June 26, 2019

My baby boy was born almost two and a half years ago.

I am an extremely proud parent.

I have read to my boy every night since he was born. That practice literally started in the hospital his first night with us.

I have cut back on hours at work so I am present in his life. My father was an amazing man but was never really around. He worked all of the time to provide for us. I have said for some time that I'm going to do it different.

My boy has been reciting his ABC's since he was one and can count to one hundred. He spells(pointing to words in books) and counts when asked.

He hits thrown balls and has a really impressive baseball swing. He kind of stinks at catching but he does catch the ball.

He sees family every single weekend.

He is in a good daycare that has done an amazing job at fostering his growth.

He has been hiking in the mountains and "swimming" in the ocean. He can hold his breath underwater but I still haven't let go of him.

His vocabulary is just exploding. He uses sentences to say what he wants. He says please, thank you, and you're welcome.

He has been to museums, sporting events, aquariums.... you name it.

So why am I telling you about my obvious privilege? I just read some things about children at detention facilities that were around my sons age. The children seen had no vocabulary, had not mastered walking, and were being cared for by other children, for the most part. I'm telling you because it left my privileged ass in tears. Literally. Yeah, another sign of my privilege. I get to read about this stuff and then rant on a message board.

This isn't just a child detention camp issue. It's so much deeper. It's societal. From beginning to end. From our punitive justice system that removes too many parents from their children to the erosion of our public school system. From lack of access to parental healthcare to a system of capitalism that isn't regulated enough. The children are the innocent who pay an extreme price.

The haves and have nots.

We do not have equal opportunity. Our children do not have equal opportunity.

As some children are more advanced than mine at this stage, other children don't stand a chance at advancement in their current environment. They simply have no access to opportunity. They have no access to proper learning channels. They can't fight for opportunity. That is up to us.

While we have to keep the pressure up and also elect the right people, this is clearly up to us. We can't rest. We live in a representative republic. Pick your representatives wisely and then hold their feet to the fire. Support local groups who help children with issues at home. Often those issues are the makings of society and not of the parents themselves.

No child left behind? Fuck. We will leave them in cages. We take their parents from them and imprison them for non-violent crimes. We will put them in failing schools. We will ask their parents to work fifty plus hours per week and then not give them affordable access to quality child care or after school programs.

I just wanted to start typing after I read about some of these children. I had thoughts for an op planned but quickly went off track. Not sure how it reads and don't really care. I'm upset. I rarely find myself upset. I guess that's it. I want these children to have the same opportunity as my child, at a minimum. Rant over.

June 26, 2019

Warren visits migrant care shelter, says children being marched 'like little prisoners'

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says she saw children being marched around "like little prisoners" during a visit to a migrant shelter Wednesday.

Warren told reporters in Florida that she looked at some of the children in the Homestead emergency care facility from a ladder, but she said she was not allowed into shelter itself, HuffPost's Maxwell Strachan reported.

“I saw a harsh, flat, packed down field with a couple of soccer goals in each one, baking in the sun and temporary shelters that were all covered up, and children being marched from one to another in single file with guards. I waved, some of the children looked over, some kept their heads down. Finally, a group of children waved and quickly pulled their hands down,” she said.

The Hill

June 26, 2019

2/8/2017 Silencing Elizabeth Warren backfires on Senate GOP

CNN

"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." The Turtle

It's still backfiring!

June 21, 2019

I'm going to kick it the exact moment he thinks I won't.

https://twitter.com/SCClemons/status/1142133005181476864

June 21, 2019

The story to me isn't about Bidens statement about working with segregationists.

We all agree that it really wasn't offensive. More people now understand that as they have had time to actually read what he said and not just what came to them by way of social media.

Symone Sanders hit on the real offense. His sensible statement is being used against him in a "willfully disingenuous" manner.

Please understand that. People are using race to attack Biden in a willfully disingenuous manner.

I understand a politicians motives to do so. No free passes for everyone else. Using race in a willfully disingenuous manner as is being done is either racist or politically motivated. Either way, it is a statement about those doing the attacking. Not Biden.

June 21, 2019

Bernie Sanders 2016 National Press Secretary calls attacks on Biden "willfully disingenuous"

https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/1141452538610442240

June 21, 2019

Joe Biden wins 2020 support from these SC mayors

Former Charleston Mayor Joe Riley will back Joe Biden for president in 2020, the former vice president’s campaign announced Thursday.

Biden’s campaign rolled out another wave of endorsements on Thursday from three former and at least seven current S.C. mayors — most of whom are black — a day before Biden will join 21 other Democratic presidential hopefuls in Columbia for the S.C. Democratic Party’s convention weekend.

“I am honored to have the support of so many mayors,” Biden said in a statement provided to The State. “These are folks who know firsthand what it takes to lead and get things done to help working people. I am grateful and proud to have these outstanding mayors on my team.”

