Bernie Sanders’ Aim: Enact Democratic National Platform

Hillary Clinton topped Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. But Sanders got 46% of the pledged delegates, and brought out great enthusiastic throngs to back him and his policies. He then took that power to the Democratic Party platform negotiations with the Clinton camp, and parlayed it into what he and others call "the most progressive Democratic Party platform in history." (See list of platform planks below.)

Of the platform negotiations, a top Sanders adviser, Warren Gunnels, said:

We believe we got at least 80% of what we’ve been fighting for.

Sanders enlisted the renown author and climate action champion, Bill McKibben, for his negotiating team. McKibben came away fairly pleased with the platform results:

In four years we've gone from an "all of the above" energy strategy to one that explicitly favors sun and wind over natural gas. The platform promises a Keystone-style test for all federal policy: If it makes global warming worse, it won't be built. And it calls for an emergency climate summit in the first hundred days of the new administration.

And just last week Sanders himself said:

[B]ecause millions of people came out and stood up and fought back ... 80 percent, I would say, of the Democratic National Platform is what we believe in. ... So, when you ask me, where do we go from here in a sense, it means that we implement this.

Clearly, the best chance for implementing the Democratic platform is to elect Democrats. Sanders' approach is at once true to his values and practical:

I would hope that all those people who worked with me on this campaign, who supported me, understand that Donald Trump would be a real, real, real disaster for this country. He stands in opposition to everything that we believe in. On the other hand, the day after the election we don't sit back and say, "Well Clinton is president." What we do is we mobilize our people to make certain that, hopefully President Clinton, hopefully a Democratic Senate moves forward with an agenda that helps transform this country.

...

I think what politics is about is trying to be smart and think about where we are at this moment. I want to see Clinton become president and the day after that I, and the progressive members of Congress, and hopefully millions of other people will say, "President-Elect Clinton, here is the Democratic National Platform. It is a progressive document."

...

This is not trust. We're not here to trust. It is the very opposite of what I am saying to say, "Oh, sit back, elect Clinton, and then trust." No. Mobilize. Educate. Fight.


(video:Now This)

#StillBernie: For some Bernie backers, being still with Bernie means they still won't vote for Clinton. For others, it means they still back Bernie and his plans of today, that is:

  • Elect Clinton for president.
  • Elect a progressive Democratic Congress.
  • Enact the Democratic National Platform.
  • Mobilize.
  • Educate.
  • Fight.

List of Democratic Party Platform Planks

Here are some of the planks in the Democratic Party platform that line up in total, or in large part, with top planks in the Sanders platform.

  • Tuition-Free College: For all with family income less than $125,000, tuition is totally free. The limit scales up from $85,000 over six years. This differs from Sanders plank, which had no income limit.
  • Clean Energy: Government policy will favor solar, wind and other clean energy sources above any fossil fuel, including natural gas. Supporting this is a program to install half a billion solar panels across the country. The plank includes a specific goal of having 50% clean electricity within ten years. The Sanders plank had similar proposals, but also called for 100% clean energy for electricity, heating and transportation.
  • Carbon Pricing: Greenhouse gases are priced to reflect their negative effects. This is similar to, though not as simple as, the Sanders plank of a carbon tax.
  • Climate Summit: Within 100 days, the president will convene a summit meeting aimed at solving the climate crisis, going beyond the commitments of the Paris Climate Agreement. This plank is the same as that in the Sanders platform.
  • The "Keystone Test": All government policy would be subject to the test used in President Obama's rejection of the Keystone Pipeline: If it worsens global warming, it won't be built.
  • $15 Minimum Wage: This scales up over several years from the current $7.25 minimum wage, and is very close to the Sanders plank. The idea behind it is that no 40-hour-a-week job-holder should live in poverty.
  • Family and Medical Leave: This plank calls for 12 weeks of paid family leave, "the right to earn" at least seven days paid sick leave, and encourages employers to provide paid vacation. The Sanders plank differed in that it would also have required two weeks of paid vacation.
  • No Too-Big-To-Fail Banks: The plank states that too-big-to-fail is too big to exist. It stops short of the Sanders plank, which specifically calls for breaking up these banking corporations, but calls for stronger criminal and civil penalties for Wall Street fraud, and stronger enforcement. It would also create a wall between commercial and investment banking, as did the old, effective Glass-Steagall act.
  • Wall Street Transaction Tax: A small fee on each market financial transaction would tamp down stock market volatility and, like the Sanders plank, provide funds for free college tuition.
  • Social Security Enhancement: Rather than cut benefits and push out the age requirement, Social Security benefits would be increased. This would be funded by persons with incomes more than $250,000, who now pay a lower percentage of their income into the system than low and middle income persons. This is very close to the Sanders plank.
  • Supreme Court: Clinton, like Sanders, would appoint judges that supported the power of Congress and the states to regulate election campaign finance, and that would overturn the "Citizens United" corporation-is-person, money-is-speech ruling that Chief Justice John Roberts spearheaded.
  • Health Care Access: This plank supports having a public option on the health insurance exchange. This would likely be higher value insurance, since it would be free of covering corporate profit. Also, the plank would double support for community health centers. This is good progress, but still short of the Sanders plank of Medicare for all.
  • Building Infrastructure: This plank would rebuild "crumbling roads, bridges, railways, airports, public transit systems, ports, dams, wastewater plants, and other infrastructure needs." Also, it would include modernization and greening of energy and water systems, and internet speed and access enhancement. A new independent national infrastructure bank would support these projects. The Sanders plank, from what I read, did not call for the new bank, but called for spending $1 trillion over five years for infrastructure.
  • Internet Access:This plank would connect every household to high-speed broadband, help with free public wifi and wide deployment of 5G wireless. The Sanders plank put $5B a year into high-speed broadband expansion. Both platforms state that internet is not a luxury, but a necessity in the 21st century.
  • Net Neutrality (Open Internet):This plank supports a free and open internet at home and abroad, and the FCC's net neutrality rules. Sanders has strongly supported net neutrality in Congress.

