Bernie!

[SEVERUSMAX]

Trump is in worse legal trouble than she is. It isn't just Trump University. His campaign financial reports and his tax form claims aren't adding up.

And if the FBI goes after her they now have to go after Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice too. Of course there may be more coming up to go after Clinton on too--some foundation problems, but those would seem to stick to Bill more than her.

Granted, the Donald's skeletons are all coming out of the closet at once. If he had a deal with Hillary, that deal is apparently off. Unless that deal was a full Presidential pardon, which would finish off her chances of a second term.

As for the server deal, it's up to the FBI to decide and I'll trust their judgment on that, whatever happens.

Be that as it may, she has the pledged delegates. She is the presumptive nominee. America has her stark choice of a rather hawkish center-left Democrat and a pseudo-populist with a lot of disturbing authoritarian and racist leanings as the Republican. Hillary may or may not be corrupt, but even if she were, a crook is better than an insane bigot who would endanger our national security even worse than Hillary's hawkish tendencies. I don't agree with her on guns, on the drug war, and on the Libya decision, but I disagree with Trump on the importance of preserving the Constitution, the Republic, and our international alliances, so that's kind of a bigger dealbreaker.

And there is a significant difference between some foreign policy mistakes that still fit within the multi-lateral approach to foreign policy and the mad, neo-con unilateralism of the Bush era.....you know, the foreign policy that Senator Ted Cruz wanted to revive. Anyone who doesn't know whether or not Hillary is a neo-con need only listen to Senator Ted Cruz, and then come back to report to me. Clinton is an internationalist with a few hawkish impulses. Cruz is a fucking neo-con. It's a yuuuuugggeee difference!

Why am I mentioning Cruz? Because in 2020, he's the likely GOP nominee, assuming that we get lucky and avoid a President Donald Trump.

 

[sr71plt]

What Sanders' campaign has done is moved Clinton on several issues. Her speech tonight sounded like Sanders in several aspects. His speech didn't have much give in it, but that's to be expected if he wants to keep the pressure on on his issues--which is fine with me; I agree with his issues, I just don't think he has a prayer of delivering any of it himself (or even his naive supporters, few of which have any power to do anything), but that Clinton might deliver some of it if she picks it up as her issues (which she did at least in some aspects in her speech tonight). He meets with Obama on Thursday. Obama, at this point, has the highest favorables of the Democrats and can be a smooth persuader of anyone who is willing to be reasonable. I'm looking for him to merge the efforts enough to get some of Sanders' issues into Clinton's platform. That is, I think, the only hope of any of them getting done or even moved forward.

What Sanders led off with tonight and was strongest on was that he'd do everything he could to keep Trump from winning. I don't know to what degree he'll ever try to get his voters to vote for Hillary, but I'm sure he'll convince most of them not to vote for Trump at least.

I think he'll be segueing his reform movement to be something transcending from an election campaign (which he is now out of) to beyond. If he wants to do this, he can't do it as an independent unless he and his people spend their time effectively in electing their people to Congress (and I don't think he's done any work on doing this). If he can't do this, his only choice is to continue to ride on the back of the Democratic Party--which means he's going to have to help keep Trump from winning and then will have to see what he can to move his issues to Clinton's agenda (which I think can be done in large part).

 

[underguy1]

I don't think many Bernie supporters will be swayed to vote for La Clinton somehow. Nor should they.

 

[BotanyBoy]

What Sanders' campaign has done is moved Clinton on several issues.

LOL how's the Kool-Aid?

Her speech tonight sounded like Sanders in several aspects.

That good talk is as close as she'll ever get to being progressive.

Anyone who has paid any attention to her outside of campaign speeches knows knows all that good shit is gone the second she's in office.

 

[BotanyBoy]

What the fuck is wrong with California?

What?

California has a white hot searing hatred for working class/disadvantaged/poor people....

Are you really shocked that a regressive NeoLib like Clinton won out here?

 

[underguy1]

Electronic voting machines, no exit polling.

The fix was in.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I just think that the early call, which was very hasty and premature, so much so that Hillary herself condemned it, depressed pro-Bernie turnout and thus we have California. But that's just my theory.

 

[underguy1]

The fix was in right from the first primary. The DNC/Clinton machine stole and suppressed votes all over the country.

Not to mention the shady money deals that drained state parties of money straight into the Clinton campaign chest.

You can pretend otherwise if you like but the facts are available and damning.

 

[sr71plt]

I see you guys continue to favor denial to reality.

