What is Bernie Up To?

[Perissodactyla]

I request that this discussion be for supporters of Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein.

I trust that this thread will not focus on bashing HRC or DJT, but instead try to focus constructively on current events unfolding from now until the upcoming conventions.

Also I request that people share thoughtful articles or videos they find informative and useful.

For those who find it difficult to honor these requests, please start a thread supporting your own cherished views and candidate(s).

Thank you.

:D

What is Bernie Up To?

June 30, 2016

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/30/what-is-bernie-up-to/print/

Bernie Sanders: Democrats Need to Wake Up

By BERNIE SANDERS

JUNE 28, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/opinion/campaign-stops/bernie-sanders-democrats-need-to-wake-up.html

[Perissodactyla]

Bernie Sanders Full Interview

June 30, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEeYnoRjwL8

Sanders is itching for a convention fight

If platform flashpoints aren't resolved, the Vermont senator says

he'll take his battle to the floor of the Democratic convention.

July 1, 2016

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-democratic-convention-fight-224991

[Perissodactyla]

Bernie Sanders speech against "colonial" Puerto Rico bill PROMESA

Sen. Bernie Sanders harshly condemned what he called the "colonial" Puerto Rico bill PROMESA on the Senate floor on June 29.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4608707/bernie-sanders-speech-colonial-puerto-rico-bill-promesa

[DynamicUno]

Very much looking forward to what Bernie has to say at the convention. We'll see how he leverages those delegates.

[Perissodactyla]

The Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The death penalty.

Hydraulic fracturing.

Inequality.

Social Security.

Health care.

Abortion.

Taxes.

Guantanamo Bay.

Democrats release draft of platform, with shifts to left on death penalty, abortion, taxes
July 1, 2016

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/07/01/democrats-release-draft-of-platform-with-shifts-to-left-on-death-penalty-abortion-taxes/

Mixed Bag Platform Draft Sets Stage for Fight at DNC Convention
Final Democratic Party platform draft contains wins on minimum wage and death penalty, losses on TPP and fracking
July 2, 2016
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/02/mixed-bag-platform-draft-sets-stage-fight-dnc-convention

Sanders pushes for more concessions in platform draft
July 3, 2016
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/286405-sanders-demands-more-dem-platform-concessions

Party platform still needs work
by Bernie Sanders
July 3, 2016
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20160703_Sanders__Party_platform_still_needs_work.html

Sanders Organizing Grassroots Push Against TPP for DNC Platform Meeting
"Let's be clear: The trade agreement is opposed by virtually the entire grassroots base of the Democratic Party."
July 3, 2016
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/03/sanders-organizing-grassroots-push-against-tpp-dnc-platform-meeting

[Sally]

Party platforms generally don't get much attention from the voting public. The delegates make somewhat of a big deal about them, but by November, no one remembers them. It's all about the candidates.

[ThaHoward]

I still remember Obama's :p But thats only from 2008..

[Perissodactyla]

The Political Revolution Continues

By Warren Gunnels, Policy Director for Sen. Bernie Sanders

July 3, 2016

https://medium.com/@WarrenGunnels/the-political-revolution-continues-e034c9a8f8c#.py7ndke9d

"It is now the policy of the Democratic Party that we will fight to:

· Break up too big to fail financial institutions, enact a modern version of the Glass Steagall Act, and make sure that the banking system is part of the productive economy providing loans to small-and-medium sized business to create good-paying jobs.

· Prohibit Wall Street from picking and choosing which credit agency will rate their products. As The Big Short reminds us, we cannot ensure the safety and soundness of our financial system without this needed reform.

· Make the Federal Reserve a more democratic institution by banning executives at financial institutions from serving on the boards of regional Federal Reserve banks or handpicking their members. During the financial crisis, it was absurd that Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, was a director on the New York Fed, while his bank received over $390 billion in virtually zero interest loans from our central bank.

· Ban golden parachutes for taking government jobs and crack down on the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington.

· Empower the Postal Service to offer basic banking services so that low-income Americans are no longer dependent on payday lenders who charge interest rates of over 300 percent and trap millions of Americans into a viscous cycle of debt.

· End corporate loopholes that allow large, profitable corporations to stash their cash in the Caymans and other offshore tax havens to avoid paying $100 billion a year in U.S. income taxes and use the revenue gained not to lower corporate tax rates, but to create millions of good-paying jobs.

· Make it easier for workers to join unions if a simple majority sign valid authorization cards and require binding arbitration to ensure a first contract. America is strong when unions are strong.

· Expand Social Security and extend its solvency by making those who earn more than $250,000 pay their fair share. At a time when more than half of older workers have no retirement savings, the platform recognizes that our job is not to cut Social Security. Our job is to expand it.

