Democratic candidate Townhall forum

Why is this getting so little attention?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-omalley-town-hall/
Washington (CNN)The Democratic presidential hopefuls will face voters in a CNN town hall on Monday in Des Moines -- one week before the highly anticipated Iowa caucuses.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will field questions from Iowa Democrats in this prime-time event hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party and Drake University.

"We are honored to partner with CNN on their town hall with our three fantastic Democratic candidates," said Dr. Andy McGuire, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. "With this event airing just one week before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, it's an incredible opportunity for Iowans to see our candidates detail their plans to move our country forward and their vision for Iowa and the nation."

The town hall, which will be moderated by CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, will air from 9 p.m.-11 p.m. ET, the network announced. A CNN spokesperson added that it will make the town hall available to its Iowa affiliates to air live.

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seriously, I had to search for this on the news sites after seeing about it from someone here in a thread.

Not such a strong debate for Hillary

she actually turned off my wife, who was leaning towards her.

She was on the defensive most of the time, didn't really put out any new ideas.

On Trump and Fascism

This may have been posted here some time before, but it is a good discussion of what fascism is.
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http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2015/11/donald-trump-may-not-be-fascist-but-he.html

Donald Trump May Not Be a Fascist, But He is Leading Us Merrily Down That Path




People who have studied the extremist right as a historical and sociopolitical phenomenon in depth are acutely aware of a simple truth: America has been very, very lucky so far when it comes to fascistic political movements.

And now, with the arrival of the Donald Trump 2016 phenomenon, that luck may be about to run out.

Nor is this phenomenon just a flash in the pan. Trump is the logical end result of an endless series of assaults on not just American liberalism, but on democratic institutions themselves, by the American right for many years. It is the long-term creep of radicalization of the right come home to roost.

Fascistic elements and tendencies have always been part of America’s DNA. Indeed, it can be said that some of the worst traits of fascism in Europe were borrowed from their American exemplars – particularly the eliminationist tendencies, manifested first in the form of racial and ethnic segregation, and ultimately in genocidal violence.

Hitler acknowledged at various times his admiration for the American genocide against Native Americans, as well as the segregationist policies of the Jim Crow regime in the South (on which the Nuremberg Race Laws were modeled) and the threat of the lynch mob embodied in the Ku Klux Klan. According to Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler was “passionately interested in the Ku Klux Klan. ... He seemed to think it was a political movement similar to his own." And indeed it was.

The positive cases for both Hillary and Bernie

I'm only focusing on the positive here!

Hillary:
1) first woman president-- breaking the glass ceiling-- is huge, transformative
2) she has extensive government experience at the highest levels, knows how things work in US government
3) she will be very strong on women's rights, reproductive rights, family issues
4) she will be strong on minority rights
5) she recognizes the importance of climate change and action on transitioning to a renewable energy economy
6) she will stand up to the NRA
7) she will be pro-environment
8) she will fight for improving the healthcare system and giving healthcare to all Americans
9) she will appoint good people to the Supreme Court
10) she will drive Republicans bonkers, much like Obama did.

Bernie:
1) more than any other candidate, he recognizes of the problem of America becoming a plutocracy; he is a major champion of fixing the massive problem of income inequality, and will really work to fix what has become a corrupt system, especially the banking system. He would be transformative in this regard.
2) he has government experience at the highest level; he knows how things work, he also has executive experience
3) he will be very strong on women's rights, reproductive rights, family issues
4) he will be very strong on minority rights
5) he strongly recognizes the importance of climate change and action on transitioning to a renewable energy economy
6) he has incredible integrity; he will not be in the thrall of corporations
7) he will be pro-environment
8) he will fight for improving the healthcare system and giving healthcare to all Americans
9) he will appoint good people to the Supreme Court
10) he will drive Republicans bonkers, much like Obama did.
11) he would be the first non-Christian elected to the presidency, and first Jew.
12) he recognizes the problem of endless, needless wars, and the power of the military industrial complex and how much money is sucked into it.

Is Hillary getting thrown under the bus by Obama?

Biden put out very pro-Bernie remarks a couple days ago on income inequality.

Obama made Bernie-like references to income inequality in the SOTU last night.

Axelrod comes out and denounces Chelsea on CNN about the healthcare attack.

Wow.

