As the 127th Tournament of Roses Parade came to a close last Friday morning (January 1, 2016), Bernie Sanders supporters came out in full force to rally on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena, California. During that time, someone took to the skies to share a political message with the words "America is great!" and "Trump is disgusting" and "Anybody but Trump" in sky writing over the parade route (photos below).
In other Bernie news ....
New York Post (December 30, 2015) In two districts once believed to be Hillary Clinton strongholds, the state senators from Harlem and Queens — Bill Perkins and James Sanders Jr. — will endorse Bernie Sanders instead. --- And speaking of New York, Jam Bands reports that the nightclub Baby’s All Right (in Brooklyn) will host "Brooklyn is Berning" — a two-night fundraising event on January 5th and 6th for Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Among those slated to take the stage, which include both comedy and musical artists, are Ryan Miller of Guster, Spirit Family Reunion, Cass McCombs (and guests), Dee Dee of The Dum Dum Girls and others.
Obama golfs. Donald Trump golfs and owns dozens of golf courses. I don't think Bernie Sanders golf. Golf Digest (January 3, 2016): Speaking at a rally in Hilton Head, S.C., Trump warned supporters about the dire consequences if Democrat Bernie Sanders wins the White House:
"This guy wants to tax you -- think of it -- this guy wants to raise your taxes to 90 percent. No, no, think. You'll have to move out -- I love this area by the way, I've been here many times. Great golfing area, right? We love it. No more golf -- no more golf. You won't have any golf any more. You won't have any money left to be golfing." [This it total B.S. -- If Bernie Sanders is elected this year — and if he had a majority of Democrats in Congress — he might tax those earning more than $1 million a year at a rate of 50% — and he might tax capital gains the same as wages.] Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire (January 3, 2015): "The wealthy and powerful have managed to carve out enormous tax breaks for themselves in a lot respects, and capital gains is taxed at a substantially lower rate than earned income, and that makes no sense to me. A dollar is a dollar."
Huffington Post (January 4, 2016) Why Bernie Sanders is the true Democratic front-runner:
American politicians don't set records with 2.3 million contributions (breaking Obama's record), draw crowds of over 100,000 people several months after announcing, and raise more money than every GOP candidate without massive political momentum. Furthermore, nobody in American politics goes from 5.3% support in the Democratic Primary race on March 9, 2015 to over 30% support in December, without media attention (Sanders gets 1/23th the television coverage of Trump) and with pundits giving the candidate little chance of success. The underlying data (money raised, attendance at events, social media popularity) undermines the polling data showing Clinton leading by a wide margin. If you can imagine Hillary Clinton becoming Commander in Chief, after labeling her Iraq War vote as merely a "mistake," and with tens of thousands of her emails the subject of an expanded FBI investigation, then you trust the former Secretary of State with the future of our nation. 72% of Independent voters distrust Hillary Clinton, 59% of all American voters find Clinton "not honest and trustworthy," and there's a foreign donor scandal linked to her years as America's top diplomat. One GOP Congressman wants to impeach Clinton on her first day in the Oval Office, so good luck with "getting things done" and passing legislation amidst such vitriol. Between ongoing controversies and a future of Republicans trying desperately to impeach her, Clinton's presidency could make Obama's tenure look like the height of bipartisanship. Gore's loss in 2000 is also correlated directly to America's fatigue with the Lewinsky scandal, even though Starr's investigation was politically motivated and Gingrich also had an extramarital affair during the investigation. And the emails? Edward Snowden believes it's "completely ridiculous" to think Clinton's data wasn't compromised by hackers. [And all the online polls shows Bernie eating Hillary too.]
Counter Punch (January 4, 2016) Bernie Sanders vs. the Corporatocracy —> And Bernie is right ... Business Insider (April 16, 2014) Major Study Finds the U.S. is an Oligarchy
(January 5, 2016)
ReplyDeleteToday Bernie Sanders pledged to break up the big banks within a year of taking office. “If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. When it comes to Wall Street reform, that must be our bottom line.”
Sanders also announced that, if elected, he plans to direct the secretary of the Treasury within the first 100 days of his administration to establish a Too-Big-To-Fail list of commercial banks, shadow banks, and insurance companies whose failure would pose a catastrophic risk to the United States economy without a taxpayer bailout. Within a year, his administration will break up those institutions so that they no longer pose a grave threat to the economy, using the authority granted by the Dodd-Frank Act.
He’ll also called for the reinstatement of a modern Glass-Steagall Act to separate commercial banking, investment banking and insurance services. “Wall Street cannot continue to be an island unto itself, gambling trillions in risky financial instruments.” Bill Clinton the repealed Glass-Steagall Act with the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999 — and Hillary said she will not reinstate it.
And Bernie also criticized the 2008 “bailout” of Wall Street – which Hillary Clinton voted for as a New York Senator. Bernie lamented that three of the four largest financial institutions are nearly 80 percent larger than they were at the time. “Incredibly, the six largest banks in this country issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards and over 35 percent of all mortgages. They control more than 95 percent of all financial derivatives and hold more than 40 percent of all bank deposits.”
Pundits on Fox News later said that those meg-rich bankers SHOULD be rewarded for being the "risk takers". I guess Hillary agrees with Fox News.
UPDATE:
ReplyDeleteHuffington Post (January 5, 2016) Bernie Sanders' Social Security Plan Gets A Huge Boost:
The New York Times editorial board wrote that closing Social Security’s funding gap “can’t be done by broadly cutting benefits. In fact, there’s mounting evidence that Social Security, which has become ever more important in retirement, needs to be expanded.”
Progressives are hailing a New York Times editorial endorsing the expansion of Social Security benefits as an influential blessing — and a coup for progressive advocacy groups, economists and lawmakers — including Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and longtime proponent of expanding Social Security, called the publication's editorial hugely important. “They’re very much at the center of respectable opinion.”
Among the Democratic candidates, Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) have both embraced across-the-board expansion of the program. They have proposed increasing the system’s revenues by raising the ceiling on the amount of wages, currently $118,500, that are subject to payroll taxes. That reform is overdue. If the wage ceiling had kept pace with the income gains of high earners over the decades, it would be about $250,000 today. More important, they have stressed that an aim of reform is to bolster the system, not shrink it. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley would increase benefits more broadly, especially for low-income recipients.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she would “enhance” benefits for the neediest beneficiaries, but has stopped short of the expansion language adopted by her rivals.
LINKS:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-social-security-expansion_568c09e6e4b0b958f65d197e
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/opinion/social-security-in-an-election-year.html