· Allow every American to gain access to health care through Medicare or a public option. This is not everything we wanted, not by a long shot. We will keep fighting for Medicare-for-all. But it is a step forward. Importantly, the platform also calls for an historic expansion in community health centers and the National Health Service Corps that could increase access to primary care, dental care, mental health care, and low-cost prescription drugs to as many as 25 million more Americans.

· Give Medicare the ability to negotiate lower drug prices; ban pay for delay; allow Americans to get affordable drugs from Canada and other countries; and cap the amount Americans have to pay out-of-pocket every month on prescription drugs. The U.S. must no longer pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

· Fix a broken immigration system by providing a path to citizenship to 11 million aspiring Americans; build on DACA and DAPA to include the parents of DREAMers; end the inhumane and unjust raids and roundups of immigrant children and families; and ending the 3-year, 10-year, and permanent bars. We need an immigration policy that unites families and does not tear them apart.

· Repair our broken criminal justice system by abolishing the death penalty; ending for-profit prisons and detention centers; banning the box; and ending racial profiling.

· Strengthen the Postal Service by eliminating the disastrous pre-funding mandate that forces it to pay $5.5 billion a year for future retiree health benefits; reinstate strong overnight delivery standards; and protect 6-day mail and door-to-door delivery.

· Substantially increase funding for the National Housing Trust Fund to construct and rehabilitate millions of affordable housing rental units. At a time when millions of Americans are paying 50–60 percent of their limited incomes on rent we need to make affordable housing a right of all Americans.

· Make it easier to vote by establishing universal, automatic voter registration; make election day a holiday; and restore voting rights for those who’ve served their time.

· Fix a corrupt campaign finance system by overturning Citizens United, eliminating super Pacs, and moving to public financing through a small donor matching program. Working together, we will get big money out of politics.

· Make it clear that states should be allowed to decriminalize marijuana and provide certainty to legal marijuana businesses by granting them access to the same financial services as any other business.

· Expand the post 9–11 veterans caregiver program to include all veterans who are in need and make sure that all veterans get the benefits that they have earned and deserve.

· Close the military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

· Establish a 100% clean energy system by mid-century.

· Support a Justice Department investigation into fossil fuel companies like Exxon Mobil that have denied climate change.

As important as these victories are, a lot more work remains to be done. Unfortunately, during the debate on the draft platform in St. Louis, we were not able to include a number of important provisions. Here are just a few.

We fought to make it the policy of the Democratic Party that:

· The Trans-Pacific Partnership should not receive a vote in Congress during the lame duck session of Congress and beyond. This disastrous unfettered free trade agreement would make it easier for corporations to ship jobs to low-wage countries, threaten the environment, increase the price of life-saving drugs, and reward some of the worst human rights violators in the world. It must be defeated.

· We need a carbon tax. Scientists have told us that a carbon tax is the best way to make sure our planet remains habitable for our children and grandchildren and that if we do not act soon there will be more droughts, more famine, more acidification of the ocean, more rising sea levels, and more extreme weather disturbances. The Democratic Party needs to be the party of science. It is not good enough to be better than Donald Trump on the most important issue facing our planet.

· We need a ban on fracking. Environmental regulators in New York have told us that no regulation, none, can make hydraulic fracturing safe. If we are serious about clean drinking water, clean air, and the future of our planet, we need a national ban on fracking.

· The federal minimum wage needs to be increased to $15 an hour and indexed to inflation. While the Democratic Platform includes language calling on all workers to make at least $15 an hour, it is silent on how much the federal minimum wage should be raised. That needs to change.

· Earned pension benefits must not be cut. If we do not act soon, the pension benefits of more than 1.5 million Americans in multi-employer pension plans could be cut by as much as 60 percent. When someone is promised a pension benefit we cannot allow that promise to be broken.

We will be working as hard as we can to include these planks and more into the party platform in Orlando on July 8–9 when the 187-member Platform Committee meets."

[Perissodactyla]

Bernie Sanders, Please Stay In The Race. America Needs You Now More Than Ever

July 9, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-please-stay-in-the-race-america-needs_us_57807824e4b0f06648f4ee4d

Hillary Clinton Will Face Perjury Charges for Lying to Benghazi Committee. Bernie Wins.

July 10, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pv6yn0VsZo

208 Bernie Sander's Pledged Delegates Call for NO Clinton Endorsement Before Convention

July 10, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHCrkdSo_po

Donald Trump Shut Your Big Mouth, Help Bernie and Stop Scaring People Towards Hillary Clinton

July 10. 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijy4Nqt2wkc

[Perissodactyla]

Bernie, Don’t Do It!

July 11, 2016

https://www.laprogressive.com/bernie-endorsing-hillary/

[Icelandic Gopnitsa]

Hopefully reading a book on economics.

Like, literally any book on economics.

Like, at all.

