Kamala Harris made a lot of mistakes. And it screamed of the same mistakes Hillary Clinton made in her failed 2016 run. This time, however, the Democrats don’t have the third party to blame. Jill Stein didn’t even come close to making a difference. The Democrats lost this one on their own.
Here are some key things that Kamala did that really did her injustice:
Kamal Good Cause TRUMP BAD
Bill Maher said it well. She had to come up with something when someone asks her why she’s good. She’s good because “TRUMP BAD.” This isn’t a winning argument. Hillary tried it in 2016 and it failed. I don’t understand why they think this is going to ever win. No matter how much you tell people how bad something is they’re not going to listen. It even looks like this backfired.
Give People Something To Vote FOR, Not Something To Vote AGAINST
Going off of the previous paragraph, every interview I heard with Kamala, she always said something nasty about Trump. Almost every question she answered with a “TRUMP BAD.” People don’t respond to that. They need something more than “vote for me because the other guy is going to do X, Y, and Z.”
Where Was Tim Walz?
I got really excited about Tim Walz. It seemed like he was a progressive (at least a shit ton more progressive than Biden and Harris). But the past few months I haven’t heard anything from him. No sound bites, no interviews, nothing. Granted I am in Portugal but that doesn’t stop me from getting US news on TikTok, YouTube, FB, etc. He was really popular and gave Kamala a boost initially but nothing the past few months. Even in that Kamala Harris interview with CNN, Walz was just there… like he barely spoke. What was the point of him even being there? He basically just listened the whole time.
Touting Republican Endorsements
This was one fast way to lose some of her base… Brag about Dick Cheney. I don’t know about you but I’m disgusted and very put off by Dick and Liz Cheney. Whatever they’re for, I’m usually against and vice versa. There was nothing stopping Kamala from touting their endorsement every chance she got. I believe this was a huge mistake as it further alienated her base (and people like me). You have to be taken aback when one of the people you’re 100% against turns out to endorse your candidate. If that doesn’t make you question them then I don’t know what will. I know the Blue MAGA is strong but you gotta think some progressives and some others would be really hesitant to pull the lever for you knowing you align with the slime that’s Dick Cheney. (And yes maybe she doesn’t “align” with him but he endorsed her… it’s kinda like getting the devil’s endorsement.) I believe she lost more voters bragging about the Cheney endorsement than she gained.
Becoming Too Pro-Business & Going Too Far To The Right
The last few weeks of the campaign it seems she shifted and became more pro-business. (See paragraph above.) I feel she probably alienated more people this way. A majority of her base doesn’t think this way. Why alienate them on the hope of picking up a few republican voters? She got too cozy with Republican ideas (much like Hillary did) and I feel like a lot of people were like, well, if I had my choice between a Republican and a Republican-lite, I’ll go for the authentic (not saying Trump is authentic). It’s like having your choice in name-brand ice cream and an off brand. People would go for the name brand stuff. Either way, I sincerely hope the Democrats have learned their lesson in running to the right after two failed elections.
The Economy ISN’T GOOD
Stop saying the economy is good. I read this on FB a bit today. The indicators are there that the economy is good but to the average person, I don’t think they believe that. I know I don’t. I don’t see prices going down even though inflation is going down. Is my income going up? Nope. Are groceries and gas still expensive? Yup. Can people get by? They’re having a lot of trouble. And if you can’t see that, I don’t know what to tell you. If the economy really were good people wouldn’t want change. And they’re going to get change with Trump. Biden did a lot of good but he also didn’t brag about it and Americans didn’t feel it enough. “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID.”
Tackling Inflation The Wrong Way
Going off of the previous, I don’t think Biden handled inflation the right way. Inflation was off the hinges because of corporate greed. This was sparked by covid. Businesses had to charge more because of “supply chain issues” and what not. They never lowered prices once the supply chain was fixed. Why would they? They know they can get away with it. Look at basic indicators like the price of a Big Mac. It soared and is continuing to soar. Sure, after years of hiking up the interest rate (the Fed, not Biden) it eventually got it under control. At least the numbers. But to the average consumer, the prices never went down. In fact tackling inflation with the interest rate just made housing prices soar! And they don’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. They never addressed what was really behind the high prices which is (and probably always be) corporate greed.
It Was Very “House Of Cards”
If you’ve watched NetFlix’s “House Of Cards” you might get a sense of what I’m saying. Not a single vote (well, maybe a write-in) was cast for Kamala Harris in the Democratic primary. This is because Joe Biden was the incumbent and instead of actually having a primary, they just decided to make him the nominee without any debates or challenges. If Kamala Harris won, I would hate this for it. It is not Democracy how she was elected. She was chosen. I don’t know if this point counts for why she lost but it does tie into my next point.
The Media
It’s always the media. They LOVE LOVE LOVE everything that Trump says. He sneezes and it makes the news. It’s very hard to gain attention when your opponent gets so much free airtime. The same thing happened in 2016 as well. When you’re constantly bombarded with things Trump said, Trump sticks out in your mind… Go into the voting booth… There’s a saying like, “there’s no such thing as bad press.” It’s correct.
She Never Hit It Off With Her Demographics
I don’t know what their campaign strategy was besides “we’re not Trump” but I didn’t see much in the way of trying to appeal to her core. And the Dick Cheney endorsement probably didn’t help there. I didn’t see many plans or ideas in terms of trying to help certain communities.
“Nothing Comes To Mind”
I think that comment of her on The View will haunt her. When she was asked if she would have done anything different than Biden she said, “nothing comes to mind.” There are lots of things Biden could have done differently that might have had some positive effects on the populace (let’s face it), but he didn’t. A big issue for a lot of the American people (for some reason) is illegal immigration. If he had done more for the boarders maybe that would have helped; but I don’t know. Kamala just I guess wasn’t ready for that (I think) softball question. She had more to say afterwards when she experienced the backlash. This was a change election and the “nothing comes to mind” doesn’t signify change.
Lack Of Debates & Shying From The Media
The lack of debates isn’t her fault. I’m sure she wanted to have more debates but Trump didn’t. (It’s why we will never get a serious challenger to Nancy Pelosi; she won’t sit down for a debate. How does it feel, Democrats?) If there were more debates it could have helped her because she could have made a stronger case to the American people (and hopefully not just say, “TRUMP BAD”). If she went with the “TRUMP BAD” strategy though, that would not have helped. Also there was a month in there where she made no interviews or tried to do any press. Not a strong look when people are wanting to know you.