The Democratic platform, like the Sanders platform, appears to be designed so that all new spending is paid for, and so would not increase the national debt.

~~~


"[O]n every important issue ... Hillary Clinton's views are far, far better than Donald Trump's. And it is absolutely imperative that Donald Trump not become the next president of the United States. That's true on economic issues, it's true on healthcare issues -- it is especially true on environmental issues and on issues dealing with climate change." -- Bernie Sanders (video: 350.org)

* * *

By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2016

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Comments

I'm not interested in recruiting anyone here for anything. Just looking to hang out and talk politics with like-minded people. Like we all used to do in the old days, before everyone became so radical, negative and judgmental.

That's pretty much impossible these days. Everyone talks past each other, no one bothers to listen or brainstorm ideas. They just jump to conclusions after reading a few words, then wrap it up with a nasty ad hom attack. Many on the left would rather praise a Trump supporter before they'll hold a civil discussion with a Bernie supporter.

Hopefully the left can rebuild after this mess. I'm hopeful, but these days I'm not sure. See you on the barricades.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

shaharazade's picture

not a partisan site nor a candidate site. It does cover politics but you'll find very few here who are willing to support Bernie's bs. about Clinton. Thye most progressive platform ever is a bs. lie to start with. Apparently 'We're in it to win' was a lie. Many Bernie supporter's do hang out here but most do not buy his Astroturfing 'Our Revolution' or his stumping for the war criminal The Mad Bomber.

There are also not many here who are into identity politics or persona fandom of pols even Bernie. Maybe read the Podesta e-mails or the wikileaki dump of her Bankster speeches. I don't think anyone here hates Bernie. As far as bashing him well ones man's fact's are another bashing. People here are free to express their opinions about pols and politics openly.

I personally feel Bernie is and was always a sheep dogger for what he see's as the lesser evil. Lot's of my fellow 99% here disagree with me. I never could handle his 'foreign policy' and I thought he was too easy on the inevitable one. I care about what was in her damn e-mails with good reason apparently. I'm not bashing Bernie I just think he ought to get off the stage and quit with his support of the thoroughly corrupt Dems. including the so called 'progressive' caucus. This wasn't his revolution it's a movement that's been a long time in the making. He gave an electoral political voice to the populist movement only to cave and endorse, stump for and lie for the Demorat's, Clinton's and Killary.

I think it's a bad idea at this point in history to believe in or follow any pol. I put my trust in ordinary people globally to take the global oligarchical collectivists down. there is no way Bernie or the Vichy Democratic Congress will push the Dem. neoliberal war hogs to the left. It's not a direction they are willing to go to. Why should they when they have pols like Bernie caucusing with them and calling their policy and agenda the most progressive ever.

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You didn't bother to read or think about any of my comments.

Maybe I'll drop back in again after the election. And for information purposes, I left blank the place on the ballot for the POTUS race, but voted the rest of the ballot.

Later.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

divineorder's picture

Look I don't think I ever read a comment of yours that I didn't agree with over at TOP. But this one, here, where you accuse people of not reading is surprising.

I agree that we should continue to work on issues and getting legislation passed. By all means do seek out others of former / continuing Sanders supporters for this, some of which are still here.

Also know that many here are here for working toward a new party/direction.

You are welcome back anytime.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

and trying to promote her candidacy here, yeah, I assume they haven't read my comments. That's already happened 4 or 5 times today. It's getting tiresome.

What other conclusion is there?

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

divineorder's picture

How familiar are you with the heated discussions that have been going on here?

Hope you do come back. We really do need to 'make a plan' for expanding Social Security and I know you are very knowledgeable in this area.

Will there actually be change led by Warren, Sanders and others? Many of us are skeptical.

But others are not....

Published on
Friday, October 28, 2016
by
Common Dreams
With Progressives Ready in the Wings, No Post-Election Honeymoon for Clinton

If she's elected, groups and lawmakers on the left intend to hold Hillary Clinton accountable for promises made on the campaign trail
by
Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Our Revolution has quite a few activities going on. They're working on TPP in Congress this week. Also getting downballot progressives funded and elected.

I would really like to start working on micromanaging the Lame Duck session and the inevitable Cromnibus bill. Also upcoming appointments and other agenda items that both parties' "transition teams" are working on.

Yeah, I've been around the internet during this election. It's the most toxic, angry environment yet. Can't wait for the election to be over.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

divineorder's picture

I asked you direct question

Tiresome? Understand. But also wonder how often you come here?

How familiar are you with the heated discussions that have been going on here?

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

I lurk without posting and am seeing many of the same heated discussions taking place elsewhere.

I'm finding it's better to be active elsewhere and avoid wading into these arguments. I'm just still trying to support Bernie and the movement and encouraging others to do the same.

I hope that answers your questions.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

shaharazade's picture

your promoting Hillary here. I think your promoting Bernie's astroturfing org. Our Revolution and believe that somehow the Democratic party and the DNC are going to even allow real progressives to run or challenge their grip on which candidates get to run and have a chance at winning. I read all your comments they all came down to supporting Bernie's work from inside the party. It's 'better Dems.' all over again. That is a lie. No candidate from dog catcher to governor has a snow ball in hell's chance of winning without the Democratic party's blessing or money or support.