[Perissodactyla]

LIVE Bernie Endorses HRC

http://www.c-span.org/video/?412571-1/bernie-sanders-set-endorse-hillary-clinton&live

[Tarfeather]

Turns out Bernie is actually Darth Vader, not Obi Wan xD

[Perissodactyla]

[CaptainYesterday]

[deleted]

[Perissodactyla]

I'm wondering if Bernie will be Hillary's running mate.

[Skycaptain]

It often happens, the behind the scenes " if I withdraw from the campaign will you give me a good post in government? "

[Perissodactyla]

HRC might need Bernie as running mate in order to not lose Bernie's supporters.

So MANY of Bernie's supporters will never support HRC... even if Bernie is the vice presidential candidate.

Some Bernie supporters feel that he is actually still in the race, as it's not clear HRC will avoid being prosecuted at some point.

Anything could happen by the end of the DNC convention July 25-28.


Jill Stein shreds Sanders' Clinton endorsement
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/jill-stein-no-bernie-sanders-endorsement-225417

Jill Stein responds to Sanders' endorsement of Clinton

http://www.jill2016.com/sanders_endorsement_clinton

Here's today's letter from the Bernie campaign regarding today's endorsement:


Forever forward


oval,

I am writing you today to express my deep pride in the movement – the political revolution – you and I have created together over the last 15 months. When we began this historic campaign, we were considered fringe players by the political, economic and media establishment. Well, we proved them wrong.

We showed that the American people support a bold, progressive agenda that takes on the billionaire class, that fights for racial, social, economic and environmental justice and that seeks to create a government that works for all of us and not just the big campaign donors.

We mobilized over 13 million voters across the country. We won 23 Democratic primary and caucus contests. We had literally hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country. And we showed – in a way that can change politics in America forever – that you can run a competitive national grassroots campaign without begging millionaires and billionaires for campaign contributions.

Most importantly, we elevated the critical issues facing our country – issues the establishment has pushed under the rug for too long. We focused attention on the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality in this country and the importance of breaking up the large banks who brought our economy to the brink of collapse. We exposed our horrendous trade policies, our broken criminal justice system, and our people's lack of access to affordable health care and higher education. We fought aggressively to address the crisis of climate change, the need for real comprehensive immigration reform, the importance of developing a foreign policy that values diplomacy over war, and so much more.

We have shown throughout this election that these are issues that are important to voters and that progressive solutions energize people in the fight for real change. What we have accomplished so far is historic – but our work is far from over.

This movement of ours – this political revolution – must continue. We cannot let all of the momentum we have achieved in the fight to transform America be lost. We will never stop fighting for what is right.

It is true that in terms of winning the Democratic nomination, we did come up short. But this election was never about me or any candidate. It was about the powerful coming together of millions of people to take their country back from the billionaire class. That was the strength of our campaign and it will be the strength of our movement going forward in the months and years ahead.

In the coming weeks, I will be announcing the creation of successor organizations to carry on the struggle that we have been a part of these past 15 months. I hope you will continue to be involved in fighting to transform America. Our goal will be to advance the progressive agenda that we believe in and to elect like-minded candidates at the federal, state and local levels who are committed to accomplishing our goals.

In terms of the presidential election this November, there is no doubt that the election of Donald Trump as president would be a devastating blow to all that we are fighting for. His openly bigoted and pro-billionaire campaign could precipitate the same decades-long rightward shift in American politics that happened after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. That rightward shift after Reagan’s election infected not just politics as a whole but led to the ascendancy of the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party – an era from which we are still recovering.

I cannot in good conscience let that happen.

To have all of the work we have done in elevating our progressive ideals be dashed away by a complete Republican takeover of Washington – a takeover headed by a candidate that demonizes Latinos, Muslims, women, African Americans, veterans, and others – would be unthinkable.

Today, I endorsed Hillary Clinton to be our next president. I know that some of you will be disappointed with that decision. But I believe that, at this moment, our country, our values, and our common vision for a transformed America, are best served by the defeat of Donald Trump and the election of Hillary Clinton.

You should know that in the weeks since the last primary, both campaigns have worked together in good faith to bridge some of the policy issues that divided us during the election. Did we come to agreement on everything? Of course not. But we made important steps forward.

Hillary Clinton released a debt free college plan that we developed together which now includes free tuition at public colleges and universities for working families. This was a major part of our campaign’s agenda and a proposal that, if enacted into law, would revolutionize higher education in this country.

Secretary Clinton has also publicly committed to massive investments in health care for communities across this country that will increase primary care, including mental health care, dental care, and low-cost prescription drug access for an additional 25 million people. Importantly, she has also endorsed the enactment of a so-called public option to allow everyone in this country to participate in a public insurance program. This idea was killed by the insurance industry during consideration of President Obama’s health care program.