Conclusion
I don’t think any of these things by itself caused her to fail but so many years of neoliberal politics, the Democratic party really needs to do some soul searching (which they should have done in 2016 when they lost to Trump the first time). The Democratic party keeps abandoning its base to try to go more towards the center and it’s proven time and time again that this strategy doesn’t work. The right got more extreme and the left stayed where they were. The middle is now further to the right. We needed to combat this by more progressive candidates and people who actually want to get things done. Not these status quo politicians (yes, Kamala is status quo; so is Biden). The Democratic party has decided to silence the voices of the progressive movement instead; not realizing (or maybe being paid not to realize) that the country needs and wants progressives and progressive policies. Not once during this campaign did I even hear free college or Medicare for all. At least with Bernie Sanders in the race in 2016 and 2020 it was at least talked about.
The Democrats have a lot to learn. Will they?
Well it happened again. I got called out for being wrong about something but, later, after a half hour of research, I found what I needed to to back up my argument. And I feel like a shit if I were to text them later to assert my claim.
Google is a real pain in the ass. It is REALLY hard to find things right as you need them to back up an argument. I’m not sure what I’m going to do going forward, I mean I don’t want to bookmark every single article I read just in case I need to back it up months or years later.
This time it was an argument about whether or not Biden can eliminate student loan debt. Turns out, most likely, I’m right. Trump even used the same kind of logic when he did it.
Here are some links:
And now doing a google search of this: can the secretary of education cancel student loans links to a bunch of articles! Fuck my life sometimes man. I hate feeling like I’m this jerk or crazy person who makes bogus claims and can’t back them up. Fuck me for not having the information right then and there. But looking back at it later, I’ll fucking find it.
Update bonus: Here’s a reminder that POTUS can give everyone Medicare for All under section 1881 A of the Social Security Act. In fact, that act has been used in Libby, Montana where residents can get free healthcare.
This post is purely for my record keeping. I’m going to keep track of the good and (I’m sure mostly) bad Joe Biden does.
GOOD
BAD
COMMENTS
I’m against having a large military like ours and spending so much on our defense when there are larger issues but it is really stupid that transgender people have to worry about which president is in power in order to serve. That’s messed up.
I hope it goes without saying that Trump was a pretty awful president. He was so bad for the country. It will probably take generations to undo the stuff he has put forth. There isn’t much good to write about him, honestly.
The Good
The Bad
- The tax cuts that he and the Republicans rammed through Congress. We’re in so much debt because the rich got richer.
- Didn’t keep campaign promises on outsourcing jobs.
- Transgender in the military ban.
- Renewed Keystone XL pipeline.
- Did NOTHING for income inequality (made it worse), racial justice, etc.
- Muslim ban.
- Not handling Covid properly.
- Wasting billions of dollars on a border wall.
I’ve been binge rewatching Silicon Valley on HBO. I remember a scene from a few years ago when I first watched it and am now rewatching. It’s a very good scene.
Gavin is trying to get the cheapest place and people to build his new box. China, Bengledesh, all the other cheaper labor places in the world he couldn’t do so he turned to the United States. Some little town in South Carolina.
He got them to give him massive tax cuts, cleaned up facilities, etc… ya know, what rich NFL owners, Amazon, and other big corporations do.
Unfortunately, that strategy did not turn out well for his factory. Here’s what happened:
- The mayor had the factory repainted.
- The painters left some oily rags in a garbage can.
- Because of cuts to the sanitation service, the trash was not collected.
- The rags smuldered and caught fire.
- Because of cuts to the fire department, the blaze spread.
- A number of concerned citizens tried to fight the fire, but because the water was cut off, they could not.
- The vast majority of the rare earth materials survived the fire until the flames evaded.
- Due to mass layoffs of police, the locals that were there to fight the fire, decided to loot the burned out factory.
- The national guard attempted to reach the factory to help stop it, but the roads.
It’s just perfect to highlight what all goes wrong when capitalism for the poor and socialism for the rich come together. In this instance, even though it’s fiction, it’s good to see how big companies can suffer from their own mistakes.
I thought I would post about one of the most hardest thing my husband and I ever had to go through: running for state delegate. Besides my dad’s house (you should all know what a nightmare that was), running for office was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Honestly, the first 8 months were probably the hardest… and that’s granted the campaign lasted a little over a year.
Donations
When Brian first announced to our family and friends at a party we threw, I thought the support was going to be tremendous. I had set up ActBlue beforehand and made sure it was working so people could donate ASAP. No one donated. No friends, no family, no one. It wasn’t until maybe September when we got our first donation. We had several people said they would but no one donated until then.
The first people to donate were people who’s door Brian knocked on. I remember that feeling of seeing the ActBlue notification of a gift of $25. Finally, we were relieved. I had Brian write a thank you note right away.
We didn’t raise a lot of money throughout the campaign but Brian wasn’t asking for it either. We didn’t tap any friends or family. We didn’t send out an email with the companies we worked for asking for donations. Besides Brian’s parents, we only raised a few hundred dollars total. Brian’s parents gave the most.
Campaign Lit
I had always wanted to go to a union shop but VistaPrint was cheap and they had great deals and the quality was great. We started out with business cards. Brian would door knock with them. We eventually had to bite the bullet and upgrade to something larger so we got postcards instead. We started out one-sided then opted for two sides… one being the stances, contact info, his picture, etc. The other, a personal message mentioning that he’s NOT A LAWYER.
We also purchased a few signs and posters with his logo.
The Logo
I had came up with a few things for Bri. He liked the cursive font with the Maryland flag. However, everyone thought it was too hard to read. By this point my sister was bugging me about a campaign video and we needed the logo to be concrete. I just changed the font and the alpha of the flag (making sure the 4.5:1 color contrast ratio for accessibility was enforced).
We went through like three logos. Even now people still say it’s hard to read but whatever. Maybe something that lead to us losing.
The Campaign Video That Never Was
When Brian started out, my sister, Stacy, offered to help with a campaign/intro video. I wanted to film the whole thing in one weekend. I had obtained a script from a guy online. I wanted it to be funny but the guy didn’t put many jokes in it. I had already came up with some jokes so the guy included some of them but all-in-all, looking back, I was disappointed in the script.
My sister came down for the weekend and I gave her the script and she immediately started to revise and make changes. I thought it was such a waste to let it go and Brian was awful filming. He won’t act the way I wanted and I got very frustrated with everything.
This was one of the worst weekends of my life. I had to divorce myself from it. My camera was crappy, we didn’t have all the things we needed for the script… it was just bad all over.
After the weekend, my sister took the footage we had (we shot more after she was gone). She and her friend tried to edit it together but nothing really came about it.
