March 28, 2016

Chelsea: Mom will do something to address "crushing costs of Obamacare"

Yes, the Weekly Standard is a conservative publication. But I am posting a link because there is audio of Chelsea talking about how her Mom was going to address the "crushing costs of Obamacare" (presumably the premiums plus large deductibles that Bernie has been talking about) as President, either via legislation or executive action. There is 29 seconds of audio at this link:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/chelsea-hits-obamacares-crushing-costs/article/2001707

For some reason, this didn't get any play in the MSM, even though the comment was made in the same meeting in Madison, WI that Chelsea opened by saying that Democrats had no realistic chance at gaining a House majority until 2022 at the earliest and that her Mom had a history of working with Republicans like Tom DeLay and John McCain. Those comments were included in a Washington Post article on how Hillary is sending Chelsea to college campuses where Hillary is not popular:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/03/25/daily-202-chelsea-clinton-goes-into-hostile-territory-college-towns-to-help-her-mom/56f40d59981b92a22dae36e2/

Wasn't it just 6 weeks or so ago that Hillary was going after Bernie on his single payer healthcare proposal, accusing him of wanting to dismantle Obamacare? Now Obamacare has "crushing costs" that must be addressed?

Why is Hillary so opposed to a single payer Medicare for all healthcare system, which is favored by 58% of Americans, including 81% of Democrats and 60% of independents?

http://pnhp.org/blog/2015/12/17/kaiser-poll-58-of-americans-support-medicare-for-all/

Does Hillary really think that getting Republicans to boost funding for Obamacare to effectively reduce premiums and deductibles (and leave 29 million uninsured) would be easier than fighting for a Medicare for all plan with the vast majority of Democrats and Independents behind her? Or is it that she doesn't want to cross her campaign contributors from the health insurance, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries?

March 27, 2016

Jonathan Karl Interview of Bernie on "This Week" was a disgrace

After giving a 15 minute phone interview to Trump at the beginning of the show, he spent about 5 minutes interviewing Bernie, who went to the trouble of showing up at a studio where he could be interviewed on camera.

Here are the 5 questions Karl asked:

1. So you won big out there in those 3 states. You're still way behind in the delegate count, but does that...what does this mean for the race, does this mean you are absolutely going through to the end?

2. But you still need 73% of the delegates going forward, which is a huge..... (interrupted by Bernie: "No we don't. No. No. No. I don't accept that. That is not the case. You're assuming that every superdelegate that now supports Secretary Clinton will stay with her. You're not taking into account that there are hundreds of superdelegates who have not made a decision.....&quot

3. You've heard Democrats saying it's time to lay off Secretary Clinton, keep this positive now, stop the attacks on her Wall Street ties, her SuperPacs, all of that. Are you going to start laying off or are you know, going to start putting the pedal to the metal here? (this prompts a response from Bernie that contrasting his record with Secretary Clinton's on a variety of issues that he then goes through is talking about the issues, not a personal attack)

4. So you said in an interview this week, uh that, she may not be liberal enough to be in your cabinet, so let me ask you now after these wins, is she liberal enough to be your running mate, would you consider her?

5. So Senator Sanders, we saw a situation this week where an ISIS leader was taken out by American ground troops, Special Forces on the ground in Syria. You are firmly opposed to boots on the ground. Was that something that raised concerns for you? (prompts Bernie to start with "No, that's not quite accurate. What I have said is that I support what President Obama is doing....) Once Bernie started talking about how ISIS is in retreat and has lost 30-40% of the territory it had, Karl realized his gotcha question had not worked and started to cut him off and end the interview.

Karl asked all but the last of these questions with a grin/smirk on his face, as if the whole thing was a bit of a joke.

March 27, 2016

ABC Asshat Jonathan Karl Questions of Bernie on "This Week"

After doing a 15 minute phone interview with Donald Trump at the beginning of the show, he did about a 5 minute interview with Bernie Sanders, who actually went to the trouble of showing up at a studio so he could be interviewed on camera.

1. So you won big out there in those 3 states. You're still way behind in the delegate count, but does that...what does this mean for the race, does this mean you are absolutely going through to the end?

2. But you still need 73% of the delegates going forward, which is a huge..... (interrupted by Bernie: "No we don't. No. No. No. I don't accept that. That is not the case. You're assuming that every superdelegate that now supports Secretary Clinton will stay with her. You're not taking into account that there are hundreds of superdelegates who have not made a decision.....&quot

3. You've heard Democrats saying it's time to lay off Secretary Clinton, keep this positive now, stop the attacks on her Wall Street ties, her SuperPacs, all of that. Are you going to start laying off or are you know, going to start putting the pedal to the metal here? (this prompts a response from Bernie that contrasting his record with Secretary Clinton's on a variety of issues that he then goes through is talking about the issues, not a personal attack)

4. So you said in an interview this week, uh that, she may not be liberal enough to be in your cabinet, so let me ask you now after these wins, is she liberal enough to be your running mate, would you consider her?

5. So Senator Sanders, we saw a situation this week where an ISIS leader was taken out by American ground troops, Special Forces on the ground in Syria. You are firmly opposed to boots on the ground. Was that something that raised concerns for you? (prompts Bernie to start with "No, that's not quite accurate. What I have said is that I support what President Obama is doing....) Once Bernie started talking about how ISIS is in retreat and has lost 30-40% of the territory it had, Karl realized his gotcha question had not worked and started to cut him off and end the interview.

Karl asked all but the last of these questions with a grin/smirk on his face, as if the whole thing was a bit of a joke.

March 26, 2016

Jake Tapper just said Hillary is more hawkish than Bernie, most Democrats....

