Last Week's Bernie News

Below are links dating back from yesterday and previously — and are not listed in any particular order.

The New Republic: Bernie Sanders’s Internet fan base has swelled into a digital army, and his supporters on Reddit have been the ground troops. With nearly 130,000 subscribers as of Thursday ... As of Friday, the subreddit for Rand Paul, who emerged from the tech-savvy libertarian movement, had a little over 4,700 subscribers; the Hillary Clinton subreddit just over 900 ... Major campaigns have leveraged social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but Reddit is a different beast altogether...

Huffington Post: Only Bernie Sanders Can Prevent Donald Trump From Sitting in the Oval Office (Donald Trump would win the general election in 2016 with a low voter turnout if Hillary is nominated instead of Bernie.)

Huffington Post: Bernie Sanders Defeats Trump By a Wider Margin Than Clinton in a General Election (But the bankers would prefer Hillary or Jeb)

PolitiFact: On October 14th, 2015 Donald Trump told his supporters at a rally that Bernie Sanders is going to "tax you people at 90 percent." PolitiFact: "Pants on fire!""

Kids re-enact first Democratic primary debate (Very funny, whether you like kids or not.)

An oped at NewsDay asks: "Does Bernie Sanders candidacy signal a socialist shift in the Democratic Party?"

VOX: 6 questions about socialism you were too embarrassed to ask

It's a lucky thing for Republicans that Bernie Sanders is a self-described "democratic socialist." It saves conservatives all the work they usually do of trying to convince voters that all Democrats are always socialists. It's confusing. A recent explainer at Vox - "6 questions about socialism you were too embarrassed to ask" - does a tremendous job laying out the basics for beginners.

• First lesson: Socialism isn't the same thing as authoritarian, Soviet-style communism, despite how Republicans often conflate the two.
• Second lesson: Democratic socialism usually co-exists with capitalism - though it does tend to restrain capitalism's excesses and distribute capitalism's benefits more widely.
• Third lesson: Democratic socialism really is democratic, relying on the support of voters instead of the fiat of tyrannical rulers. Sanders' "revolution" involves getting voters to the polls.

Sanders models his ideas on policies in countries like Sweden and Denmark. "In virtually all of those countries, health care is a right of all people . college education is virtually free in all of those countries, people retire with better benefits, wages that people receive are often higher, distribution of wealth and income is much fairer, their public education systems are generally stronger than ours," he said in an interview earlier this year.

It doesn't sound all that radical, does it? This generation of Americans has watched too-big-to-fail capitalism nearly destroy the country, middle-class wages stagnate while the rich get richer, and the GOP oppose attempts to fix the underlying problems. No wonder socialism has become a tempting alternative.

Indeed: These days, most Republican voters believe just a few people at the top have a chance to get ahead. Nearly half think the gap between rich and poor should be fixed. More than half favor raising taxes on incomes above $1 million a year. Half favor raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Friends: That's a pretty good start for any democratic socialist agenda. No wonder Republicans are so critical of Sanders and his agenda: He appeals to too many of their voters.

Could this be Bernie Sanders' Achilles Heel?

A new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll shows Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have grown in popularity in Iowa, and the gap between them has slimmed to 7 percentage points, 48 percent to 41 percent, without Joe Biden in the race. Bernie Sanders is viewed favorably by 82 percent of likely caucus-goers in Iowa. On one potential concern: Bernie's self-label as a “democratic socialist” — although the Iowa poll shows 81 percent are not bothered. However, the new poll shows Bernie is vulnerable to one corrosive criticism: Pollster J. Ann Selzer said, “Sanders has a big problem, and it’s guns, not socialism.” Sixty percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers say they feel less supportive of Sanders because [20 years ago as a Rep from the rural State Vermont] he had voted against the Brady Bill. Three-quarters of Clinton voters say Bernie's gun stances undermine their support for him — and 46 percent of Bernie's own voters agree they're troubling...

Expect this ONE ISSUE to be brought up by Hillary and/or the moderators at every debate. Even if the electoral college weren't packed with establishment "moderates", this ONE ISSUE could keep Bernie from being the Dem's nominee, even though this wouldn't matter at all to Republican voters in a general election.]

Concord Monitor (Op-Ed) My Turn: The time has come for real change (by Sen. Bernie Sanders)

TeleSUR: Bernie Sanders Accomplished More than Hillary Clinton Ever Did

AlterNET: Vets For Bernie

AOL News: Bernie Sanders: Alabama Republicans are 'cowards' trying to 'suppress' vote

YouTube: Bernie Sanders plays bongos (Funny stuff!)

The Raw Story: Big Pharma Punk Challenges Senator Sanders: Martin Shkreli, also known as “Pharma Bro,” was miffed that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) didn’t accept his $2,700 donation and instead gave it away to a clinic that treats HIV/AIDS. So he told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo he would “destroy” Sanders in any debate about pharmaceuticals”.

Related Petition: We need a FDA chief with the guts to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies. But instead, President Obama has nominated Robert Califf, a doctor described as “the ultimate industry insider.” Sen. Bernie Sanders recently made waves by announcing he would oppose Califf’s nomination, and we need to demand the rest of the Senate follow his lead."

Huffington Post: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on the federal government Thursday to curb the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico by cracking down on vulture fund investors.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Wall Street should not be believing that they can get blood from a stone. When people are suffering and hurting, you cannot continue to squeeze them."

Sen. Elilezebth Warren: "They want Puerto Rico to raise taxes, cut health care, fire teachers, cut pensions, sell off $4 billion worth of government buildings, privatize public ports, close neighborhood schools and cut support for the University of Puerto Rico, all so these vulture funds can squeeze out more profit.

The Center for Public Integrity asked: "What do you think would happen if Bernie Sanders beats Hillary Clinton in Iowa?" Political consultant Joe Trippi relied : "The entire Democratic establishment would come out of the woodwork to stop Bernie Sanders from being the nominee. The establishment fervently believes that a socialist cannot be president of the United States.

No --- CNN didn't delete the poll. The CNN Facebook poll showed Bernie won the debate by 81% to Hillary's 13%.

Yahoo News: Hillary suggested that she would “look really hard” at HUD Secretary Julian Castro as a potential running mate and for “anything” else. (If only Elizabeth Warren would run with Bernie.)

YouTube: Bernie Sanders on Jimmy Kimmel's show.

Polls: Bernie Sanders Won First Debate — by a Landslide!
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2015/10/polls-bernie-sanders-won-first-debate.html

Anderson Cooper lets Hillary Clinton Dodge Social Security
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2015/10/anderson-cooper-lets-hillary-clinton.html

Why the Media Lies about Bernie Sanders
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2015/10/why-media-lies-about-bernie-sanders.html