, members of the community can visit the occupied facility, and other right-wing extremist groups such as the Idaho III% can show their support.

Law enforcement inaction up to this point is an egregious violation of public safety and emboldens their erroneous assertions that the US Government has no Constitutional Authority.

Please end the siege of the refuge and arraign Ammon Bundy as soon as possible.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/arrest-ammon-bundy-and-armed-occupiers-malheur-wildlife-refuge

January 18, 2016

Hillary: The "No We Can't!" Candidate

Hillary: No We Can't!
By TomP * Monday Jan 18, 2016 * Kos

In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned on the theme of “Yes, We Can!” And while Barack Obama did not accomplish everything we and he wanted to, on many things he tried. When Rahm told him not to even try to reform healthcare because it was not practical, he tried anyway. The ACA is far from perfect. It left almost 30 million Americans behind. But it has helped millions and that’s good.

I’m not going to talk about Hillary’s misleading claims about Bernie, the ACA, and single payer. I want to talk about “No we can’t!”

Hillary talking about Barack Obama in February 2008:

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/12/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-magic-wand/?_r=0

“No, We Can’t!”
Hillary in 2016 taking about Bernie Sanders:

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/12/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-magic-wand/

“No, We Can’t!”
Hillary learned from the debacle in 1994 when her health care plan lost.

“No, We Can’t!”
When it comes to breaking up big banks:

“No, We Can’t!”
When it comes to a $15 an hour minimum wage:

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/18/1471309/-Hillary-No-We-Can-t

January 17, 2016

FBI/ATF apparently doesn't give a rat's ass about Domestic Terrorism in our face

Now they are using the Malheur Refuge as a national stage for white supremacists to promulgate hate, armed insurrection, and land-grabbing Federal property at the point of a gun.

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/01/oregon_standoff_talk_show_host.html#incart_river_index

January 16, 2016

Eugene Robinson: Bernie Sanders’ Run Is No Fairy Tale

Bernie Sanders’ Run Is No Fairy Tale
By Eugene Robinson * Jan 15, 2016 * TruthDig.com

If you thought the political landscape couldn’t be more unsettled, think again. In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders is surging. Hillary Clinton now faces not a coronation, not a cakewalk, but a contest—one she could lose.

Has there ever been a worse election to be an establishment candidate? Certainly not in my lifetime. When a pitchfork-populist billionaire is leading one party’s race and a self-described socialist is rapidly gaining ground in the other, I think it’s safe to say we’re somewhere we haven’t been before.

For much of the past year, Clinton led Sanders in national polls by more than 20 points. Now, according to the Real Clear Politics average, her lead has shrunk to less than nine points—and the most recent survey, a CBS/New York Times poll released this week, showed just a seven-point gap.

State polls should make Clinton even more nervous. Her once-comfortable lead over Sanders in Iowa is now just four points, pretty much a toss-up. And in New Hampshire, Sanders—a longtime senator from next-door Vermont—leads Clinton by six points. It is within the realm of possibility that the presumptive Democratic nominee could lose both of the first two states. Then what?

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bernie_sanders_run_is_no_fairy_tale_20160115

January 16, 2016

Poll: Bill Clinton has NO effect on Hillary's support

Poll: Bill Clinton has no effect on Hillary's support
by Peter Sullivan * January 16, 2016 * The Hill

A majority of the public says that despite his marriage to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton has no effect on who they will support in 2016.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Saturday found that 58 percent said the former president has no effect on their support. Twelve percent said he makes them more likely to support Hillary Clinton, and 15 percent said less likely.
The indifference is even stronger among Democrats. Seventy-three percent say Bill Clinton has no effect on their support.

Bill Clinton, a legendary retail campaigner, has been ramping up his presence on the campaign trail recently. But Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and others have attacked him, tying his past sex scandals to his wife's campaign.

A majority of the public also said, though, that Clinton’s past sexual misconduct “made no difference” in the current race, according to the Reuters poll.

The numbers were higher among Democrats, with 68 percent saying it made no difference.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/266146-poll-bill-clinton-has-no-effect-on-hillarys-support

January 16, 2016

Andrea Mitchell: This Democratic Primary race is now "neck & neck"

on NBC news, discussing the Sunday debate.

No more references to Hillary as the "front-runner".
Now it's officially too close to call.

January 15, 2016

Never been fan of Mr. Bernanke; but now that a 2016 Crash appears to be underway .. thoughts?

Yes, I know. This is about 1-1/2 years old, but to me it makes it all the more interesting, since it
predicts a crash in 2-16 AND with the apparent crash apparently being underway.

Opinion: Countdown to the stock-market Crash of 2016 is ticking louder
By Paul B. Farrell * May 17, 2015 * MarketWatch.com

Warning bells just keep getting louder and louder as the countdown to the Crash of 2016 keeps ticking. Wall Street’s in denial, but the Washington Post warns: “U.S. economic growth slows to 0.2 percent, grinding nearly to a halt.” USA Today hears “Bubble Talk” at the Vegas “Davos for Geeks.” Earlier the Wall Street Journal warned, “declining population could reduce global economic growth by 40%.” Then recently the “slow-growth Fed” was blamed.

Wrong, former Fed chief Ben Bernanke counterattacked: “I’m waiting for the Journal to argue for a well-structured program of public infrastructure development, which would support growth in the near term by creating jobs and in the longer term by making our economy more productive.” But for years the Fed “has been pretty much the only game in town as far as economic policy goes.” Today “we should be looking for a better balance between monetary and other growth-promoting policies, including fiscal policy.”

Fiscal policy? No, Ben, not a chance. The GOP controls economic policy. And they will never give “growth-promoting fiscal policy” victories to President Obama and Hillary Clinton before the presidential election of 2016. Never. In spite of Bernanke’s obviously rational solution to the core problems of the American economy, one that would help the American people, the GOP will never, ever agree to fiscal stimulus programs that give the Democrats bragging rights and make Obama and Clinton look good before the elections.

The GOP is hungry for power, very hungry. They lost the presidency twice to Obama. They want it back. And now their collective ego is convinced that with the $889 million backing from the Koch Empire they can beat Hillary and take absolute control of the American democracy: win the presidency, hold Congress, gain the power to issue executive orders and veto legislation, appoint more than 6,000 insiders including cabinet officers, regulatory heads, federal judges, ambassadors, staff bureaucrats, and more. Yes, the GOP knows all that power is on the line in 2016.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/countdown-to-the-stock-market-crash-of-2016-is-ticking-louder-2015-05-08

January 15, 2016

Is Wall St. deliberately crashing the US economy just before the elections?

Dow drops (by mid-day) more than 500 points
by Sylvan Lane * 1/15/16 * The Hill

The U.S. stock market was hit with heavy losses Friday as the Dow Jones industrial average fell by more than 500 points by midday trading.

The S&P 500 at one point fell 3.5 percent, and the Nasdaq dropped more than 4 percent.

It's been a treacherous January for the stock market. The latest losses were spurred by the lowest crude oil prices in decades, disappointing December retail sales and concerns about slowdowns in international economic growth, according to The Associated Press. Other worries for investors include a third consecutive month of dropping U.S. industrial production and weak Chinese economic growth.

A plunging stock market could quickly become an issue on the presidential trail. President Obama touted the nation's economic recovery during his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, but critics say those gains haven't reached most Americans.

“The United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world,” Obama said in his speech. “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.”

Republican presidential candidates ripped Obama's take on the economy during Thursday's night's debate. Chris Christie called it "story time with Barack Obama."

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/economy/266049-dow-tanks-more-than-400-points-on-open