I liked you a lot a dkos you were smart and spunky. It's sad to see you thinking that Bernie's failed caucusing with the Democrat's is the only choice we have. not bashing Bernie but WTF is he doing promoting this delusional we can push the nonredeemable Democratic party to represent anything democratic. Hope you recover from the delusio9n that somehow Bernie's plan is going to work and that any real progressives/liberals are going to be able to win. As long as these globalized asshole's who run and own the party on every level are left standing he's just wrong. Is that bashing Bernie? No it's connecting the dots and taking a good look at the reality on the ground both locally nationally and globally.

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I'm not over at the GOS tearing down your agenda. You're over here attacking mine.

You have no idea whether I have a plan. My plan is to demonstrate to elected officials that there is a sizable portion of the electorate to the left of Hillary Clinton. If the number is large enough elected officials may take it into account. Your plan, as far as I can tell, is to put lipstick on Tim Kaine.

Since Hillary gave absolutely nothing substantive to Bernie supporters at the convention (the damned platform is not substantive.) while she needs or at least would benefit from our votes, I find the idea that she will respond to pressure from the left after the election so ludicrous that I feel sorry that you have this need to embarrass yourself.

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This is what I think; today's youth don't have "50+ years" to keep retreating and regrouping because climate change. So with all respect to Dr. Martin Luther King, we have to start bending that fucker 'til it breaks, and fast.

Dear world, evolve faster please dammit!

Peace & Love
Gaia

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WaterLily's picture

No one is bashing Bernie. In fact, if you've been following along here at all, many commenters on this very thread have consistently stood up for Bernie in past instances where others have lashed out at him in frustration.

Sorry, but thanks to this eye-opening year, I can spot gaslighting a mile away. And it doesn't work. Save your breath -- you're going to need it, screaming into the wind inside the Democratic party.

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Claims people here don't support Bernie anymore.

Anyone who wants to participate in a Bernie-friendly, policy oriented forum, please send me a PM. I'd like to collaborate with others to start one.

Thanks!

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

TheOtherMaven's picture

We're following his original advice about not letting anyone else tell us whom to vote for.

For the rest, he's irrelevant. He made himself irrelevant, and his quaint little astroturf org is irrelevant also. If it achieves anything, it will be in spite of, not because of, the Power Elite.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

lunachickie's picture

being built with millions of new members of the Green Party.

And please take your guilt tripping somewhere else. You're starting to make me think my mind should be occupied with this endless thing we've all gone round and round with for over a year, instead of something more immediately pressing (like #NoDAPL)

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So why don't we all work towards similar goals without tearing each other down? Is that possible?

While there are likely many Green Party supporters who will never support Bernie, there are even more Bernie supporters who aren't going to trash him and want to keep working alongside him. Most of them will probably never consider joining the Green Party, but are willing to work with them.

Can't we all just accept that and move forward? Stop trashing each other and focus on what we have in common?

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

lunachickie's picture

we're DONE with them. Do you understand what that means? It means NOT INTERESTED.

Come join the Greens and leave the liars behind. You'll get nothing here for Democrats. Not anymore.

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You can't work with Our Revolution on their campaigns? They're not part of the Dem Party.

Sorry to hear that. I think you know Bernie isn't corrupt.

No, I'm not interested in the Green Party. I'm still a Bernie supporter. I like the way we've all set forth a policy agenda and the way they're organizing and activating it.

I'm sure Bernie supporters will continue to support the same goals as the Green Party. We don't want to see the left become divided and ineffective.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

"Our Revolution" is AstroTurf. Just there to keep the silly lefties voting and donating to candidates owned body and soul by Wall Street.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

gendjinn's picture

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Raggedy Ann's picture

Do you get that? The DNC is corrupt and if he thinks he can work within it to enact something for we, the people, then I am questioning my support for him in the first place.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

But that's ok. Personally, I think it's worth a try to reform the DNC. It may not work, we may need to create a new party, but it's worth a try. Our local OR group is already offering education and workshops dealing with starting a splinter or real party based on Democratic Socialism.

It's also worth a try to get rid of Citizens United and enact real campaign finance and election reform, all the other stuff.

Onward and upward! Fight the battles however you wish. But stop the infighting. Respect each other.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Raggedy Ann's picture

Let's just not try and push our agenda on those that disagree. We don't want to work with the DNC. The DNC needs to fold because all it is doing is causing pain and suffering on the American people. There is no working within it. It must be dismantled. Period.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

It's ok to disagree.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

ZimInSeattle's picture