...and some Republicans!

They were discussing Tulsi Gabbard's discomfort with Hillary's interventionist nature that prompted her to resign from the DNC and endorse Bernie.

March 26, 2016

Bernie rally in Madison, WI, coverage starts at 5:30 EDT

Here's a link to live coverage which is supposed to start in about 25 minutes:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2929803/watch-bernie-sanders-rally-in-madison-wisconsin-live-online-streaming-video-full-replay-of-saturdays-rally/

March 26, 2016

Bernie rally in Madison, WI, coverage starts at 5:30 EDT

Here is a link.

http://www.inquisitr.com/2929803/watch-bernie-sanders-rally-in-madison-wisconsin-live-online-streaming-video-full-replay-of-saturdays-rally/

March 26, 2016

About that "but....the Supreme Court!" argument

I have seen this argument many times, including earlier today, as to why Bernie supporters must hold their nose and vote for Hillary even if we find her abhorrent on just about everything. It is the argument the Democratic Party has been counting on to hold progressives in line as the party moves further and further to the right.

So about the Supreme Court. I didn't notice until I saw it on Samantha Bee's "Full Frontal" show that I had recorded earlier this week that the justice recommended to fill Scalia's vacancy by Orrin Hatch, conservative Republican Senator from Utah, was.....Merrick Garland!

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/03/16/3760727/who-is-merrick-garland/

<Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the longest serving Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, offered his own thoughts on who President Obama should nominate to fill the seat left open by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last week. “Obama could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man,” Hatch told the conservative news site Newsmax, before adding that “he probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the liberal Democratic base wants.”>

The article goes on to say that Garland, at age 63, is the oldest nominee to the Supreme Court since 1971. And the article mentions "his reputation for moderation" and that "he has a relatively conservative record on criminal justice".

March 25, 2016

I'm guessing Matt Taibbi isn't feeling the Hillary endorsement from his boss Jann Wenner

Here's a sampling of Taibbi's work on Hillary. I sure wish I could write like this. I would not have expected anything less from the writer who described Goldman Sachs as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

From 2008: "Hillary Clinton: The New Nixon?"

http://www.alternet.org/story/75233/hillary_clinton%3A_the_new_nixon

<Afterward, the first flack to waddle into the spin cave is Mark Penn, Clinton's chief mouthpiece, one of Washington's most depraved and expensive lobbyist-whores.

Penn is the Democratic version of Karl Rove. He even looks like Rove, only he's fatter and more disgusting. Up close in a forum like this, his eyes bulge out of his fat, blood-flushed head; his neck spills out of his too-tight shirt collar; and he generally looks like Jabba the Hutt, his suit bursting at the seams, with only the bowl of snackable live toads suspended at arm's length missing from the picture.>

From March, 2015: "Hillary Clinton is Turning Into Richard Nixon and Bill Belichick"

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/hillary-clinton-is-turning-into-richard-nixon-and-bill-belichick-20150314

<But the emotional tenor of the performance was off by just enough to wonder if, after all those years of fighting, Hillary Clinton is ready to come up smiling for another two-year vitriol-storm. Forget Nixon: she's beginning to rival Bill Belichick in the oozing-contempt department.

Much of her 21-minute address over this e-mail issue recalled the eye-rolling, "I can't believe I have to answer questions about this horseshit" display Belichick put on in his epic "Mona Lisa Vito" DeflateGate presser, a landmark in the annals of unspoken hostility.

Hillary wasn't quite as openly contemptuous of her questioners as the legendary coach, who carries around his own bitter media baggage (reporters chased him out of his first head coaching job in Cleveland). But it was close.

Matt Bai put it this way: "It wasn't that she couldn't answer the questions coming at her; it was that she didn't think she should have to.">

From April, 2015: "Campaign 2016: Hillary Clinton's Fake Populism is a Hit"

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/campaign-2016-hillary-clintons-fake-populism-is-a-hit-20150416

<Hillary Clinton ran onto the playing field this week, Rock and Roll Part 2 blaring in the background, and started lying within minutes of announcing her entry into the presidential election campaign.

"There's something wrong," she told a crowd of Iowans, "when hedge fund managers pay lower taxes than nurses or the truckers I saw on I-80 when I was driving here over the last two days."

Oh, right, that. The infamous carried interest tax break, the one that allows private equity vampires like Mitt Romney and Stephen Schwartzman to pay a top tax rate of 15 percent while all of the rest of us (including the truckers Hillary "saw" – note she didn't say "hung out with Bill and me over chilled shrimp at the Water Club&quot pay income taxes.

The carried interest loophole is an absurd, completely unjustifiable handout to the not merely well-off but filthy rich, and it's been law in this country for about three decades.

Raise your hand if you really think that Hillary Clinton is going to repeal the carried interest tax break.>

March 24, 2016

Bernie's campaign just sent a mass email on the disgrace in Arizona

The email blamed it on the Voting Rights Act being gutted by the Supreme Court. It asked me to sign an online petition to reinstate the Voting Rights Act. I did, but it only contained my first name and zip code and the email said nothing about where the petition would be going or what if any other action would be taken. And then it bounced me into a solicitation to make another campaign contribution with Act Blue, which I chose not to do.

March 23, 2016

I just sent a response to this morning's email from the Sanders campaign

I sent them a link to this video from the Sane Progressive about the election fraud we witnessed yesterday in Arizona and asked them to protest yesterday's election by pursuing every possible course of action.

I let them know that while I still support Bernie Sanders and his platform, I am not going to continue to make financial contributions so he can play out a rigged primary process to the end. I would rather wait until November and see what becomes of this movement after the election, then determine if it is worth supporting financially.