Post Election 2016 Thought

Bernie had the energy and the crowds and a solid history of anti-establishment populism. The DNC pushed a flawed candidate with both earned and unearned baggage down our throats. That said, look to Bernie Sanders and the movement he has created, and push forward.

Who is Bernie Sanders? Watch:

This 9:07 minute mini-documentary on Senator Bernie Sanders from YouTube's The Daily Conversation deserves to be given more play and will answer some of the questions of my friends who wonder about his background and why I support him for President of the United States of America in 2016. #FeelTheBern

Sanders announces, People respond

Great to see Senator Bernie Sanders enter the race of President. Announcing last week, Bernie received $1.5 million from 35,000 donors in the first 24 hours and people ARE responding. He appeared on Maddow Monday evening:

The Soul of America

In America today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth, and more inequality than at any time period since 1928. The top 1 percent owns 42 percent of the financial wealth of the nation, while, incredibly, the bottom 60 percent own only 2.3 percent. One family, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans. In terms of income distribution in 2010, the last study done on this issue, the top 1 percent earned 93 percent of all new income while the bottom 99 percent shared the remaining 7 percent.
~ Senator Bernie Sanders

Bernie wants things to be more fair. So do I. Lets all talk to our Congressmembers and say this is NOT the American dream. We need an economy that works for all or at least most of us. Speak up. Please.
(For the whole article, see The Soul of America on CommonDreams.org.)

Stay Away From Social Security

President Barack Obama needs to echo strongly this winning message given so aptly by Vermont (and America's) Senator Bernie Sanders on Eliot Spitzer's show. Tax breaks to the wealthy don't help the American economy nor the American people. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid: these help We the People who need help. Let's be a WE Society, not a ME Society.

 

Open Message to President Barack Obama

President Obama -- This talk about your willingness to weaken important social programs like Social Security and Medicare to placate crazed Republicans is frightening! Shared Sacrifice means the WEALTHY people and corporations who benefited from the things that hurt our economy should be paying because, as Senator Bernie Sanders says, the rest of us already have. The GOP don't believe the wealthy need to share. Demand differently and stand firm for We the People.

[Change we CANNOT believe in.]

The above was left at the WhiteHouse.gov/contact page. Join me in leaving YOUR thoughts there as well as calling the White House comment line: 202-456-1111.

Petition / Letter - Shared Sacrifice: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT)

America's Senator Bernie Sanders has followed up his hour and a half Senate Speech with a Letter to the President which YOU can sign. Join 98,464 others [current signature tally] and tell the President that we want TRUE Shared Sacrifice. Do not give in to Republican terrorism. Stand firm for the 90% of Americans who are NOT making it in today's economy. Furthermore, in Bernie's words:

...Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending....Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.

It is much easier to sign a Letter to the President then to have to hit the streets if the GOP have their way and massacre our 20th century Social Programs legacy.

Please at least READ THE WHOLE LETTER -- and if it speaks to your heart, sign it.

Thank you.

Throwing Little Old Ladies into the Cold

Thank God and Vermont for Senator Bernie Sanders. He continues to speak up for the working people, for fairness, for equity. Bernie Sanders tells it like it is, making so much sense. He takes on the big money interests on our behalf. Thom Hartmann calls him "America's Senator" and he is. This is a 7:35 minute awesome video.

Deregulation

Senator Bernie Sanders astutely asks questions about deregulation of Jacob Lew, the president's nominee to head the White House Office of Management and Budget. Despite his questionable response to the deregulation question during the hearing of the Senate Budget Committee, the panel unanimously voted to confirm him. Go figure, but Lew, a former Citigroup executive, did serve under Clinton who ran a budget surplus. Whether this helps remains to be seen, but at least Bernie asked the hard questions.

Senator Sanders: Bernanke Hold, Floor Speech

Listen to my hero Senator Bernie Sanders' floor speech on blocking Bernanke's reappointment to the Fed -- Bernanke's leadership has been disastrous. AND the Fed should be transparent. If you care about the economy and the middle class, Bernie should be your hero, too. Follow him on Twitter as @senatorsanders

Senator Sanders Unfiltered: Environment + Economy = Harmony

America's Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out on energy efficiency and the environment -- The latest weekly Sanders Unfiltered can be delivered to you on Facebook, email, Twitter, or podcast -- or seen on YouTube if you subscribe there. Go to "SandersUnfiltered.com for more info.

Senator Sanders Unfiltered: Return to the Gilded Age

"One of things that we have got to place on the table as progressives is to say, 'There is something profoundly and morally wrong when the top 1% earns more income than the bottom 50%, when the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%, when CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. This is not what America is supposed to be.'" -- Senator Bernie Sanders, October, 2009

Senator Sanders and Michael Moore

Love Senator Bernie Sanders -- he's in Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story opening nationwide today. Here, Michael asks him a questions as part of the SandersUnfiltered.com series. Watch this, and be sure to see Michael Moore's film. (Living in NYC has early-viewing benefits :-)

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Passing Healthcare Reform Legislation

Speaking of Senator Bernie Sanders, FireDogLake has posted this great segment from MSNBC's Countdown -- hey, Senators, get behind my/our hero of We the People, Bernie Sanders!!

Senator Bernie Sanders for Single Payer

Senator Bernie Sanders: "How does it happen that after we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare as any other nation we end up being the only major country in the world that does not guarantee healthcare to every man woman and child in a comprehensive way? ...

"The way that we [should] move is to say:

• Every American is entitled to healthcare
  
• It has got to be comprehensive healthcare
  
• The function of healthcare is not to make money for private health insurance company but to provide cost effective healthcare to all Americans....

"The only conclusion that you reach is that a Single Payer system is where we need to go as a nation....The function of health insurance companies is not to provide healthcare, it is to deny healthcare because every dollar they don't spend on healthcare is another dollar that they are making in profits."

-- [As heard on Ring of Fire Radio, May 30 and 31st, Air America Radio, available by podcast via iTunes, but current show playable here.]

Sen.Sanders: Private Health Care Companies are NOT about Supplying Healthcare

Senator Bernie Sanders has this right. Insurance companies are about profit, not healthcare. They deny needed services and put road blocks in the way of those they purport to serve. We must get the profit motive out of healthcare. Make a living, yes, but not a killing!

"The function of healthcare is not to make insurance companies rich. It's to provide the best quality healthcare at the lowest possible price to all of our people." -- Senator Bernie Sanders, on Thom Hartmann, 03/27/09

Rachel Maddow - Lieberman gets more interesting

This provides additional commentary, including a great quotation from Senator Bernie Sanders.