I wanted the video to be a 1-2 minute thing that said who he was, what his platform is, what sets him apart from the rest of the crappy candidates, but it never went. I wanted it to only take about a month so we could release it end of September to share on social media. I was hoping it could be a hit on YouTube since it would be funny but we stopped.
I do thank my sister and her friend for their effort.
Door Knocking
Our whole campaign strategy was about the doors and the events. We never through any meet-and-greets besides the one at Leisure World in September. It didn’t go well at all. Only four people showed up. It was a flop.
We got the voter data from Nation Builder and instead of paying thousands of dollars for the VAN, I decided to create my own.
It took me three days to load all the data into a MySQL database and another few days to build an app around it. It was all stored locally on my laptop at home (a laptop I especially bought for the campaign to replace my old PC).
I would create lists off of the data by choosing a street, looking it up on Google Maps, and getting the streets by it for a route. I created over 160 lists which was around 80% of the knockable district. A lot of the un-knockable district was Leisure World, apartments, or houses that were too far apart to knock.
Bri used these lists throughout the campaign. Bri’s parents would come over for the last two months of the campaign and flyer doors.
The app worked well and I would like to add upon it and have it as an alternative to the expensive VAN. However, I’m going to have to come up with a better way to load and update the data.
Events
Like I had mentioned before, Bri never had any meet-and-greets besides the one in Leisure World. He attended a lot of group meetings though. Every group I heard about, I made sure Bri attended their meetings. I wanted Brian to be a different kind of delegate. One who doesn’t just show up during election time. I wanted him to continue to going to these groups if he had won.
He mainly just did group meetings at night and even attended meet-and-greets of other people we knew were running.
Strategy
Like I said before, our whole strategy was door knocking. We also touted the fact (and hammered it) that Brian is not a lawyer. There was only two other candidates who weren’t lawyers running. Brian is also fact based. I made sure his website had links to articles that were proof of why Brian thinks that way. No other candidate does that or has that. Actual facts? What? And ideas to boot. And he backed up his ideas with facts!
Friends
We pretty much postponed our social lives until after 8PM. Bri would door knock all days
But where to start with our friends? First off, mostly all of our friends were not supportive of Brian running. They would ask how it was going but that’s about all. Only my friend from work joined us for a march (with the exception of our friend’s son). Mostly the marches were family and some of our political friends.
Let me get that straight… our friends were almost of no help but our political friends were of help. The people we met for Bernie stuff helped out a bit. Other than that, it was just us and family.
I am disappointed that our friends didn’t help us. It was something that really hurt me a lot during the campaign. I’m over it now and I’m still friends with people but it really hurt that no one would help. People barely could like Brian’s page on Facebook.
Social Media
God did Facebook cause me much anxiety. When we first announced in June 2017, I thought immediately Bri would get a lot of FB likes on his page. We got like 15. And it stayed at 15-20 for MONTHS. This was the most depressing thing for me that a lot of our friends couldn’t even bother to like his page. I can’t explain how much depression I felt because of FB. I was always tempted to pay for ads for Brian so he’d get more likes but knew I would regret it (if it even panned out).
Social media is not one of my strong suits. I sucked at posting to FB and Twitter but I always felt Brian needed to do that for himself.
Twitter wasn’t so bad. Brian got quite a few followers so I wasn’t depressed about Twitter. He even had more followers than someone we knew running who had hundreds of FB likes.
But ya, FB sucked and caused me to go through a lot of depression.
It’s A Big Club
2018 was a year where a lot of progressives ran for office. We were already helping our friend out in his County Council run. We met a lot of progressives on the campaign trail and if Bri wasn’t running, I would have totally helped them out in their campaigns.
However, a lot of these progressives turned out to be very popular. Much more popular than Brian. People I hadn’t even heard of were suddenly getting all the attention from Bernie groups (i.e. Moco’s Our Revolution) and Brian wasn’t. I had been a part of those kind of groups for a long time and never saw any of these other progressives in there. However, they got all the attention and not Brian.
George Carlin famously said, “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.” I hate to report but the way I feel about progressives is the same… it’s a big club and we ain’t in it.
Endorsements
We spent hours and hours filling out candidate questionnaires for endorsements. We put our time and effort into finding the right words to say, spelling, grammar, etc. In the end, most came down to money anyway.
Here’s a list of groups that I have completely lost respect for because their endorsement process is a joke. Just have the most money or be able to raise the most money and you’ll get their endorsement.
- MCEA – Ie. the Apple ballot/teachers union. My god. It didn’t matter what kind of views you had. You just needed to have the right amount of money in your bank account. Only one of the incumbents got their endorsement along with the rich guy and the union lawyer.
- Sierra Club – We were pretty green. We wanted 100% green energy, everything recyclable, etc. Didn’t matter to them. They only cared about the money in your bank account. The two incumbents and the rich guy got their endorsement.
- Progressive Maryland – We thought for sure we’d get PM but they instead endorsed the two incumbents and the union lawyer… go figure.
- Progressive Neighbors – Nope! We are not the incumbents so we didn’t get their endorsement. They also went for the rich guy as their third.
- SEIU – These people really treated Bri like crap. They scheduled a last-minute meeting and when Brian showed up, they didn’t. He tried to call them back several times (even talking to them) to reschedule but they never gave him a time. Seems they didn’t want to hear how Bri would help them with a $15 minimum wage, universal healthcare, etc.
- All unions – Bri didn’t get any union endorsements. They all wanted to see the money. Like I explained before, money wasn’t our strong suit but door knocking was.
I am deeply humbled and honored and I thank the only two groups to give Brian an endorsement:
The Montgomery County Green Democrats and Montgomery County Our Revolution
These two groups didn’t care how much money you had in your bank account. They didn’t ask for other endorsements. They were strictly issues based.
And when it comes to the issues, Brian is the candidate.
ActBlue
I will never have ActBlue again. Bernie used it and I had donated to Bernie that way. I even tipped them quite a few times. MISTAKE.
ActBlue charged us lots of money even though we only raised a few hundred dollars through their site. They would charge us like $5+ a month.
I will never do ActBlue again and I will NEVER tip them again. Lesson to learn: DON’T TIP ACTBLUE. They get their money through the candidate.
The Other Candidates
We thought the two incumbents would win but one of them did not. I didn’t care for the other candidates that much. The union lawyer didn’t bother me as much as the others. The only one I really liked (besides Brian) was Jade. I would vote for him if he ran again.
One of the candidates did not treat Brian well. He made peace with her but I didn’t like what she did. She did end up winning.