The former Delaware U.S. senator and Riley, who Biden has described as “America’s Mayor,” have long been friends. And, when Biden visits South Carolina, he frequently stops in Charleston, the Lowcountry city he once said he would like to be reborn in when he dies.

The State

June 21, 2019

4-13-2017 - Vermont's Black Leaders: We Were 'Invisible' to Bernie Sanders

He’s paying attention to the concerns of black America now, as a presidential candidate. Back when he represented Vermont? Not so much, local activists say.

Instead, remembers Curtiss Reed Jr., the executive director of the group, it became something of a showdown. Sanders “was just really dismissive of anything that had to do with race and racism, saying that they didn’t have anything to do with the issues of income inequality,” Reed told The Daily Beast.

“He just always kept coming back to income inequality as a response, as if talking about income inequality would somehow make issues of racism go away.”

And since winning that race, Sanders’s approach toward Reed and his organization has been one of “benign neglect,” the activist added. “We are a major statewide organization. It would stand to reason that you would check in with your major constituents, but voters of color are simply not on his radar.”

The Daily Beast

3-2-2017Bernie and the White Savior Shuffle





Huffington Post

11/19/2014On African-American support for Democrats





NPR

June 20, 2019

Sanders saying Warren is pulling ahead because of her gender...

Isn’t his first foray into using gender in a highly questionable way.

"When Sanders was my opponent he focused like a laser beam on 'class analysis,' in which 'women’s issues' were essentially a distraction from more important issues. He urged voters not to vote for me just because I was a woman. That would be a 'sexist position,' he declared."

Boston Globe

“Should we vote for [Kunin] because she is a woman? To the degree people think that that’s true, I would regard that as a sexist position.” Bernie Sanders

Burlington Free Press



Rolling Stone

“We have got to look at candidates, you know, not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or their gender and not by their age. I mean, I think we have got to try to move us toward a non-discriminatory society which looks at people based on their abilities, based on what they stand for.” Bernie Sanders

Harpers Bazaar

He is literally speaking for himself with this sentence. A strong stance in favor of equality for white men.

And what did he say about ignoring the serious sexual assault, harassment , and pay disparity allegations during his last campaign.

“I’m a little bit busy running around the country” Bernie Sanders

VOX

He followed that up by giving a group one whole hour of his time. Thankfully the people on his campaign this time around decided to unionize to put protections in place, since they weren’t coming from the top.

Then there are his own words that are so offensive that I doubt they will stand on DU. He was an adult when he wrote this. I believe he was around the age of Mayor Pete.

A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.
A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.
The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their "revolutionary" political meeting.

VOX

Thankfully he is sinking. His general election campaign and our shot at progress would end the day his rape fantasy ran as a commercial. Even with that said, his history is more checkered than many want to admit. There is no question he has inherent sexist tendencies.

June 20, 2019

Sanders Says Elizabeth Warren Catching Up to Him Because People 'Would Like To See A Woman Elected"

Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders pegged Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s rise in the primary polls to, among other things, the idea that there are “a certain number of people who would like to see a woman elected.”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/bernie-sanders-says-elizabeth-warren-catching-up-to-him-because-people-would-like-to-see-a-woman-elected/

5/20/2019
What the Hell Happened With Bernie Sanders’s Abortion Comments This Week?

In a Meet the Press interview on Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders bungled his response to a very leading question from Chuck Todd on abortion access.

Todd asked the senator from Vermont if he was “concerned about this idea that people may try to worry about the sex of a child, or essentially, are those types of restrictions on abortions something you’re open to?” Instead of swatting away the unfounded concern that people may be terminating pregnancies after finding out the sex of the fetus — or at the very least pleading ignorance on the matter — Sanders doubled down on Todd’s assertion, saying, “That, I mean, that’s a concern … that’s an issue that society has got to deal with, and it is of concern.”

Todd followed up by asking Sanders how he would “deal with that in the law?” Sanders replied, “I don’t know how, at this particular point. I would deal with it, but that is an issue we really have got to deal with.”

https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/why-did-bernie-sanders-repeat-an-anti-choice-talking-point.html

“The cat is out of the bag. The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is publicly ‘anybody but Bernie.’ They know our progressive agenda of Medicare for All, breaking up big banks, taking on drug companies and raising wages is the real threat to the billionaire class.” Sanders showing sings of conspiratorial paranoia.

Lots more out there of his recent "missteps." I say missteps because most of us know this is who he really is. From rape fantasy, to a career with very few accomplishments, to fighting against a pathway to citizenship, to siding with Russia multiple times in more recent history.

Yet Warrens gender is why she is passing him? This is who Sanders is. This should be a wake-up call to those who haven't already received one.