you are wasting your time. No disrespect for Bernie whatsoever. I maxed out to his campaign so how do you think that makes me feel when we have concrete evidence that the primary was stolen? So what it boils down to for me is that my $2700 went to good use exposing the corruption within the DNC and the Clinton's themselves. I will be forever thankful to Bernie for doing that. Now is the time to promote third parties. Not get in bed with the criminals that run the Democratic Party. In the end, we will end up at my sig line anyway:

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

Public policy advocacy on all the key issues we've been talking about will come from "outside pressure", from grassroots activists working together.

At this point, the varying factions on the left are just talking past each other. As I said, it's happened before. The left fails to coalesce for any extended period of time before lapsing into internecine squabbles.

Bernie and OR and similar groups offer a way out of that. It's tough going, getting attacked from all sides, but it's going to work this time. Organized public pressure for good public policy.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Not one word from you on what those leaks show, not one acknowledgement of the corruption and rigging, the manipulation. And you expect we should "coalesce" around that? You aren't even doing any talking here in reality, you say we are talking past each other and yes, we are. You're willfully ignoring what is now public information. If you don't want to see that, fine, ignore it then. But do not come here and try to shame us with your condescension of "coalescing" around an objective. Bernie had a chance once, and he himself exposed a lot of their corruption for all to see, and now you ignore that? That doesn't say much for Bernie's legacy at all.

My ballot's already gone, voted for Stein and what I believe in and it felt great.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

where I said all that corruption was ok.

The Wikileaks are a revelation. Maybe a game changer for the Dem Party, maybe not. It's up to them.

But I don't want to waste my time discussing the corruption while allowing them to stack the legislative and executive branch deck against us for the coming 2 years.

I prefer to advocate for the policy initiatives in the diary, get bills introduced. Push back on corporate cabinet appointments, push back on corporate Dems locking in leadership positions in the House and Senate.

At this point we can't really change the outcome of the POTUS election, whichever way it turns out. It's too late for that.

Better to get as many allies as possible elected to Congress and start advocating for progressive power in sausagemaking in DC.

ETA: As for DNC wikileaks: Make a list of every bad actor in those emails and enact a plan to put every last one of them in the unemployment line in the next 6 months. Not sure there's much else anyone can do, but am open to suggestions.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Maybe another 35 years...then you can run a real progressive and let them steal the primary again while kos get paid a million to turn over the place to Hillary's trolls and his tools.

Maybe you could get the Foundation to pay Hillary and Kos another few million while they back a few more wars and kill 1,000s more.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

You've just completely distorted and misrepresented everything I posted.

God I hate presidential election years. People get crazy, even normally sane people stop listening to each other.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

flowerfarmer's picture

if you think that it is possible to 'reform' the broken and corrupt D party that stole the primary from the only person who wanted to fight for us and for the environment.
Bernie was our only hope and he had been sidelined/threatened with losing his committee chairmanships.
Dare to see it, read the emails, come face to face with Her corruption.

Fear does not serve us now or ever.
Jill, never Hill.

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like it or no, we need votes to get that agenda enacted.

Whether the D party is reformed in that process is irrelevant. Just so long as we get enough of them to vote for the items on the agenda.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

lunachickie's picture

and putting words in peoples' mouths.

So you don't want to work with Bernie?

There is nothing more fucking bullshit irritating that that crap. Did I SAY I don't want to work with BERNIE? No. I said I do not want to work with the Democratic Party. If Bernie Sanders wants to work with the Green Party, he's more than welcome.

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I don't understand where some folks are coming from in the attacks on Bernie.

Promoting your own work with Green Party is great! Let's just stick with respecting each other's choices and leave it at that. Focus on the issues.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

lunachickie's picture

the attack isn't on Bernie as much as it is on the Democratic Party.

I'm sorry, I'm about to the point where I can no longer respect anyone who throws their lot in with those corrupt, warmongering cheating con artists and criminals. I wish you would reconsider, because the Democratic Party of Hillary Clinton does not give a damn about you.

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The current Democratic Party leadership doesn't give a rat's arse about any of us.

But that can change. We can give it a try, but I'm not spending a lot of time on it, nor am I losing sleep if it doesn't work. I'm happy to help build a new political party.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

flowerfarmer's picture

the people who actually do support all of Bernie's platform.

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Locally, we're meeting with some experts and exploring a European style Democratic Socialism party.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

flowerfarmer's picture

will it take for this new European socialist party to gain a foothold?
The Green Party, as it stands right now, is not ideal but they are on the current ballot and the platform is even further left than Bernie's.
Seems like a great time to empower them and work on a better socialist party for the next election, if there is to be one.

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as it will take any other party to gain a foothold. Given the massive amount of dissatisfaction with the current 2 party system, it might proceed rather quickly. Money, organization and activism are the key ingredients to launching it.

The Green Party has too much of a history of supporting and taking money from Republicans and I just can't go there.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Amanda Matthews's picture