The rich guy really bugged me. I will not be voting for him (or any of them) in the general. He’s the “progressive” but he raised thousands upon thousands of dollars from out-of-state. Since he raised all that money, he got all the endorsements. And since he was “progressive”, all the progressive groups swooned over him. Like I said, big club.
I really do think no one has the same integrity about money in politics as I do as no one else thinks that him raising thousands of dollars from out of state (and taking PAC/union money) is an issue. The same thing to say of him taking that money is the same excuse corporate democrats (and their defenders) use. Think about that.
Summary
To sum it up, friends hurt, lack of money hurt, determination and family are what got us through. I’m glad it’s finally over. I will NEVER do that again.
I’m going to grow this list. I wanted a place which I could update to tell people (and remind myself) of the democrats who are just not on our side and who need to lose their seat.
This is a national list and I’ll try to update it with big votes in the coming months.
| Name |
State |
Reason They Need To Lose |
Notes |
| Baldwin |
WI |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Michael Bennet |
CO |
Voted to reopen government 1/22/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Blumenthal |
CT |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Brown |
OH |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Cantwell |
WA |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018 |
|
| Cardin |
MD |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Thomas Carper |
DE |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Casey |
PA |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Chris Coons |
DE |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Cortez Masto |
NV |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Joe Donnelly |
IN |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Duckworth |
IL |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Dick Durbin |
IL |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Diane Feinstein |
CA |
Voted for FISA reauthorization |
|
| Hassan |
NH |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Heinrich |
NM |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Heidi Heitkamp |
ND |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Doug Jones |
AL |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Tim Kaine |
VA |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| King |
ME |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
he’s actually an independent |
| Klobuchar |
MN |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Leahy |
VT |
Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Joe Manchin |
WV |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Claire McCaskill |
MO |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Menendez |
NJ |
Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Murray |
WA |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Nelson |
FL |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Gary Peters |
MI |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Reed |
RI |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Schatz |
HI |
Voted to reopen government 1/22/2018 |
|
| Chuck Schumer |
NY |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Shaheen |
NH |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Smith |
MN |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Stabenow |
MI |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Jon Tester |
MT |
Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Udall |
NM |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Chris Van Hollen |
MD |
Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
| Mark Warner |
VA |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018; Co-sponsored legislation to deregulate Wall Street 11/16/2017 |
|
| Whitehouse |
RI |
Voted for FISA reauthorization; Voted for CR 1/22/2018; Voted for CR 2/9/2018 |
|
Votes
The Good
The Bad
The Down Right UGLY
- We went from bombing two countries under Bush to SEVEN under Obama; he bombed so much he ran out of bombs
- We’re still in Iraq and Afghanistan; full scale wars that the media isn’t covering anymore
- Started wars in Somalia, Syria, Libya; destabilized Honduras
- Expanded the surveillance state
- Got rid of Habeus Corpus completely
- Prosecuting whistleblowers and journalists
- Campaigned more for the TPP than for single payer or the public option
- Refused to stand with Occupy Wall Street and refused to stand with Standing Rock
- Started Cold War tensions with Russia
- Did nothing to help the people of Flint Michigan or other areas dealing with poisoned water
- Did absolutely nothing to get money out of politics
There’s so much bad that outweighs the good. I would like to think it could have been worse had McCain or Romney won. War is what really gets me with Obama. Having two cousins in the military I cannot look past his record on that.
As an overall grade I would say D. I wouldn’t vote for Obama again if he could have ran. Despite all the bad I will miss him and I thank him for all the good. There is still too much to do in this country and we should have fought harder with Obama. It’s sad progressives need to fight tooth and nail with the Democrats. I just hope the left is awoke now for the shit storm that will be Trump because it’s looking that he will be a lot worse.
With Hillary’s loss and win with the popular vote, there again is talk of getting rid of the electoral college. Back in 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote yet lost the presidency. Hillary won the popular vote by a large margin but lost the presidency.
Should we get rid of the electoral college? My opinion is no.
The electoral college gives candidates a reason to visit states. According to 538, there are around 12 swing states. If the US was to get rid of the electoral college, candidates would only have reason visit the most popular states; i.e. California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
I think I remember Trump saying he would have only campaigned in like six states instead of fifteen if there was no electoral college.
I know I’m going against like all my progressive heroes on this but I believe we need to keep the electoral college so smaller states can have a voice as well. And I’m from Maryland where we never get any love from either candidate every presidential election cycle. And we perhaps would if the US got rid of the electoral college since we’re like the nineteenth most populous state.
I’m for keeping the electoral college but I think we should award electoral votes based on voter turnout. There is/was no incentive to vote. ONE PERSON could have shown up to vote in any state and all that states electoral votes would go to that person whom the ONE PERSON voted for. Presidential candidates should work for every vote and try to ensure that his/her base actually shows up to the polls.
For example, my great state, Maryland, has 10 electoral votes. Say if only 58% came out to vote and Hillary Clinton won the majority of the vote, Maryland’s electoral count should be 6 and be all awarded to Clinton. Probably rounding up the percentage of eligible voters is best. Even smaller states, like a state with 3 electoral votes, would have reason to vote so their population can hit that 66% threshold so they can be awarded their full 3 electoral votes.
But I believe there should be more incentive to go out to the polls if we did it this way. I know that people roll their eyes at this because most of my friends and peeps are informed but there are a lot of people who feel like their vote doesn’t make a difference. I think if we were to award electoral votes based on turn out, people would feel they have more of a voice. It would definitely drive democratic numbers up since the higher the turn out the more the democrats win.
Anyway, that’s my idea.
Something that I had forgotten to blog about in my lessons learned from the election 2016 was all the progressive media that I now listen to instead of the hallow,corporate-owned, corrupt, in-bed-with-wallstreet MSNBC. Here’s a list of my favorite progressive heroes and independent media I trust and that I draw strength from:
- Jimmy Dore – The one and only. I met him in Philly. Listen to his stuff religiously.
- The Humanist Report – Hosted by Mike Figueredo. Good progressive and political commentary on the latest news.
- Redacted Tonight – Hosted by the amazing Lee Camp. Every Thursday they do a live taping of Redacted Tonight in DC. Lee Camp was also in Philly along with John F. O’Donnell. He’s the only quazi-celebrity to make it to my quotes page.
- The Young Turks – Been a fan for a while now. I used to watch Cenk Uygur on MSNBC a while ago. His tone and political views got them to fire him (same fate for Ed Shultz). But I’d watch TYT for election results during the primaries since we were all on the same side (Bernie) and they give it to you straight.