Vote by Mail-- a way to save our democracy

Great piece:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/januaryfebruary_2016/features/vote_from_home_save_your_count059190.php?page=all


Vote from Home, Save Your Country
Universal vote by mail can revive the franchise and change the political map. So why the resistance?
By Phil Keisling

"Democrats and their progressive allies aren’t bereft of ideas to boost voter participation. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are both championing promising reforms, such as automatically registering all American citizens based on driver’s licenses or birth records. But no other solution holds anywhere near the potential to boost actual voter turnout. Evidence from Oregon, Colorado, and Washington suggests that if other states adopted universal vote by mail (UVBM), they could increase their registered voter turnout in midterm elections by 10 to 15 percent. Even more dramatically, they could double or triple their primary election turnout, which would almost certainly reduce the inordinate influence of take-no-prisoners ideologues. (See “Can Vote by Mail Reduce Partisan Extremism?”)

Universal vote by mail has many other virtues, too. Those odious photo ID laws? Rendered moot; you don’t need a voter ID to fill out a ballot at your own kitchen table. Long polling place lines? How about no lines, period—and no way for elected officials to manufacture them by (whoops!) providing too few polling places in certain neighborhoods?

Universal vote by mail has also proven to be at least as secure from fraud—and arguably more so—as traditional voting at polls. Election officials check each voter’s signature on the ballot return envelope, matching it against the voter registration card before the ballot is counted. (Since signatures can change, voters still have time to update their registration cards—and qualify their ballots—before results are officially certified.)

Universal vote by mail has the additional advantage of being less costly to taxpayers than the traditional method. Beginning in 2000, Oregon taxpayers started saving $3 million per election cycle. Or consider California’s San Diego County, where election officials found that in a 2013 special election for mayor the direct cost of operating their polling places—$360,000, for 32 percent of votes cast—far exceeded that of the “mailed out” portion—$84,000, for 68 percent of votes cast. "

The last time we had a Democratic Socialist as president...

Ted Cruz is literally insane

Historic New Harpers Article Exposes Who Controls America

Very disturbing article, but it explains a lot, particularly about how there is no end to the war on terror.

http://off-guardian.org/2015/12/18/historic-new-harpers-article-exposes-who-controls-america/

"To boil it all down to the essence: The fundamentalist-Sunni royal family of the Sauds have bought the highest levels of the U.S. government in order to control U.S. foreign policies, especially the ongoing wars to take down the governments of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and ultimately (they hope) of Russia itself, which latter nation has allied itself instead with Shiia countries. The controlling entities behind American foreign policies since at least the late 1970s have been the Saud family and the Sauds’ subordinate Arabic aristocracies in Qatar (the al-Thanis), Kuwait (the al-Sabahs), Turkey (the Tuktik Erdoğans, a new royalty), and UAE (its six royal families: the main one, the al-Nahyans in Abu Dhabi; the other five: the al-Maktoums in Dubai, al-Qasimis in Sharjah, al-Nuaimis in Ajman, al-Mualla Ums in Quwain, and al-Sharqis in Fujairah). Other Saudi-dominated nations — though they’re not oil-rich (more like Turkey in this regard) — are Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Historic New Harpers Article Exposes Who Controls America

Very disturbing stuff, but explains a lot.

http://off-guardian.org/2015/12/18/historic-new-harpers-article-exposes-who-controls-america/

"To boil it all down to the essence: The fundamentalist-Sunni royal family of the Sauds have bought the highest levels of the U.S. government in order to control U.S. foreign policies, especially the ongoing wars to take down the governments of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and ultimately (they hope) of Russia itself, which latter nation has allied itself instead with Shiia countries. The controlling entities behind American foreign policies since at least the late 1970s have been the Saud family and the Sauds’ subordinate Arabic aristocracies in Qatar (the al-Thanis), Kuwait (the al-Sabahs), Turkey (the Tuktik Erdoğans, a new royalty), and UAE (its six royal families: the main one, the al-Nahyans in Abu Dhabi; the other five: the al-Maktoums in Dubai, al-Qasimis in Sharjah, al-Nuaimis in Ajman, al-Mualla Ums in Quwain, and al-Sharqis in Fujairah). Other Saudi-dominated nations — though they’re not oil-rich (more like Turkey in this regard) — are Pakistan and Afghanistan."