And you're here to drum up votes for Clinton, right? Forget that lame 'you don't want to work with Bernie?' nonsense. What you really want to say is vote for Hillary, isn't it? Because that's all it amounts to. That old woman doesn't give a damn about the party 'platform'. Once she's in office it's going to be one kick in the teeth after another for the plebs.

Obama had quite the 'platform' laid out during his campaign, didn't he? And he was lying about every single bit of what he said he was going to do. And there was no holding that fraud's feet to anything. She's even worse. So far she hasn't told the truth one time in regard to this server mess. Lying is what she does best. And you think anyone can work with that?

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

The Democratic party is corrupt, top to bottom.
The Green Party is not.
Comey is re-opening his investigation on Hillary as you and I discuss what we think is best for the country.
You go first.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Work on getting progressives elected in downballot races.

Already gearing up to raise hell on The Hill to stop TPP. Use grassroots activism to micromanage the Lame Duck session.

Start micromanaging the process for choosing committee chairs and other Congressional leadership

Start micromanaging the process for (if elected) Hillary's cabinet picks. If Drumpf wins, start micromanaging his picks.

Start preparing to get bills introduced and through committee for:

Raising the minimum wage to $15

Free college tuition

all the other items mentioned above

Most of the above will be or already has been decided by corporate backers of both POTUS candidates. By the time Inauguration Day rolls around in January, they'll already have a government in place, bills written, appointments made, budgets cut, etc.

Head them off and push our own agenda.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

shaharazade's picture

it is a completely Democratic run city and the state is solidly blue. We worked hard here to get progressives elected to all city offices. we did it and now we're stuck with a bunch of bent so called progressives who are selling this city water and housing and every other thing out to foreign and out of state investor's developer's and realtors.

I was an active member of the Multnomah County Dem. Party, my husband was a precinct captain. We worked hard to get down ballot progressives elected from 2004-2008. Kitzhaber who ran as a progressive Democrat resigned in disgrace for pay to play 'environmental' NGO scam's. His first proclamation after winning was 'Oregon is now open for Business'. The city officials we get elected were all lying corrupt bent corrupt Dem. scammers. Were now working on how to get then gone. They rode in on Obama's coattails and all turned out to be a bait and switch like he and all these New Democrat's are.

So please don't talk to me about using the Democratic party as a vehicle for change or decent policy and our common good. None of them are going to advocate or implement decent policy. The DNC and congress are going to do nothing but put on a Kabuki show wherein Bernie can get up on the floor and give fake symbolic filibusters to empty chambers. Time to get rid of the duopoly from hell. Vote Green this time around and then lets work to establish a alternative to this farce of a party.

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Jay Elliott's picture

I'm with you on help whatever progressives are left to push into Congress. There aren't many. Physical protests -- yes. We need to do that. It's all we have.

The rest is fantasy. Micromanage the lame duck? Who is doing this, exactly? If Clinton is installed, the corporatists win, and they will push through everything and everyone they want. The only way to change the outcome of the lame duck is if Trump is elected, which might freak out the Congresscritters enough that they won't pass the TPP, and they won't pass other horrendous bills. Democrats may feel compelled to playact the role of Democrat.

We're not in a position to micromanage anything. We can throw a rock in the person of Donald J. Trump to get some immediate behavioral changes out of them. We can get Jill Stein 5% of the vote and thus funding and ballot access for a national leftist party. That might also get the Democrats to toss a few crumbs at their base. But Clinton is going to go after the left viciously if she's President, so getting the Greens money will help a lot more under a President Trump.

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lotlizard's picture

But Clinton is going to go after the left viciously if she's President

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in my county and district switched parties. While in office.
We have 1 democrat on the ballot. He wants to retire, attends all republican party functions, assures them he won't run again.
Our democratic party chairman switched parties.
If they do not have loyalty to the party that elected them, why should I?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Mark from Queens's picture

My impressions of Our Revolution locally have not been good, to say the least.

I went to the inaugural meeting, which was held at a bar next to the law offices of a guy who lent his space to the Bernie campaign just before the NY Primary. I became friendly with him and some others participating there. (Btw, though the voting "results" say that Bernie got panned in NYC, which I'll go to my grave never believing, we somehow registered a win in our district for Bernie).

At the meeting I saw some of them again for the first time since the primary ended. Friendly handshakes and acknowledgement around, it quickly filled me with suspicion. I remarked to the lawyer that I didn't believe the results and that there was too much evidence still coming in nationally. I then moved on to what I naturally thought would be the next logical step, mentioning that Jill Stein's platform is almost identical to Bernie's if not better and that I hoped we'd be re-energized to pick up from there. He kind of scoffed. Similar vibes from the other organizer of the event. I began thinking I was in the wrong place.