- Let The Madness Begin – Two awesome dudes who do short progressive vlogs talking about the latest in politics.
- Debbie, The Sane Progressive – This woman is awesome. She rants and raves about Bernie and the progressive movement and what the democrats do, etc. I also met her in Philly and she gave me a hug.
- Secular Talk – Just started to listening to this guy, Kyle Kulinski. Very knowledgeable dude.
- Democracy Now! – I actually don’t watch Amy Goodman as much as I should. They cover the most important topics on the show and have great guests.
- Cabin Talk – Claudia Stauber, who I saw in Philly but I met her a few weeks back at the Take Back Democracy DC rally, talks the latest in Bernie, progressive politics, etc.
- Progressive News – Hosted by Tim Black. Awesome guy. I met him at the Take Back Democracy DC rally. He was also in Philly with Black Men For Bernie. I don’t watch him as much as I should.
- The Trews – Russell Brand’s youtube show. It’s pretty good. I catch it from time to time. Always complaining about republicans.
Wow, I got quite a list of progressive heroes!
I also listen to Best Of The Left podcast from time to time.
Another few dudes to add to the list are:
- Greg Palast – He does investigative journalism and documentaries especially in the areas of election fraud, where he’s an expert. I met him in Philly. He sat on one of our posters! Catch his latest documentary, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
- David Sirota – I follow him on twitter. He’s a REAL journalist with the IBTimes.
- Jordan Chariton – He’s with TYT Politics. I would follow him on twitter but he tweets too much! I love him anyway.
- Jeremy Scahill – I follow him on twitter. Co founder of the Intercept. I’ve been following him for years. Big into our military involvement.
- David Shuster – I’ve been following him for years as well. Tells it like it is. He was on MSNBC for a while.
- Edward Snowden – Of course!
- Julian Assange – Wikileaks. Keep fighting!
But don’t think I don’t get MSM as well. I still check Google News to get my fill of corporate owned MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, etc news. I read a lot of articles everyday.
I remember protesting in Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention. I protested at the wall(s) they set up to keep us out. I remember yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs to Hillary delegates, “YOU JUST ELECTED TRUMP!”
I didn’t want to be right. I thought for the longest time Hillary was going to win. I’m still in disbelief.
I know most people are feeling horrible, angry, sad, terrified, etc about the United States just electing Donald Trump. I’m trying to find a silver lining.
After the primary the democrats “tried” to unite us behind Hillary Clinton. However a lot of us progressives refused to unite behind the corrupt democratic party and its chosen candidate due to all the shit they did in the primaries against Bernie Sanders. And I’ve blogged before how the DNC treated Berners at the convention and all the road blocks they threw up to choose Hillary instead of Bernie. Myself and a lot of other progressives I know could no longer stand being a democrat.
But now we have something that draws us together; stopping everything Donald Trump wants to do. Democrats can finally own up and change their positions on the failed right-wing policies the Clinton’s and their donors got them into supporting. They can now stand up against the TPP, against war, against DAPL, against deregulation, against mass surveillance etc. These are all things the democratic AND republican parties were for (hence why progressives had to fight democrats).
Now that Donald Trump is elected, the neoliberal stances that the democrats adopted can now be discarded. Democrats no longer have to support (or pretend to support) something so God awful like the TPP just because Obama was for it. Hopefully this election woke people up.
I have my allies back! We can join together to protest everything bad Trump tries to do. We can protest if he tries to get us into war. (Something told me that if Hillary wanted to start a war, not many of my liberal friends would be by my side in trying to stop it.) We will be against everything bad that Trump wants to do.
And who knows? We may even be surprised what power we can hold now we have a common enemy. Richard Nixon ended the war in Vietnam, started the EPA, introduced health care, etc… all liberal ideas.
It needed to reach a boiling point. With Trump we might have that boiling point.
But now is the time to organize and plan and protest and get involved. Now is the time to rebuild the democratic party to what it was originally for: the working class. Let’s do this!
The United Nations put a price on solving our global food crisis (world hunger). The price is around $34 billion a year (in 2008 it was $30 billion a year).
Put that number in prospective… in 2015 the military budget was $598.5 billion which is almost 20x more than it would cost to provide food for all the food insecure people on the planet.
Even if we weren’t to cut anything from our military or any other budget, we could still cure this problem and be a hero to all the world. (Just imagine how much respect we’d get if WE helped that many people.)
The population of the United States was 318.9 million in 2014. Assuming about half the population pays taxes that’s 159,450,000 who pay taxes. If we were to raise taxes to fund the necessary $34 billion a year to cure world hunger, we’re looking at a tax increase of $213.24 a year. That’s roughly $0.59 a day!
I think solving food insecurity in the world is worth another 59 cents a day I have to pay in taxes.
No doubt that everyone has heard in the news recently about Hillary Clinton’s pay-to-play stories while she was Secretary Of State.
But is this news? I’ve been keeping a file of news articles of Hillary’s corruption now for quite a few months. Anything that’s shady I learn of Hillary Clinton I write down along with the URL of the mainstream media (or other trusted media) source.
I’ve known about Hillary’s pay-to-play for a long time now. It was reported in 2015 that shady stuff was going on while Hillary was Madam Secretary. Why is it just fully coming to light now?
Brian brought up a good point last night. The media wanted to release it now. The media had it for months, if not years, but they chose now to release it. Maybe because it’s a slow news cycle. During the primary there was always something to report about Trump. He totally dominated the news.
But why not push this story out when it mattered; during the primary? Cause they never needed to “sell papers” or generate clicks on stories. There was always something else going on. So we’re thinking the media sat on it until it was a slow news cycle.
Of course I’ve known about the pay-to-play for months now. I’ve been screaming about the blatant corruption of the Clinton’s. So have other progressives.
Recently Chris Hayes and Joan Walsh finally realized Hillary is a warmongerer and her being president would be dangerous. We’ve been saying that the whole damn time! But they dismissed us; everyone did; during the primary. Now they finally realize Hillary is dangerous.
Makes me wonder what else they’ll be parading out later about Hillary. Her ties to the big banks, ties to Monsanto, Wal-Mart director where she did nothing to help unions, her son-in-law’s ties to Goldman Sachs, ties to Russia with the uranium purchase; the list goes on. Hell maybe they have the transcripts of Hillary’s speeches they’re sitting on.
Hillary supporters should get ready cause if Hillary becomes president, be prepared to defend all these scandals and many more.