 

[BotanyBoy]

I see you guys continue to favor denial to reality.

Exactly.


Y'all the NeoLibz won, we will get more war, more wealth inequality, and more too big to fail.

Get excited for Hillary!


LOL.....America deserves her.

 

[L1tTleD1fferent]

Why am I mentioning Cruz? Because in 2020, he's the likely GOP nominee, assuming that we get lucky and avoid a President Donald Trump.

In the words/title of John Mayer, there is "no such thing" as the likely nominee for the next run now... If someone had said in '12 that Trump would even be actively trying to be a candidate now, you'd have stuck them in the Dunce Division!

Also, do not favor denial to reality... Just denial instead of admittance of some realities.

 

[JackLuis]

An example of Bernie's revolution.

Retirees Win Round One

Who could have predicted a year ago, as Congress-sanctioned pension cuts gathered momentum, that thousands of retired truckers self-organizing in diners and union halls across Middle America would manage to apply the brakes?

“We’ve taken just normal, everyday grandmothers and grandfathers, and we’ve made citizen lobbyists out of them,” said Wes Epperson, a retired member of Teamsters Local 41 in Kansas City, “and it’s been because of necessity.”

The movement won a first-step victory on May 6, when Special Master Kenneth Feinberg recommended that the Treasury Department deny the Central States Pension Fund’s bid to slash 207,000 Teamsters' benefits by up to 70 percent.

“I must congratulate the retirees for reaching out to us and making sure that their voices were heard,” Feinberg told reporters. “I can tell you that listening to the retirees and what they had to say, of course that influenced.”

By standing up to Congressional surrendering to the Corporate Class, a bunch of old duffers made a difference. They did not wait for a "Man on a White Horse" to save them, they organized.

Everybody gave then short shrift so they took it on themselves to raise awareness of the issues and brought pressure to bear on Congress Critters.

This is the point of Bernie's Revolution and Occupy, that you cannot expect Congress to respect your rights unless you hold their feet to the fire, every fucking day.

 

[JackLuis]

The Fight for $15 Takes On D.C. and the Democratic Platform

As members of the Democratic Party platform committee entered the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington Wednesday, they were greeted by dozens of low-wage workers demanding that the committee write support of a $15 minimum wage into the platform.

What happened next is a testament to how fast the politics around the “fight for $15” have changed in the past two years. As a few of the protesting workers, wearing blue shirts with the word “strike” emblazoned on the front, managed to commandeer a row of seats inside the platform committee hearing, Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser was speaking. When she mentioned that she and the City Council had just unanimously agreed to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2020, the workers erupted in cheers.

But there is no mistaking where the momentum is, and the only question is whether the Democratic Party will work to get in front of the parade. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of course, is already there, and as a presidential candidate famously challenged candidate Hillary Clinton at the CNN New York presidential debate for trying to in effect stand on both sides of the issue, saying she supported New York state’s gradual move to a $15 wage but actually campaigning to raise it to only $12 an hour. As she finally admitted at that debate, “I want to get something done. And I think setting the goal to get to $12 is the way to go.”

All the while Hillz is wearing a $12K jacket and who knows how pricey her shoes may be? Do you think she really feels a waiter's pain at working full time and having to sleep in the Metro?

 

[sr71plt]

Yep, as you suspected, I support the incremental approach--first to $12 and later to $15. Zipping right up to $15 will be too big of a shock to the economy, massively cutting out jobs altogether, and will just cause prices to zip up to soak up the extra. Nothing in what you quoted says Clinton isn't in favor of reaching $15 in two chunks. I've heard her say in speeches that $15 is a two-stage goal. That doesn't meet your backbiting agenda, though, so you pretend she plans to stop at $12. It's just another case of her working with what's most possible and you being naive and starry eyed.

 

[L1tTleD1fferent]

Yep, as you suspected, I support the incremental approach--first to $12 and later to $15. Zipping right up to $15 will be too big of a shock to the economy, massively cutting out jobs altogether, and will just cause prices to zip up to soak up the extra. Nothing in what you quoted says Clinton isn't in favor of reaching $15 in two chunks. I've heard her say in speeches that $15 is a two-stage goal. That doesn't meet your backbiting agenda, though, so you pretend she plans to stop at $12. It's just another case of her working with what's most possible and you being naive and starry eyed.

Making the jump in two jumps is a waste of time, which every term served by anyone has the same amount of in it.

Make the jump to 12 or 15, but all at once. Otherwise, you are the one being "naive" (to put it nicely).