Confirming my suspicions was what took place at the end. A man who I recognized from activist circles, he's big with gay rights, asked if he could speak next. I knew he was a big HRC supporter. He began by saying how impressed he was that we Bernie volunteers were able to win this district with all of the canvassers who joined up, and admitted he was a Hillary supporter. I audibly let loose a grievous groan by this point. He gave the same schpiel about electing Democrats because Republican so bad. It was the equivalent of going back to TOP. No fucking way, I thought, am I interested at all in this Our Revolution bullshit. Knowing also about how it started, which resulted in the mass quitting of some of Bernie's biggest supporters over the secret donations that would be coming in, it just verified the spam to me.

At the same time in my neck of the woods, some more genuine Bernie supporters started something called Politics Reborn. Went to one meeting there and those folks were way more in line with C99 and the radical spirit of what Bernie's message was. I will continue to meet with them when I can. Meanwhile, OR keeps texting and seeing emails. I haven't responded to one. A few more and Im really going to let them know what I think.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Jay Elliott's picture

You know that, right?

He also is raising money and campaigning for some really bad corporate Democrats, like McGinty. I assume he feels he has to do that, and that he's trying to make lemonade out of the carbolic acid of the election theft. I respect his political judgment, and maybe this really is the best he could do given the corruption. But I don't like it, and I'm not lifting a finger to support Our Revolution until after the election is over and I can see whether it's going to demonstrate real independence and courage.

Lucy Flores is on the board of OR. That's enough for me to be super suspicious, after her turncoat behavior over the Nevada convention bullying and cheating.

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If you want to move forward, abandon the Democratic Do-nothing Party, until and unless the moment comes when you can seize it. Until then, you're just putting your weight behind the policies they will enact, rather than the ones they disingenuously offer you. With the size of the conservadem contingent in the Senate, there are maybe planks in that platform that would ever even make it out of a committee, much less to a floor vote, much less to Her Majesty's desk.

Here are some things you are never going to see until and unless you completely control the Democratic Party:

Tuition-free college
12-weeks family leave
Social Security enhancement
Universal internet access
Any meaningful banking reform (are you fucking kidding me? who do you think put HRC on the throne?
Transaction Tax (see above)
"Keystone Test." ha. yeah. right.
A half-billion solar panels and/or 50% clean energy in TWENTY years, never mind 10.

Everything on that list is something you'll need 60 Progressive Democratic Senators to enact, or at least, 50 Progressive Democratic Senators willing to throw out most of the obstruction-enabling in the Senate's procedural rules.

You just might be able to get a public option with 60 Dems of any stripe, because even the conservadems will recognize that the implosion of the ACA system will be a political catastrophe for the party. Similarly, you can possibly get to a living wage, but more likely you'll get an idiotic negotiation in which the conservadems will sell out the impoverished white pseudo-conservatives they represent, and clamp it at $12 or $13 an hour.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Alphalop's picture

other down, because in order to move forward we need to tear down the Democratic Party.

They have done more to stifle progressive changes than enable them.

The only difference between the Repugs and the Dems is that the dems pretend to support the poor and minorities.

The Democratic party is an obsticale to progress that needs to be torn down, and those trying to prop it up out of misguided ignorance are going to occasionally catch some cross fire.

We didn't make it this way though, they did. We tried to do it from within. We tried to do it with civility. We tried to do it the way they claimed we needed to do it in order to succeed.

And what did we get for it? We got shit on and accused of being worse than republicans. We got called Racists, sexist, juvenile, etc.

We got our voter registrations changed, our ballots shredded or whited out, and our party actively conspiring against us to appoint whom they wanted, not who the people actually supported.

We got called Conspiracy Theorists or wack jobs for saying that the election was being rigged, and even when the proof came out there was no outcry against the party because "Their Side" won.

Fuck that noise, I, and many, many others are utterly and completely done playing nice with those that persist in screwing us over with the help of our 'supposed' allies.

The DNC and it's apologists can all die in a grease fire as far as I am concerned. (Yep, that is indeed inflammatory language.) Smile

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Wink's picture

were ever to become a serious political party it would have happened by now. They're a fringe "party," likely propped up by the RW to siphon votes from Dem candidates. That's an exageration, maybe, but if the Green party were going to happen it would have by now.
It would be no less difficult to build the Green party than rebuild the Dem party. I'll go with the latter. At least it has a brand name.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Most are just corporate quislings pretending to care.

What's the plan? What are the next steps?

Step One: Boot out all these old corrupt con artists, and that starts with Hillary and Bill.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

is not voting for the fucking corrupt hillary clinton. I think the world of Bernie Sanders but even he can't persuade me to vote for her. This shit has to stop.
So what's your plan Betty? Get clinton elected and hope she'll listen to the progressive left? Good luck with that.
I'm in Ohio, like you, where our votes really matter. And because my vote really matters it going to Jill Stein. And if clinton gets beat by 1 vote in Ohio please blame me...not the shitty corrupt candidate or her crazy fucking followers, blame me...

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Then what? What's the plan? What are the next steps?

The most effective thing Bernie Sanders supporters can do at this time to help move his economic progressive agenda forward is to do everything in their power to make sure that Hillary Clinton loses to Donald Trump.

But if she wins, the power and influence of the Clinton political machine will expand dramatically, absolutely guaranteeing that NONE of the movers and shakers within the Dem Party---elected Dems and wannabes---will give any consideration to the fundamental argument that Bernie was making to them this past year.