I decided to go to Philly to protest the DNC and the horrible choice of Hillary Clinton. I’ve been putting my heart and soul into Bernie Sanders’ campaign since he announced. I donated time and money for over a year. I saw it through to the end when he conceded at the DNC in Philadelpia. I cannot possibly try to describe the once-in-a-lifetime feeling I had being there around people like me. Everyone was so awesome. Everyone talked. It’s like we were all friends. I even got to see and meet some of my progressive heroes like Lee Camp, Debbie the Sane Progressive, Greg Palast, and Jimmy Dore.
Pictures: http://yearscollage.com/user/niles38?set_id=41
Here is the diary of what my experiences were. If you ever get a chance to be a part of something bigger than yourself, please do it and see it all the way through. I need to keep harping on these feelings since I may never feel this way again. That’s how much this experience meant to me.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
- Woke up & finished packing; texted Heidi
- Went over Heidi’s house & helped decorate her car with Bernie writing
- On the way up to Philly we saw another Bernie car decorated; we honked & waved
- We also saw Black Men For Bernie bus; they later honked at us
- Got to the hotel in New Jersey and checked in
- Went to nearest PATCO station; Heidi & Ken got the Bernie Sanders banner; I got my Jill Stein quote sign
- There were other Berners on the platform; talked to them while waiting for the train
- Some guy accidently fell; when he got up, he said, “Hillary for prison!”
- Did an interview with a news station with Heidi & Ken on the platform
- Talked with other Berners on where to go; decided to go to the Climate Rally
- Started marching with the Climate Rally that ended at Independence National Historic Park
- Chilled at Independence National Historic Park; Ken got us lunch
- Decided to go to the March For Bernie at 3; saw Josh Fox speak as we were leaving; gave the rest of our lunch to a homeless man
- Went to Philly City Hall to start the March For Bernie
- Marched to FDR Park; fire hydrants were open so we took turns going through them to cool off; march was around 4-5 miles
- Chilled at FDR Park for a few minutes
- Decided to head over to the Fire early for Lee Camp
- Walked a few blocks since traffic was blocked off to get an Uber (only Uber we took the whole time)
- Chilled at The Fire; Heidi got pizza; drank until the show
- It was really hot in the room; Lee Camp and company were late coming out
- During the show Ken made a chair joke; there were a few chairs at the front; Ken said “one less chair today” referring to DWS; I was also the only one who “wooed” for agnostics
- Left the show early since it was so hot
- Got directions from fire fighters; caught the Philly subway (SEPTA) to PATCO
- Went back to the hotel
Monday, July 25, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast; they had waffles; took picture & sent it to Bri
- Got ready & left the room
- Had a problem finding parking; parked at a Bernie campaign headquarters a few blocks away
- Met more Berners on the platform waiting for the train
- Went to Philly City Hall for the Press Conference which turned out to be a rally
- It was a huge rally; got separated from Heidi & Ken several times
- Saw Nina Turner speak
- Met up with Mel & gang
- Heidi wanted to eat so we decided to do the 3:00 march instead of the 1:00 march
- Walked across the street to a ritzy place; had a crabcake sandwich & beer; talked to two college kids who were Berners
- Jimmy Dore walked in as we were leaving!
- Said hi to Jimmy Dore and that I was a huge fan while walking out… didn’t want to bother him while he was eating
- Ken left for home
- Marched to FDR Park
- Banged on wall & protested outside the wall
- Found a spot on the lawn for the Jill Stein Power To The People Rally
- Heard others & later Jill Stein speak
- Afterward banged on fence during the rain
- Hundreds of Berners seeked shelter under an overpass walking back; some of them wanted to block up traffic; tried to stop them since it wasn’t helping anything
- Headed back to the hotel; got a shower
- Went to Wegman’s for sushi & fruit
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast
- Ran into Hillary supporter at breakfast; asked me where I was going today; tried to tell me Bernie will be a huge part of Hillary’s campaign & platform moving forward; doubted it heavily
- Got to the train; went to Thomas Paine Plaza for the Bernie or Bust rally
- Debbie the Sane Progressive spoke; Lee Camp spoke; YahNe Ndgo spoke
- Heidi stalked Jimmy Dore & when he was free called me over to get my picture taken with him! I told him I had a crush on him & he kissed me!!!
- Jill Stein spoke
- Got on Philly metro (SEPTA) to take it to FDR Park
- Had to exit one stop before since we weren’t allowed at the last stop (since that was for the delegates); when we got off the train people were chanting “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie”; amazing moment
- Saw the DNC put up another wall to stop us; protested at the wall; yelled to Hillary delegate that she just voted to send her children to war; cried for my cousin and my friends who are in the military
- Watched a bit of the convention in FDR Park (they had a stage & huge screens)
- More protesting at the walls
- Headed back & ran into Jill Stein walking to FDR Park; I was like two feet away from her; she spoke briefly; people swarmed around her
- Headed back to the hotel & had a shower
- Went out to dinner and ran into some Berners; had dinner with them!
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast
- Ran into Bernie supporters on the platform; an older guy named Dan (who looked like Robert Reich) and his trip mate, Patricia; lots of Berners did carpools and traveled together even if they didn’t know each other
- Heidi & Dan did an interview with HBO
- Black Men For Bernie Rally; a few Hillary supporters showed up; someone took one of their signs & then gave it back (hey they did it to us inside the convention); we later all hugged the Hillary supporters
- Heidi got up on stage & spoke
- Ran into Mel who got up on stage & spoke later
- Kshama Sawant spoke
- Had milkshakes at McDonald’s; spoke to a woman who didn’t know who Bernie is; spoke to a Hispanic young guy who would have been deported thanks to the crime bill but he fought it
- Listened to Jill Stein speak again :)
- They took a picture of everybody
- Headed down to FDR Park
- Heidi met LBJ’s daughter on the train
- Got stuck on the hoity toity delegate train since we couldn’t get off; had to ride it back a stop
- Banged on wall
- Listened to delegates speak at the stage
- Greg Palast spoke
- Watched Greg Palast’s new movie
- Met him & got my picture with him!
