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Saturday, November 21, 2015

The Daily Drift

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Bernie Sanders Hits A Home Run With Democratic Socialism Speech That Could Change America

Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialism Speech Georgetown University
Bernie Sanders delivered one of the great political speeches of the year with an address that if listened to and heeded has the power to change America.
Sen. Sanders said:
People are not truly free when they are unable to feed their family. People are not truly free when they are unable to retire with dignity. People are not truly free when they are unemployed or underpaid or when they are exhausted by working long hours. People are not truly free when they have no health care.
So let me define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic socialism means to me. It builds on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all Americans. And it builds on what Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1968 when he stated that; “This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the poor.” It builds on the success of many other countries around the world that have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.
Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.

Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system in America today which is not only grossly unfair but, in many respects, corrupt.
It is a system, for example, which during the 1990s allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions to get deregulated. Then, ten years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior of Wall Street led to their collapse, it is a system which provided trillions in government aid to bail them out. Wall Street used their wealth and power to get Congress to do their bidding for deregulation and then, when their greed caused their collapse, they used their wealth and power to get Congress to bail them out. Quite a system!
And, then, to add insult to injury, we were told that not only were the banks too big to fail, the bankers were too big to jail. Kids who get caught possessing marijuana get police records. Wall Street CEOs who help destroy the economy get raises in their salaries. This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant by socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for everyone else.
In my view, it’s time we had democratic socialism for working families, not just Wall Street, billionaires and large corporations. It means that we should not be providing welfare for corporations, huge tax breaks for the very rich, or trade policies which boost corporate profits as workers lose their jobs. It means that we create a government that works for works for all of us, not just powerful special interests. It means that economic rights must be an essential part of what America stands for.
The speech that Sen. Sanders delivered was a cultural landmark. Before the Great Recession, no one could have imagined a major party presidential candidate delivering an address that exposed the inequalities in our economic system.
Sanders explained why he is running for president, “I’m not running for president because it’s my turn, but because it’s the turn of all of us to live in a nation of hope and opportunity not for some, not for the few, but for all.”
Bernie Sanders isn’t a communist or a socialist. Sen. Sanders is a throwback to the days of true liberalism. It wasn’t a coincidence that Sanders frequently referred to the most successful Democratic president of all time in his speech.
Sanders said, “I don’t believe government should own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal.”
Sanders echoed the view of governmental power that echoed FDR. Roosevelt used his power to balance the scales after a decades of a Republican federal government that had become too pro-business and corporation.
Sen. Sanders didn’t offer a defense of democratic socialism. He went on offense with an argument that explained why our system is out of whack. The current American system benefits the few at the expense of the many. Sanders made a compelling argument that it is time to give the country back to the majority and that the power of government should be used to benefit all Americans, not just the wealthy and corporations.
Bernie Sanders delivered a speech that showed that liberalism is alive and well. Republicans are trying to use democratic socialism as a slur, but they are doing so out of fear.
The United States is moving left. The country is becoming more diverse, and Republicans are being left behind. The address by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was a landmark moment that revealed how far the left we have moved. Sanders is a serious candidate for the Democratic nomination, and he delivered a speech that could inspire a movement that will change America.
Sen. Sanders hit a home run with an address that could mark the moment when ordinary Americans mobilized to take their country back from the corporations and billionaires.

Bernie Sanders' 12 Best Reasons for Being a Democratic Socialist

‘True freedom does not occur without economic security’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) describes democratic socialism during a speech at Georgetown University on Nov. 19, 2015. [YouTube]
Presidential candidate makes argument for his brand of ‘democratic socialism’ in major speech comparing his ideals to those of FDR, but skimps on foreign policy.

Bernie Sanders Goes Off Script During Major Speech And Annihilates Trump

Bernie Sanders slams Trump racism
During his speech on democratic socialism, Sen. Bernie Sanders departed from his prepared remarks and leveled Trump for his racist rhetoric and tactics.
Sen. Sanders said:
I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice, a lot of which we have been hearing in recent months. And I do proudly believe in immigration reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better life.

And while I am on that subject let me just say a real word of concern to what I have been hearing from some of the Republican candidates in recent months. People can have honest disagreements about immigration or about anything else. That’s called democracy, but people should not be using the political process to inject racism into the debate. And if Trump and others who refer to Latinos as criminals and rapists. If they want to open that door, our job is to shut that door, and shut it tight. This country has gone too far. Too many people have suffered, and too many people have died for us to continue hearing racist words coming from major political candidates.
Sanders didn’t just destroy Trump and the entire racist subtext that many of the Republican pretender candidates are running on. He called on the American people to shut the racists down.
Sen. Sanders was correct. We have a moral obligation to shut people like Trump, who are trying to exploit some of the deepest wounds in society for political gain completely down. The reason the media should report on Trump’s remarks with a more critical eye is because he is damaging the country.
The Democratic candidate’s remarks about Trump were not in his prepared text. Sanders took a detour to express how strongly he feels about the damage that the Republican front-runner is doing to our country.
Trump is so afraid of Sanders that he is trying to get voters to believe that he is a communist. The reality is that Sanders is speaking a truth that Trump doesn’t want voters to hear.
Trump’s empty bluster about communism can’t match up the truth that Bernie Sanders is dropping on the billionaire.