 

[sr71plt]

Making the jump in two jumps is a waste of time, which every term served by anyone has the same amount of in it.

Make the jump to 12 or 15, but all at once. Otherwise, you are the one being "naive" (to put it nicely).

I guess you haven't been around much to see what the economy does with across-the-board pay hikes.

 

[JackLuis]

Yep, as you suspected, I support the incremental approach--first to $12 and later to $15. Zipping right up to $15 will be too big of a shock to the economy, massively cutting out jobs altogether, and will just cause prices to zip up to soak up the extra. Nothing in what you quoted says Clinton isn't in favor of reaching $15 in two chunks. I've heard her say in speeches that $15 is a two-stage goal. That doesn't meet your backbiting agenda, though, so you pretend she plans to stop at $12. It's just another case of her working with what's most possible and you being naive and starry eyed.

I'm naive? Fuck pilot don't you realize that incrementalism plays right into the hands of the Rethuglicans? A living wage right now is about $20 an hour in many cities and in Washington is $27, not $7.70 or $10.10 or even $15/hr.

Bernie wanted a gradual increase to allow the market to adjust, it's just he wanted a reasonable objective and a reasonable schedule. Hillary would want a gradual increase to $12 and then 'We shall see". Which means she would never get it to $15 and hour until the CPI had made it necessary to then she'd announce her support, just before the mid-term elections.

You mistake that the way to deal with assholes by compromising before the contest. You get them by the knackers and squeeze until they capitulate.

If the Democratic Establishment had use Obama's first two years to bail out the country and took equity in the TBTF Banks for the bail out and prosecuted Bush's Neo-Con's for the crimes they committed, we'd be a lot better off. But, NO! They were too busy making sure all the shills were paid off and in place to fuck over We The People, for the Dark Lords benefit. that made the Democrats lose the House and Senate. So how fucking smart is the Democratic Establishment and their sniveling lackies?

 

[underguy1]

I guess you haven't been around much to see what the economy does with across-the-board pay hikes.

Income = spending.

Increased real income = increased aggregate demand = increased labour demand = more jobs.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Income = spending.

Increased real income = increased aggregate demand = increased labour demand = more jobs.

Maybe and maybe not. It's also true that higher wages = fewer marginal jobs, and those are the kind of jobs we refer to when we discuss minimum wages.

 

[underguy1]

Maybe and maybe not. It's also true that higher wages = fewer marginal jobs, and those are the kind of jobs we refer to when we discuss minimum wages.

So called marginal jobs i.e. those paying below a reasonable living wage need to be eliminated.

They drive real wages down for all.

 

[Sean Renaud]

So called marginal jobs i.e. those paying below a reasonable living wage need to be eliminated.

They drive real wages down for all.

How do you plan on doing away with millions of jobs without causing mass unemployment and of course driving down wages for all?

 

[BotanyBoy]

How do you plan on doing away with millions of jobs without causing mass unemployment and of course driving down wages for all?

Same way we do it in CA....you ship them out to the desert and drop them off then pretend it never happens.

 

[underguy1]

How do you plan on doing away with millions of jobs without causing mass unemployment and of course driving down wages for all?

By increasing the minimum wage?

 

[Boxlicker101]

So called marginal jobs i.e. those paying below a reasonable living wage need to be eliminated.

They drive real wages down for all.

They will be eliminated when employers are forced to pay more than they think the jobs are worth. Some examples: Pin-setting. At one time, bowling alleys paid people to set the pins by hand and paid low wages to those doing it. Now, this job has been eliminated because it is cheaper to buy automatic equipment.

Bill-pushers: At one time these people were paid very low wages for hand-delivering circulars. They don't anymore, because it's cheaper to have these deliveries made by the post office.

Farm labor: This used to be labor-intensive but now, with high minimum wages, farmers are using automated equipment.

In all these cases, the work was done better, generally speaking, by hand but those who did it have been replaced, largely because of high minimum wages.

I expect most people can come up with other examples.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Trump is an aberration, and as long as he gets crushed in the fall, Ted Cruz will come back and sell the GOP on, "Look what happens when you abandon core conservative (meaning Tea Party) ideals. Now, nominate me."

And since he came in second, and Trump got curb-stomped, the Elephants will all force-march themselves to the ballot box to vote for Mr. Cruz. At which point, his nomination will be the Dems' only hope of keeping from losing the White House to a public suffering fatigue with the same party after 12 years.

Cruz's refusal to endorse Trump will also make him look like a prophet and his potential opponents who endorsed Trump, such as Rubio, will be screwed.