- He sat on one of our posters for a bit while we all watched his movie
- Rumor started about Bernie so they stopped the movie to address it
- Did the death of the DNC march with candles & a coffin
- A helicopter started to fly really low since hundreds of us were protesting around the wall & they got scared we were going to do something crazy
- Peace and love thing started again
- A Bernie delegate was being interviewed; told stories about how the delegates were told to remove one sign, then another, then another; if they didn’t do so they’d be kicked out; if they got up to go to the bathroom or get a snack a Hillary supporter would take their place; the whole convention was staged to make it seem like the democratic party is united when IT IS NOT
- Headed back to hotel; had debate with Hillary supporter on the way back
Thursday, July 28, 2016
- Got up & had breakfast
- Packed up & checked out of the hotel
- Headed down to Philly; no Berners on the platform since we just missed the train
- Dance party at Thomas Paine Plaza
- Saw Debbie again
- Listened to various speakers; Hillary supporters there & they spoke & BM4B debated them
- One of the BM4B guys got an email from a Hillary supporter who worked for the Pennsylvania government; read the email; horrible horrible email
- Left for home
- Stopped at Burger King along the way for food
- Ran into traffic; didn’t get home until around 7
- Sad days ahead
Pictures I’m In
Searching through the internet, pictures of the DNC and protest around it; I’ll keep track of photos I find myself in here:
I posted on Monday that I have officially changed my party affiliation to Unaffiliated (Independent). I am through with the Democratic Party.
In fact I’m pretty much through with the whole concept of political parties. Why should we label ourselves and put ourselves into boxes? We all do not think alike.
That’s why I really don’t understand the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” movement that some democrats are trying to push. If that’s the case, why should the primaries matter at all? Why vote in them if all candidates representing the Democratic party are equal?
They are NOT equal. For example, Hillary and Bernie are WAYYYYYYYY different. They both have radically different views on a lot of issues. In fact, a lot of Hillary’s views don’t align with the Democratic party at all (ex. she favors trade deals, offshore drilling, fracking, taking money from big interests, war, government surveillance, etc; all of which and more go against who Democrats are supposed to be).
The Democratic party and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz have been completely unfair to Bernie throughout this entire primary. From limiting the number of debates, lining up Super Delegates before a single vote has been cast, sharing campaign offices, joint fundraisers, etc. Hillary has been given every advantage.
I will not just fall in line and vote for Hillary. My vote needs to be earned and she’s no where close to earning mine. In fact Trump is a lot closer. And from what it sounds like, she’s not interested in mine or any other Bernie supporters’ vote. She’s busy sucking up to Bush donors. Democrats compromise everything they stand for in support of Hillary. So many good progressives in the media have lost their credibility by trying to defend her. I don’t get it.
I’m happy that I’ve chosen to leave the DNC corruption. Democrats are in bed with corporations and with friends like that, who needs Republicans? The Democratic Party no longer represents me. I haven’t changed my views. As Reagan once said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Party left me.”
I never claimed to be a good writer but here it goes…
For the past week I have been flyering around one of the Montgomery County Maryland early voting centers. I did the one at the Silver Spring Civic Center. I was there all this week after work while early voting was happening.
The first day I did it, Monday, I met a really cool older woman who was flyering for Jamie Raskin. She was a very pro Bernie person as well. In fact, she had flyered for him earlier that day. After I was done flyering, I ran home to get my car (I had scootered to work that day). I then went to the Bernie Rockville office to pick up some swag and any materials they had since we were running low. That was a long day. I left for work around 7:30 AM and I didn’t get home until 8:30 PM.
David Throne, Jamie Raskin, Chris van Hollen always had a presence the days I was there. There was even a Trump guy on Wednesday but he didn’t stay very long and he said he was a Democrat. There was always a Hillary supporter there, too except for a few hours on Wednesday when there wasn’t.
Will Jawando’s wife was always there and she was always breaking the rules. They set up lines which us canvassers cannot cross. She was always crossing the line to talk to voters and no one called her out on it. She struck me as very disingenuous. I had met Will Jawando before at one of our MoCo for Bernie meetups. One of our members did his homework and it turned out Will Jawando is a huge Hillary supporter having even gotten money from Hillary. Our member called him out on it but he said he returned the money or some crap which turned out to be false. Anyway, the Jawando’s were bad. They were breaking the rules. His wife kept saying hi to me which was nice and she tried to sway me to vote for him but then I saw the Hillary sticker on her bag. I can’t vote in that election anyway since I’m in district 6.
Yesterday (Thursday) I tried to look up a phone number to call since a lot of the canvassers (including Jawando’s wife) was crossing the line big time but I couldn’t find a number to report it.
The worst day was Tuesday. The DNC guy that was there was very like toolish, if that makes sense. He was all calling me buddy one minute then asking me to do stuff the next minute. He was very pro Hillary. When a few supporters approached, I asked them if they needed any Bernie literature and they said they were very pro Hillary and started to yell at me their reasoning. I couldn’t rebut because the DNC guy was saying “that’s right, I agree, blah blah blah.” So I just had to walk away before I could say my rebuttle which was, “Bernie won’t sacrifice what we want and he won’t start out a compromise with a compromise like Obama does and Hillary will.” The DNC dude even made me take a picture with him, Jamie Raskin, a few other people and the Hillary supporter. Not cool. He was also there yesterday campaigning for Jamie Raskin. I tried to avoid him the best I could.
All week I ran into a good amount of Bernie supporters. I gave them buttons and bumper stickers. They loved them and I loved talking Bernie to the supporters who stopped to talk with me. There were even two people who wanted to volunteer. I gave them a flyer with volunteer information.
Probably my highlight was talking to a woman who told me to give me one good reason why she should vote for Bernie and I said, “he’s anti war, anti TPP, anti free trade, anti Keystone pipeline…” She stopped me there and said, “you had me at anti war.”
The whole week the people flyering around me were heavily Bernie supporters. It was really nice to know I was among like minded individuals.
I was quite nervous the first two days but then New York happened. I had contemplated not going anymore but I know Bernie still needs me and as long as he has a small chance, I’ll be there. On Wednesday and Thursday I got more aggressive and stepped up my game. I approached a lot more people and always smiled and always handed out Bernie info. I wish I was more like the one guy for Jamie Raskin on Tuesday. He would walk up to people, shake their hand, ask them how they were and launch into a whole speech about Jamie Raskin. He was also a Bernie supporter.
Yesterday (Thursday) I had a lot of help. There were like 5 other Bernie supporters there who were flyering with me. They even set up a table. It was very productive. There were a few at the Silver Spring metro, one on the corner, and three of us just walking around.
My favorite part of the day was swapping stories with Brian after we got home. He flyered around two early voting places this week as well.
After working all week doing my full time job and handing out flyers for 2-3 hours each day I’m exhausted. I honestly don’t know how people can have two jobs. But it’s so sad that people have to have two or three jobs just to survive. Another reason why I’m Bernie all the way.
Here’s a list of some of the awesome things I was able to compile about my favorite (and only) candidate, Bernie Sanders.
- Longest serving Independent in Congress in history.
- He calls himself a Democratic Socialist.
- He knows his facts. He backs up his arguments with facts.