During the Democratic platform proceedings in St. Louis and Orlando, we were victorious in including amendments to make it a clear priority of the Democratic Party to fight for a $15 an hour federal minimum wage, expand Social Security, abolish the death penalty, put a price on carbon, establish a path toward the legalization of marijuana, enact major criminal justice reforms, pass comprehensive immigration reform, end for-profit prisons and detention facilities, break up too-big-to-fail banks and create a 21st century Glass-Steagall Act, close loopholes that allow big companies to avoid taxes by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens and use that revenue to rebuild America, approve the most expansive agenda ever for protecting Native American rights and so much more.

All of these progressive policies were at the heart of our campaign. The truth is our movement is responsible for the most progressive Democratic platform in the history of our country. All of that is the direct result of the work that our members of the platform committee did in the meetings and that you have been doing over the last 15 months.

But none of these initiatives will happen if we do not elect a Democratic president in November. None! In fact, we will go backward. We must elect the Democratic nominee in November and progressive Democrats up and down the ballot so that we ensure that these policy commitments can advance.

It is extremely important that we keep our movement together, that we hold public officials accountable and that we elect progressive candidates to office at the federal, state, and local level who will stand with us.

As part of that effort, we still have a tremendous amount of work left to do in the Democratic Rules Committee that will be meeting in the coming weeks. We have to enact the kinds of reforms to the Democratic Party and to the electoral process that will provide us the tools to elect progressive candidates, to allow new voices and new energy into the Party, and to break up the excessive power that the economic and political elites in the Party currently have. As with our fights on the platform committee, that will only be possible if we stand together.

You should know that I intend to be actively campaigning throughout this election season to elect candidates who will stand by our agenda. I hope to see many of you at events from coast to coast.

In conclusion, I again want to express my pride in what we have accomplished together over the last year. But so much more must be done to make our vision a reality. Now more than ever our country needs our movement – our political revolution. As you have throughout this historic campaign, I ask for your ongoing support as we continue through the fall and beyond.

On a personal note, I cannot say with words how appreciative Jane and I are of the kindness, dedication and love we experienced from so many people across the country. We are deeply touched by it and will never, ever forget it.

Please let me know that you will stand with me to defeat Donald Trump, and to elect candidates who will stand by our agenda as part of the future of our political revolution. Add your name now.

Forever committed, forever fighting, forever forward,

Bernie Sanders

[ThaHoward]

Weren't they in talks before this? It have long been rumored that Clinton will dopt some of his platform if he endorse her. No surprise there, and her election platform did get pulled to the left because of Sanders' platform. So for the more left wingers in the Democratic Party it have been good in that respect..

[Tarfeather]

Weren't they in talks before this? It have long been rumored that Clinton will dopt some of his platform if he endorse her. No surprise there, and her election platform did get pulled to the left because of Sanders' platform. So for the more left wingers in the Democratic Party it have been good in that respect..

[Perissodactyla]

Listen: Bernie Sanders’ Post-Endorsement Conference Call With 1,900 Delegates

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/print/listen_bernie_sanders_post-endorsement_conference_call_with_1900_20160714

Berned Out? Don’t Mourn—Organize

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/berned_out_dont_mournorganize_20160714/

July 14, 2016

[CaptainYesterday]

[deleted]

[Tarfeather]

Well every political expert I know says Hillary is preferable to Trump, so I guess there must be some truth to that.

I'd still vote Jill Stein, mind.

[Perissodactyla]

JULY 19, 2016

Bern Out: Beyond Cowardly Lion Leftism

by PAUL STREET

[Perissodactyla]

Bernie Sanders Addresses Delegates at Democratic National Convention

July 25, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pNQ4d7c2H4

[touching-not-so-much]

I'm interested to see what is going to happen - I'm a classic liberal Bernie independent. I just got banned from a FB page for the second time in my life, and the hell of it is - BOTH have been by not just Democrats but specifically Hillary Democrats, for me posting rebuttals and criticisms to their whitewashed cheerleading. I have conservatives on my FB and even one of the co-authors of the FATAL tabletop RPG, and I get banned by Democrats - alleged liberals.

I've been enjoying reading about DWS getting "cheered" in the way that Ted Cruz got "cheered" for his speech as the RNC, and watching the DNC collapse into a quivering, finger-pointing spastic blob of protoplasm as leaked documents come out that they somehow try to say are Russia's fault. Bernie himself got boo'd, again, for endorsing Hillary, at the DNC. That is exactly what should have happened - that means the movement he started is a legitimate entity and ideal and not just a cult of personality, when it transcends the person that started it.

Don't worry, I won't be taking this any further, I just hadn't really made a full post in here and I thought I might as well.

[Perissodactyla]

LIVE: Bernie up next at DNC

https://www.c-span.org/video/?412845-1/senator-elizabeth-warren-addresses-democratic-national-convention&live=