If she loses, the Clinton political machine will suffer a heavy blow, providing the Bernie Sanders faction within the party an opportunity to expand its influence. The ONLY thing that will make the leadership within the Dem Party open to a new direction is a soul-crushing defeat for Hillary Clinton and some weeks of navel gazing, for the Clinton approach will be revealed to be a LOSING strategy.

From where I'm sitting, if Clinton wins, the Bernie Sanders Revolution is effectively dead. If you really care about what he was able to stir up, then get some of his supporters to go out and vote for Trump. It's our only chance.

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James Kroeger

Stein - Baraka
2016

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Amanda Matthews's picture

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

gendjinn's picture

they can f* right off with their appeals for votes.

Not voting for a single Democrat ever again.

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There are some people who will continue to work on these planks to get them enacted. But most people will sit around until something horrible happens (ie a new war, depression). So we won't get this platform because Hillary couldn't care less about it. The platform was the price she had to pay to make Bernie go away.

Look Hillary said "I won, I don't have to enact Bernie's proposals". And she won't. She criticized them during the primary, all the while insisting she was a progressive. She'll go on her way providing comfort and aid to Wall Street and continuing to stir the shit stew in the ME. That's it, that's what we get. No improvements to healthcare, no public college education, no real climate change program...just four more years of neo-lib destruction and whining about obstructionist Republicans.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

of worse than nothing being done about climate change - four more years of Business as Usual, fracking, polluting, drilling, burning, killing off the biosphere.

Four fewer years to do anything at all to salvage anything.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Raggedy Ann's picture

but I don't think it will happen for the whole of the American people. I hope I am absolutely dead wrong but I don't believe there will be any of this platform enacted. Please make me wrong. Please! Help

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

lunachickie's picture

Jesus Christ, what part of NO do these folks not get yet?

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Raggedy Ann's picture

come over here to try and convince us that her heinous is the only way! Scolding, shaming - that's what they do. I guess I was surprised that Betty was one of those shamers, but then again....

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

lunachickie's picture

I'm off to keep up with #NoDAPL now. They need our help against the warmongers and land grabbers of the Democratic and Republican National Committees and their installed "officers" in government.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

All I can think of is that hundreds of thousands of citizens need to go to North Dakota and help fight the militarized corporations. The problem is that they keep us poor so we have to keep on working and not taking action. I'd love to be up there fighting the good fight, but I cannot afford it. It's all part of the plan, IMHO.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

lunachickie's picture

if these thieves would grab land held for over a hundred and fifty years, grab it by deception and lies, to our most native citizens, what do you think they'd do to Suburbia if there was money to be made?

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Raggedy Ann's picture

the media is complicit in the lies saying the protesters are trespassing. IT'S THEIR LAND! I am infuriated!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

shaharazade's picture

this land is your land.' Water is life. Cris crossing the world with big 0il and gas grease pipelines while calling it transitional is insane. These indigenous people are water protectors. We all from the Gulf Stream water to New York city' should be standing up with them. Humans should all be standing up globally this is madness.

The Buffaloes stand with them. They came and witnessed what transpired in Standing Rock. Mother Nature knows so why oh why can't we humans all stand up and say no more to these psycho killers that run the world and our country.

bison2_1_0.jpg

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Turned it into Iraq.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

lunachickie's picture

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One of the worst disappointments of the so-called "liberals" of SCOTUS, deciding that the power of the State through the use of eminent Domain could be used to benefit private and for-profit entities.

Standing Rock is but the opening act for Rock Island and Rockford and any other town corporatism decides needs to be sacrificed for the greater profit.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

I respect your choice to be active with the Green Party. I don't criticize your choice.

No one here is asking you to vote for Hillary or any Democrat. I'm not voting for her.

But I still support Bernie Sanders. I'd love to see a new party formed, something along the lines of a European-style Democratic Socialist party. There's nothing at all wrong with that, sorry.

So why is it wrong to defend Bernie here? Agree or disagree, but there's no need to attack him and those of us who do.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Raggedy Ann's picture

Did I say I was active with the Green Party?

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Big Al's picture

a lot of former fervent Bernie supporters are hurt because they finally realized he was all about the Democratic party. The Dem party is the problem, not Bernie per se. They feel they were led along and then he compromised his values.
But he didn't really because he was what he was all along.

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lunachickie's picture

but yeah, the bottom line is really this, agreed:

The Dem party is the problem, not Bernie per se

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and we disagree on that.

The Dem Party, right now, is the least of my concerns. Stopping TPP, DAPL, ending Citizens United, etc are more important and I choose to do that through Our Revolution.

Everyone should get involved to the best of their ability and support each other. I've already moved on, even before the election.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