Comic legend Mel Brooks: If I were making a Trump sitcom it would be about a powerful idiot

Mel Brooks (Shutterstock)
Comedy legend Mel Brooks said in an interview this week that he considers Republican cabal pretender candidate Trump to be nothing more than comedy fodder.

Robert Reich: Now more than ever America needs an intelligent president — not a lying circus barker

A caricature of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (DonkeyHotey/Flickr)
Robert Reich: Now more than ever America needs an intelligent president — not a lying circus barker

Paul Krugman on What's Behind the Wingnuts' Ridiculous Tendency to Panic

How sex, spying and Bobby Jindal ruined Vitter’s run for Louisiana governor

His state will elect a new governor today, and in recent weeks the once-invincible candidate’s campaign has collapsed in spectacular fashion, raising the remarkable possibility that a Democrat could win the governor’s race.

CNN Correspondent Suspended For Two Weeks For Speaking The Truth

CNN Correspondent Suspended For Two Weeks For Speaking The Truth

These Three Republican Candidates Earned A Combined 16 ‘Pinocchios’ For Pathetic Obama Lie

Photo: WhiteHouse.Gov.
This is what happens when your cabal’s pretender candidates get their information from Fox News.

Obama Names His Favorite Anti-Obama Conspiracy Theory

Obama Names His Favorite Anti-Obama Conspiracy Theory 

Fox News Brings Back One of the Stupidest, Most Harmful Wingnut Conspiracy Theories

Trump Picks Republican Pretender Nominee

by John DeProspo
cruz-trump-2016After having hinted at his campaign’s exit strategy (Trump’s Exit Strategy Finally Revealed), Donald Trump has chosen the 2016 Republican presidential nominee: Ted Cruz.
Of course Trump has not announced his exit from the race… just yet. Nor has he come out in favor of Cruz as the presidential nominee. Trump speaks in ways that require one to read between the lines.
Trump’s backing of Cruz as the Republican nominee came in the context of discussing his VP pick.
During an interview with Lifezette, Trump revealed his possible choice for vice pretender, “Cruz is now agreeing with me 100 percent.” Later on the Laura Ingraham radio show, Trump elaborated, “Well, I like him. He’s backed everything I’ve said.”
There has always been a cozy relationship between Trump and Cruz. Unlike the other Republican pretender candidates, Cruz has mostly refrained from attacking Trump, even appearing alongside him at a rally in September against the Iran nuclear deal.
The pair has struck similar notes on topics such as border security, illegal immigration and the Syrian refugee crisis.
Many pundits believe Cruz is primed to pick up Trump supporters if (more likely when) he exits the race.
Speaking about the results of a recent Texas Lyceum poll, Joshua Blank, research director, said. “It’s safe to say Cruz would benefit most in Texas if Trump were to drop out. I think he would benefit most in a lot of places, amongst the traditional candidates.”
The Trump Republican pretender run has finally come full circle. Cruz will be the beneficiary of Trump’s rabid group of supporters. They will be handed over, on a silver platter, by Trump to his fellow racist, xenophobic, hate-mongering compatriot.
It’s Trump for the money, and Cruz for the show.

Cruz calls Obama administration support for trans teens “lunacy”

Ted Cruz, via Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia CommonsCruz calls Obama administration support for trans teens “lunacy”
He can’t think of a not-horny reason why someone would want to use a bathroom corresponding to their identity.

Wingnut Voters Continue Their Flight From Reason As Trump And Carson Lead The Republican Field