- He will NOT run as an Independent if he loses the Democratic nomination.
- He uses Uber, flies coach and is willing to sit in the middle seat, sleeps in cheap Motels across the country.
- He got 71% of the vote the last time he ran for Congress.
- He is treated as a fringe figure but he truly is the only serious presidential candidate in the race. He’s the only one with a decent vision for the country and his record indicates he would follow through if elected.
- He’s never run a negative campaign ad in his life.
- He voted against DOMA, NAFTA, the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq, the Bush Tax Cuts, and a lot of other bills that were passed that turned out to be huge mistakes proving his judgement and instinct can be trusted and he’s not afraid to fight.
- He’s for a living wage. If you work 40 hours a week you should not live in poverty.
- 99% of Sanders campaign contributes have come from small donors. (Less than half of one percent of his donors have given the maximum. Three quarters of his donors give less than $200.)
- He has a positive favorability rating.
You can’t say those things about anyone else who’s running; including Hillary Clinton.
Here are some of the awesome things Bernie Sanders has tweeted:
- I’m not running for president because it’s my turn, but because it’s everyone’s turn to live in a nation of hope and opportunity for all. – February 7, 2016
- I want our country to have the distinction of having the best educated population on earth. – Sept 21, 2015
- In my view, some of the real heroines in our country today are single moms. – Sept 20, 2015
- Congress bailed out Wall St. because it was too big to fail. In my view, if a bank is too big to fail, it’s too big to exist. Break ’em up. – Sept 18, 2015
- It’s time to break up the banks. Their casino-style gambling has helped divert 99 percent of all new income to the top one percent. – Sept 16, 2015
- Virtually every campaign for president has a super PAC funded by millionaires or billionaires. Not me. – Sept 15, 2015
- You can’t have it all. You cannot continue to get tax breaks when people across this nation are going hungry. – Sept 12, 2015
- When Roosevelt ran for reelection, he welcomed the hatred of what he called “the economic royalists.†I’m prepared to do that as well. – July 8, 2015
Here are some awesome YouTube videos for Bernie:
Here’s a bonus article:
Sanders Against The Corporate Media http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/18/bernie-sanders-is-running-as-much-against-the-corporate-media-as-he-is-against-hillary-clinton/
If you know me, you know I Feel The Bern and am a Bernie Sanders supporter to the very end (even going so far as to write his name in if he’s not the Democratic nominee come November). And I know it’s not Bernie’s style to go on the attack as he’s never run a negative campaign ad in his life. But since Hillary is going on the attack against Bernie, I thought it well to attack her a bit.
So here’s a list of stuff I compiled that do not paint Hillary Clinton in a good light. I believe she’s very corrupt, wrong for our country, and here is proof.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton#Early_life
She was a Republican in her younger years. She campaigned for Republican candidate Barry Goldwater (who voted against the Civil Rights Act).
Bernie Sanders, however, organized effective resistance to segregation and civil rights violations in Chicago. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in his “I Have A Dream†speech.
- http://time.com/4113521/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-september-11/
On the debate on November 14, 2015 she invoked the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 to defend herself against the charge that she is too close to Wall Street with taking millions in campaign donations. Nobody in history has defended their campaign donations with a terrorist attack.
- http://www.progressivepress.net/hillary-clinton-was-a-wal-mart-director-for-6-years/
She was a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors from 1986-1992. During this time she remained silent while Wal-Mart waged a major campaign against labor unions.
- http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00000019&cycle=Career
Many of Hillary’s top campaign donors are big banks. How can she possibly want to regulate them when they have helped her get into power?
- http://www.aol.com/article/2015/11/24/since-01-clintons-collected-35m-from-financial-businesses/21272344/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl34|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D-1699415919
After the economic crash of 2008, the Clinton’s made $26M from banks, insurance companies, etc.
- https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/superpacs.php
List of Hillary Clinton Super PACs: Madam Hillary 2016, Balance of Power PAC, HillaryFTW, Hillary 2016, Faith Voters, BillForFirstLady2016, Arriba Con Hillary, America’s Teachers, African Americans for Hillary, Priorities USA Action
- http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/17/hillary-clinton-gmo-support-monsanto-ties-spark-ba/?page=all
Hillary has accepted money from Monsanto and is on their side when it comes to GMOs.
- http://www.people.com/article/hillary-clinton-ethics-investigation-son-in-law-marc-mezvinksy-favor
She could face ethics charges. Her son-in-law, a hedge fund manager, asked for a special favor when she was Secretary of State. Not to mention her email server which the FBI is currently investigating.
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/foreign-governments-gave-millions-to-foundation-while-clinton-was-at-state-dept/2015/02/25/31937c1e-bc3f-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html
When she was Secretary of State, the Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from foreign governments.
- http://www.ibtimes.com/clinton-foundation-donors-got-weapons-deals-hillary-clintons-state-department-1934187
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/hillary-clinton-foundation-state-arms-deals
When she was Secretary of State, Clinton Foundation donors got weapons deals from the State Department. Here’s a list of some countries and the amount of money they gave:
- Saudi Arabia $10M-$25M
- United Arib Emirates $1-5M
- Qatar $1-5M
- Algeria $250k-500k
- Bahrain $50-100k
- Kuwait $5-10M
- Oman $1-5M
- Morocco $1-5M
- http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/donald-trump-donations-democrats-hillary-clinton-119071
She received a lot of money from Donald Trump and has been personally close to him; even attending his wedding in 2005.
- http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/05/flashback-in-2008-hillary-clinton-spoke-out-against-feds-setting-blanket-rules-on-guns-video/
She committed yet another flip flop. She was against some of the Executive orders Obama recently enacted. She was against taking federal action on guns in the past.
- https://theintercept.com/2016/02/08/hrc-inner-circle-lobbyists/
A lot of her top advisers lobbied against Obamacare and Dodd-Frank.
- http://observer.com/2016/02/why-wall-street-gives-hillary-clinton-millions-of-dollars/
She made millions of dollars in paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, etc. As Secretary of State she helped UBS settle a lawsuit with the IRS. Afterward Bill Clinton received $1.5 million from speeches and UBS started giving to the Clinton Foundation.
- http://freebeacon.com/politics/clintons-own-water-pollution-scandal/
During the Clinton years in Arkansas, Tyson leaked sewage into a Arkansas river, polluting water for many people. Bill Clinton acted after 17 months of initially being informed. Yet Hillary criticized Governor Snyder for inaction in Flint, Michigan. Both Bill Clinton and Rick Snyder deserve scrutiny for their inactions.