lunachickie's picture

is unfortunate. To many, "Our Revolution" is little more than a way to herd you along, and keep is Democratic Party safe from your disagreement.

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then we need votes in Congress to make that happen. Somehow, we have to persuade some Dems to work as our allies in Congress to get legislation enacted.

Yeah, a lot of that can be forced, but it requires some allies in Congress to move bills through Committee and onto the floor.

Bernie is the only Independent in the Senate. Do the math. Dems may not like it, but we have to persuade or force them to vote for these things.

It's not easy being hated by Dems, Republicans and some on the left, but that's ok. Focus on the agenda.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Raggedy Ann's picture

I'm getting more and more cynical every day. I used to believe the Congress was working on behalf of the people, but they're not. No one can "force" them to do anything except for their corporate masters. The corporate masters have dug in. They won Citizens United and won't give it up, so no Dems will be "forced" to vote it out. The American people have been neutered just as much as Bernie has been. Look at the fellows that got off in Oregon. This will embolden them to take over public lands for the corporations in the future - my prediction.

The only way to change what is happening is for we, the people, to mobilize and NOT within any of the establishment parties. We must be an independent force of people who rise up and say enough is enough to the militarized police, to our corporate-controlled Congress, to Wall Street, to every faction that is squeezing the life out of America for their own profit.

No one will be "forced" to do anything they don't want to do until the people mobilize. As long as we remain on the couch, we will be digging ditches for them the rest of our lives.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

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Raggedy Ann's picture

have been besmirched! Rise up!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Borkrom's picture

You are spot on, thank you for posting this speech, because it boils down to the happy few warriors working against hard against the many and overcome them with positive spirits and uplifting hearts.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

I'm kinda spoiled because I saw the Baron's version first a long time ago - Branagh is okay, but....

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

California is neo-liberal Wall Street West since years.

On September 27, 2005, the Pacific Exchange was bought by the owner of the ArcaEx, Archipelago Holdings, which in turn was bought by the New York Stock Exchange in 2006. The New York Stock Exchange Group, Inc., now NYSE Euronext, conducts no business operations under the name Pacific Exchange, essentially ending its separate identity.

There are reasons no protests occur in San Francisco. Boxer, Feinstein, Pelosi, etc.. all millionaires completely out of touch with reality, the hoi polloi right where they want 'em, scratching and clawing for food and housing. Soon Harris will replace Boxer, it is embarrassing.

Remember Bloody Obama

To paraphrase Darth Cheney, dear Dems go fuck yourself!

Peace

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Since the only legitimate government is of, by and for the people, shouldn't there be a wealth cap set on public servants/would-be public servants? Perhaps a fraction of 1% of them could be a multi-millionaire, but no more.

Read recently that the Clinton's have an annual income of over a hundred million dollars; Trump is supposed to be a billionaire. Even apart from their obvious pathologies, hazardous levels of ignorance and denial of truth/reality, that amount of money ought to knock anyone out of the Presidential running, in showing where their interests lie and what an obsession they have with gaining obscene amounts of personal wealth - and how much they'll harm and drain more vulnerable others to get an ever-increasing more.

I'll bet that Jill knows what it's like to barely scrape by - or maybe not quite make it, if only from her student days, even if it wasn't quite so bad back then. Still without turning to predation upon others even when desperate, never mind just for that endless 'more'.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

it's up to each of us to decide whether or not we care to continue working within the Dem Party.

I'm in the camp that believes that the Dem Party is too corrupt to merit any attempts to 'save it.' OTOH, I wish you well if you choose to stay and/or work within the Party.

A couple days ago, I posted a Tweet at TEB--a video of Jeff Weaver and Andrea Mitchell. Weaver 'corrected' Mitchell--saying that 'Our Revolution' was not organizing 'to work against' FSC. Just to pressure her. Frankly, that only served to make me more skeptical that OR will be an effective counterforce against a FSC corporatist neoliberal agenda. But, that's just my takeaway.

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD

Taro
Taro, SOSD

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

I find it incredibly cowardly, and disrespectful, to use a person for such purposes, even if that person is one who abandons the movement they got started the moment things get difficult.

Sanders is siding with the establishment, AGAINST the people interested in stopping TPP, AGAINST the people risking being murdered by our own police while they try to stop a pipeline from being built, AGAINST the people trying to end Citizens United and the corrupt political practices.

Our Revolution is a sham of an organization, built in a way that it can be corrupted easily by big money donors, and deliver small changes that are just enough to keep people like you from actually trying to fight for real, effectual change in our nation.

Sanders decided to stop fighting, even though there was a mountain of evidence that showed Clinton did not win the nomination. That proved one thing: he doesn't care to fight against corrupt politics.

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primaried off the ticket by OR this summer?

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

lotlizard's picture

If you agree that it wasn’t fair, do you defend Bernie’s telling people that it was? How?

Are you saying it’s one of those “look forward, not back” things? We all just have to toss an inconvenient truth down the memory hole because “unity”?

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