Trump and Carson remain resilient as the leaders in the Republican cabal  field.…
carson-trump A national Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released on November 19th shows that Republican voters are sticking with Trump and Carson as their top choices to become the Republican nominee for pretender. The poll found Trump leading with 26 percent support and Carson in 2nd place, registering 19 percent support. Rounding out the top four, Cruz was polling at 14 percent, and  Rubio was at 13 percent.
Jeb was in 5th place, way back at 5 percent support. No other GOP candidate registered higher than 4 percent. The field has essentially winnowed down to four seemingly viable candidates and a slew of “also-rans.” Unfortunately, the “viable” candidates consist of two front-runners with no elected experience, a U.S. Senator who nobody in the senate gets along with, and another U.S. Senator who doesn’t like his job, and rarely shows up for work.
Nothing more dramatically illustrates Republican voters flight from reason than the fact that Trump and Carson remain resilient as the leaders in the Republican cabal field, despite their weak resumes and the bizarre political positions they have taken during their campaigns.
Trump kicked off his campaign by calling undocumented Mexican immigrants rapists, and he hasn’t let up on his xenophobic rhetoric since. His more recent suggestions include shutting down mosques and possibly requiring Muslims to carry special ID cards. He lacks foreign policy nuance, only saying that his plan is to “bomb the shit” out of the bad guys. He wants to build a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, but he promises that somehow he will get Mexico to pay for it.
Trump is not a serious candidate, but because Republican voters seem to love his boastful, but simplistic ideas, he is a candidate that must be taken seriously. Wingnut voters are also enamored of Carson, despite the fact that Carson seems in way over his head, when it comes to understanding foreign policy, economics, or really anything that doesn’t involve brain surgery or separating conjoined twins.
Carson’s own advisers say he is clueless about foreign policy and that their efforts to educate him have been futile. His own advisers seem almost terrified that he might actually become president and have no idea what he is doing as Commander in Chief. Yet, his lack of foreign policy experience has not turned off wingnut voters, who seem to have become so anti-intellectual and nihilistic that they view incompetence and ignorance as positive selling points.
What more can be said of a candidate who is trying desperately to convince voters that he stabbed one of his relatives, and voters are eager to believe him and to vote for him? Republican voters are so consumed with their antipathy to Barack Obama that they are willing to support any candidate, as long as that candidate is just as angry and delusional as they are.
The entire Republican cabal primary process would be amusing, if not for the fact that Republican voters appear dead serious about electing a joke to head their ticket in 2016. Whether its Trump, Carson or one of the other wingnuts, it will be no laughing matter if any of them somehow manage to get elected.

Wingnut Posts Pics of Corpses in Paris to Gin Up Anti-Muslim Hatred

Ohio wingnuts want women to use food banks and school nurses instead of Planned Parenthood

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R). [CNN]
Ohio abortion foes are taking aim at $1.3 million Planned Parenthood uses to conduct STI and HIV tests, and infant mortality reduction programs to supplement the state’s troubled healthcare system.

Wingnuts On Texas Board Of Education Block Proposal To Let Experts Fact-Check Textbooks

GOPers On Texas Board Of Education Block Proposal To Let Experts Fact-Check TextbooksTexas is terrified to let experts read the books they use to teach their children.
Can anyone guess why?

Honestly ...

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/.KsAIwyFWuYsq4uK0gAJhg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9MzY1O2lsPXBsYW5lO3B5b2ZmPTA7cT03NTt3PTUwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/crmlu151115.jpg

Pew Report Shows More Mexicans Leaving US Than Coming In

Mexicans line up outside de U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, as they wait for a working visa interview, Thursday, May 17, 2007. Key senators in both the Democrat and the Republican parties, together with the White House, announced an agreement Thursday on an immigration overhaul that would grant quick legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and fortify the border. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

7 reasons why the wingnut backlash against Syrian refugees is so utterly pathetic

US President Barack Obama has insisted the screening in place was enough to weed out jihadists and keep Americans safe, accusing Republicans of demonizing Syrian "widows and orphans" (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)
It’s become increasingly clear that ISIL wants to foster a backlash against Syrian refugees in the West.

Satanic Temple chapters offer Muslim communities help against ‘wingnut xenophobia’

Satanic Temple Minneapolis Chapter [Facebook]
"If there is anyone in the Minneapolis area who is Muslim and afraid to leave their home out of fear for some kind of backlash, don't hesitate to reach out to us,” the Minneapolis chapter’s Facebook post read.

