Why is He Running?

You may have heard that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is entering the 2016 Democratic Party race for president. Many say that he doesn't have a chance of winning the nomination, but, he has good reasons for running. Why run then? Sanders hopes to influence the debate within the party. He plans by entering is to drag everyone else to the left on major issues like trade, campaign finance reform and income inequality. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/04/29/bernie-sanders-isnt-going-to-be-president-but-he-matters-anyway/

It may be interesting then to take a closer look at his voting record. I usually go to a few trusted sites to gather information on prospective candidates. GovTrackUS gives a report card on all members of Congress.  Here's their report card on Sanders:  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/bernard_sanders/400357/report-card/2014 Note these stats are only for the 113th Congress and compare him to others in that congress.

Another site, Project Vote Smart, gives Sanders recorded votes on past bills in Congress:  https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/27110/bernie-sanders#.VUI7RPlViko  You can go there to see how he voted on issues that matter to you.

On the Issues is a site that gives you quotes of what political leaders say on major issues facing our country.  Here's their set of quotes by Sanders on the issues:  http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/bernie_sanders.htm

Finally, I will share a link to my favorite political information site, Ballotpedia.
http://ballotpedia.org/Bernie_Sanders  By searching this site, you can find out relevant information about Sanders.

I hope you will do your own research and not just accept what the main stream media decides you should know.

Yet Again

"For yet again, the family of a young black man is grieving a life cut short.

Yet again, the streets of an American city are marred by violence. By shattered glass and shouts of anger and shows of force.

Yet again a community is reeling, its fault lines laid bare and its bonds of trust and respect frayed.

Yet again, brave police officers have been attacked in the line of duty."

"We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America."

Hillary Clinton's speech today addressed the racial injustice in America saying that there is something profoundly wrong with America when this continues for decades. 

Her speech was profound and if you didn't hear it, you can read the text here:  http://www.vox.com/2015/4/29/8514831/hillary-clinton-criminal-justice-transcript

I like her optimism that things don't have to be this way. She said, "But I am convinced, as the congenital optimist I must be to live my life, that we can rise to this challenge. We can heal our wounds. We can restore balance to our justice system and respect in our communities. And we can make sure that we take actions that are going to make a difference in the lives of those who for too long have been marginalized and forgotten.

"Let's protect the rights of all our people. Let's take on the broader inequities in our society. You can't separate out the unrest we see in the streets from the cycles of poverty and despair that hollow out those neighborhoods."

If we always do what we've always done, then we'll keep on getting violence and unrest. It's time for change and confronting the injustices built into our system.

A Couple of Terms You May be Hearing

As we contemplate the situation unfolding in #Baltimore, we may be hearing or reading about institutional racism and white privilege. These terms are often confusing and upsetting. Let's look at what they mean.

 Institutional racism is defined as:  societal patterns that have the net effect of imposing oppressive or otherwise negative conditions against identifiable groups on the basis of race or ethnicity. http://civilliberty.about.com/od/raceequalopportunity/g/inst_racism.htm What's happening in our inner cities with big corporations moving jobs out and young people having no hope for real, income producing jobs is an example of institutional racism. Another example is the difference in school funding for inner city schools versus suburban schools.

White privilege is another term that is upsetting to many people. It is defined as:  "a term for societal privileges that benefit white people in western countries beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_privilege 

Teaching Tolerance magazine has an excellent article explaining the terms "racism" and "white privilege". http://www.tolerance.org/article/racism-and-white-privilege

Many years ago Peggy McIntosh wrote about white privilege in an essay called "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." You can read it here:  https://www.isr.umich.edu/home/diversity/resources/white-privilege.pdf  She gives 26 personal examples to illustrate white privilege. See how many you can relate to.

We on the Left must educate ourselves before we can start the work needed to change these systems that are impacting our society.

#LorettaLynch

I am excited about Loretta Lynch. After a lengthy wait for confirmation, she was finally sworn in today. Afterwards, she told a bit about her childhood and used the phrase, WE CAN, several times. Lynch is the 83rd US Attorney General and the first Black woman to hold the office. She rode on her father's shoulders to civil rights rallies. She is from North Carolina. More details are available here:
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/14/376997783/tough-attorney-general-pick-loretta-lynch-vies-for-senate-confirmation

I believe we can count on her to achieve great things for our country. "In her remarks, Lynch said her role was to "not just represent the law and enforce the law, but to use it to make real the promise of America: the promise of fairness, the promise of equality, of liberty and justice for all."

Lynch went on to say, "We can imbue our criminal justice system with both strength and fairness for the protection of both the needs of victims and the rights of all. We can restore trust and faith both in our laws and in those of us who enforce them. We can protect the most vulnerable among us from the scourge of modern-day slavery so antithetical to the values forged in blood in this country. we can protect the growing cyber world and we can give those in our care both protection from terrorism and the security of their civil liberties."

Read more: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=1202724635648/Lynch-Takes-Helm-of-DOJ-Promises-Even-Greater-Heights?back=NLJ#ixzz3YXIatDUJ

Divide and Conquer

Democrats have to take a serious look at what is happening before we end up going home with our tails between our legs in November 2016.

If it isn't the #TPP, it will be something else. Maybe drone policy or something else around the corner will be the tool they use to keep us fighting each other instead of focusing on WINNING.

Do you want Democrats to win in 2016? I do. It's time to rally the troops and stop our infighting. The right is untied in one goal - winning the presidency and maintaining their majorities in congress.

Are we Democrats going to assist them in their goal of victory? Or will we change our focus to the single goal of WINNING? If we don't win, we can't achieve any of our objectives and we will be at the mercy of the victors. They will get to select the next justices for the Supreme Court. They will get to privatize Social Security, Medicare, education, and any other agency they choose. 

#Unite4Victory

Earth Day 2015

President Obama is taking Air Force One to South Florida today to give a speech on #ClimateChange in the Everglades and right wing media are having spasms over it! I suppose they expect him to ride a bicycle to the event! Isn't this just like the right wing? They claim they think #ClimateChange is a hoax, then they rave about the fuel the president is wasting to fly to Florida! Republicans say that our President's environmental policies are job killers. Well, I say they should look in the mirror and ask themselves how many jobs they've created outside of the military industrial complex!

By going to South Florida, the President will draw attention to the rising sea levels and the impact that will have on the coasts of our country. Florida's tourist economy is based on it's coastal areas and if they are impacted by #ClimateChange then there will be a great loss of jobs.

In every way possible, President Obama and his administration are giving Americans concrete examples of how #ClimateChange will effect us. Let's pay attention and support our President as he tries to unite us in our efforts to protect the environment and stop #GlobalWarming! See this link for more:  http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/22/politics/obama-everglades-florida-climate-change/

A Case in Point

Political propaganda specializes in half-truths and innuendo. Winston Churchill told us how it is done.

A case in point is the recent statement by Reince Priebus about Hillary Clinton. In a Face The Nation Sunday interview, he said that Hillary Clinton took "money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen."  A Politifact article rates his statement as half true. It should have quickly pointed out that the statement was misleading and untrue in several aspects.

So, even in correcting the obvious trickery in Priebus' words, the article waits until the last few lines to state the facts. But the headline reads, "Hillary Clinton took money from the kings of four countries, GOP chief Reince Priebus says" Now, which do you think most who see the article will note and remember. Will they remember the correction or the headline? 

I will link the article so you can see for yourself how it is done:  http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/apr/20/reince-priebus/hillary-clinton-took-money-kings-four-countries-go/

And again I will caution you to be a careful consumer of information this political season. Question everything!