Trump Wants to Register Muslims Like the Nazis Registered Jews

Trump is determined to keep the dream of the Reich alive by registering and identifying Muslims in public with special IDs…
trump-dream
The Dream of the Reich lives on, and Trump is preaching it. Unrepentant Nazis, are any still alive, can be relieved to know that the lessons they taught did not go unlearned, and that they did not die – in war and at the gallows – for nothing.
Trump, appearing in Newton, Iowa, says he would “absolutely” require Muslims to register in a database; he “would certainly implement that – absolutely.” He told an NBC reporter that “They have to be” registered. “They have to be.”
How would he register them, you ask? “Different places. You sign up in different places. But it’s all about management. Our country has no management.”
So…databases:
“It would stop people from coming in illegally. We have to stop people from coming into our country illegally.”
But more than databases:
“There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases. We should have a lot of systems.”
Oh. Not just databases. Beyond databases.
Funny. That’s what the Nazis said too. They were all about efficiency.
The Nazis also made the Jews register so they would know who they are. To make that task easier and more effective, they required them to wear yellow stars on their clothing so they could be spotted in public.
What a coincidence! Thursday morning Trump told Yahoo News he wanted to do the same thing, that he could not rule out making Muslims wear special identification:
“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. Some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule.”
And those synagogues…er, I mean mosques:
“We’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely. We’re going to have to look at the mosques. We’re going to have to look very, very carefully.”
In fact, Trump was asked about the similarities, how what he wanted to do was different than having to register as a Jew in Nazi Germany, and the tycoon answered “You tell me.”
Obviously, there is no difference. And Trump’s notions ought to be disturbing to everyone. Does anyone seriously believe it will end with databases when Trump himself says we must go beyond that? The Holocaust Encyclopedia tells us,
During the first six years of Hitler’s dictatorship, from 1933 until the outbreak of war in 1939, Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private lives.
The Nuremberg Laws in 1935 took away their citizenship and they lost the right to vote and could no longer hold public office. Already, it is easy to see this happening, given that these very same things are said by conservatives about atheists and others who aren’t “really” American.
Earlier, Trump had called Syrian refugees a “Trojan Horse” and therefore “suicide” for the United States – essentially the same language used by Nazi demagogues of Jews, though in those pre-computer days, it was “parasites.”
We have been accepting refugees since our Founding, and we are still here. The Statue of Liberty, not Donald Trump, epitomizes the American spirit. Perhaps she should be remodeled to replace her tablet with a database form. And at the base, instead of “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” it will say, “Muslims, don’t forget to register!”
In Germany in the 30s, you would see signs saying, “Juden sind hier unerwünscht!” – “Jews are unwanted here!” If Trump becomes president, we can expect those to change to “Muslims are unwanted here!”
This could easily be many parts of our rural south, or a scene in any Red State you care to name:
jews-unwanted
Yet having embraced the ideals of the Third Reich, Trump tweeted that he had “a great evening in Iowa!” and that he was “Heading now to Florida – tomorrow, South Carolina!” to spread his poison there.
That’s nice. Hitler always enjoyed the Nuremberg rallies too.
What makes Trump’s plan truly bizarre is an earlier appearance on Savage’s hate speech radio show, where Savage asked Trump what he thought President Obama’s “real reason for flooding America with Muslims from Syria” might be, to which Trump answered that it was “hard to imagine.”
“Obviously some people think it’s evil intentions, I think it’s incompetence, regardless, a lot of people think it’s evil intentions.”
Evil intentions. Like registering Muslims like Nazis registered Jews?
Then again, the Nazis also said the Jews were the bag guys. They saw themselves – like Republicans today – as the saviors of Western Civilization.
Only the enemy was different, but then again, not: Semites.
Lt. Colonel Burton F. Ellis, who prosecuted Nazi war criminals after WWII, wrote of the Reich, “Humans lose their veneer of civilization very, very rapidly under certain conditions.”
People have always asked, could it happen here? The answer is, yes it can. It can happen anywhere. And this is how it starts.

Not Just Trump: Republicans Embrace Hitler’s Nazi Tactics to Target Muslims

Not Just Trump: Republicans Embrace Hitler’s Nazi Tactics to Target MuslimsTrump is not alone. Increasingly, Republicans are calling for concentration camps to be built to house Syrian refugees for now…
ted cruz donald trumpRepublicans are fond of boasting how exceptional America is, but honestly, being a structurally violent society, leading the world in child poverty and hunger, gun deaths, and spending more on bombs than infrastructure or citizens is not exceptional; it is truly pathetic. Purely Republicans, but still pitiful. In fact, what is pathetic to a secular humanist is a badge of honor, and a sign of exceptionalism, to wingnuts so polluted with religious and xenophobic hatred against non-white non-christian human beings. There was, and the operative word is was, one area that America was, at one time, indeed exceptional among the world’s nations, but Republicans and their dirty bigoted followers have crusaded tirelessly to extinguish it once and for all.

Trump refuses to say how Muslim ‘databases’ would be different from Nazi IDs for Jews

The footage shows NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard asking from off-camera, “Why would Muslim databases not be the same thing as requiring Jews to register in Nazi Germany? What would be the difference?"

Connecticut Makes Indiana Republicans Look Like Cowards After Taking In Syrian Refugee Family They Rejected

Indiana Republicans are looking pretty cowardly right now after Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy gladly welcomed a family of Syrian refugees Mike Pence...

Wingnuts scrambling to explain why the bible is negotiable for refugees, not for same-sex marriage and abortion

Jesus, presumably telling someone to chill out and think for themselves, via Wikimedia Commons
Wingnuts scrambling to explain why the bible is negotiable for refugees, not for same-sex marriage and abortion
This week’s been a madder-than-usual dash away from jesus among wingnuts.

Koch Brothers Spy Ring Justifies Paranoid Delusions

koch bros

Take a Wild Guess About Why Koch Brothers Got So Interested in 'Criminal Justice' Reform