Tag Archives: Bernie Sanders

AOC Backed Progressive Wins Over Democrat Incumbent in NY

  ,
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

A progressive  challenger who was backed by some big names in that field such as, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and the first term Representative from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has won an important race and taken out an incumbent.

Jamaal Bowman is a former middle school principal and first-time candidate and he ran against Representative Eliot Engel, who was the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

The primary election took place on June 23rd but was really close and it took until Friday, almost a month later, to call the result.

Bowman defeated Engel by a roughly 15-point margin in the primary in New York’s 16th Congressional District.

The district covers parts of the New York City borough of the Bronx and portions of neighboring southern Westchester County.

Many of the votes in the primary were cast by mail, and some still haven’t been counted.

Associated Press analysis of absentee ballots that had been counted so far indicate that Bowman’s lead is too far from Engel to overcome.

AP Politics tweeted this:

After the call was made by AP, Bowman tweeted this:

The victory by Bowman is being compared to the victory by AOC in 2018. She defeated Democratic Representative Joe Crowley.

Engel had been under attack because he spent more time at his home in Potomac, Maryland than at his apartment in the Bronx.

He was also caught on a hot microphone saying that “if I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care” about speaking, while he was at an event in his congressional district.

Engel is a White man while Bowman is Black. So much for assuming White privilege.

Engel landed endorsements from prominent establishment figures while he was fighting for re-election. Some of his donors include the former senator from New York and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, some top House Democrats, and the political wing of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Engel is one of the original sponsors of the House Democrats’ sweeping police reform bill and he played a significant role in this year’s impeachment efforts over President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine

The bill is moving through the chamber at this time.

More and more progressive candidates are appearing on the scene. Some are doing better than was anticipated.

If the Democrats have a large progressive field, there is a certain type of Democrat that they appeal to.

Personally, I categorize progressives as Socialists.

Progressivism is a political philosophy in support of social reform. It is based on the idea of progress in which advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition.

Modern social democrats would have you believe that they tend to reject revolutionary means accepted by the more radical socialists.

They also contend that another difference is that some social democrats are mainly concerned with practical reforms within capitalism, with socialism relegated to the indefinite future.

I don’t seem to see the differences.

If more of these progressive candidates get into power, America is going down.

I have an easy alternative. Vote Republican and you won’t have to worry about the U.S. becoming a Socialist nation.

My take on it is, VOTE RED DOWN THE LINE wherever you are.

Bernie’s Flame Burnt Out

  ,
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

The self-proclaimed Socialist Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, D-VT., has suspended his campaign.

It appears that former Vice President Joe Biden is the presumed nomination.

In his second straight presidential bid Sanders issued a brief statement to his campaign during an all-staff conference call on Wednesday morning.

The senator from Vermont was trailing Biden in delegates after major primary defeats but was hanging in the race to promote his progressive policy positions.

Sanders gave a virtual news briefing around the noon hour and praised Biden as the presumed nominee. He called President Trump the most dangerous president in history as he praised his supporters and encouraged them to keep up the fight for his policies and the movement that he represents.

Biden was already moving ahead and was planning to consider running mates. I would guess that Biden will go ahead and pick a running mate.

Voters in Wisconsin went to the polls Tuesday, but results are not expected until Monday, April 13.

Biden is expected to win that primary and that may have helped to encourage Sanders to drop out or suspend his campaign.

While Biden may be pleased that Sanders’ has suspended his campaign, I really don’t believe that Sanders progressive supporters are going to support Biden or any other candidate, for that matter.

No Audience for Biden-Sanders Debate

 
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

The debate between former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders I-Vt., will be debating without an audience on Sunday.

The Democratic National Committee had planned the Presidential debate to take place in Phoenix, Ariz., but that has changed due to the fears that have mounted with the coronavirus.

On Thursday DNC Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement, “Out of an abundance of caution and in order to reduce cross-country travel, all parties have decided that the best path forward is to hold Sunday’s debate at CNN’s studio in Washington, D.C., with no live audience.”

Also announced was that Jorge Ramos, who was going to be a moderator, will step back from this debate. Ramos had contact with someone who had been in contact with someone else who tested positive for the virus.

Hinojosa also said, “In addition, the DNC, CNN and Univision recently learned that Univision anchor and moderator Jorge Ramos was in proximity with someone who was in direct contact with a person that tested positive for coronavirus. Both Mr. Ramos and the person he was in contact with are in good health and symptom-free. Despite being cleared by medical professionals and out of an abundance of caution, Jorge has decided to step aside from participating in the upcoming March 15 democratic debate. Univision’s News Anchor Ilia Calderón will moderate the debate in his place.”

She continued, “Our number one priority has and will continue to be the safety of our staff, campaigns and all those involved in the debate.”

The World Health Organization designated the coronavirus, or COVID-19, an international pandemic and that appeared to be the reason to move the debate.

It has been reported that as of Thursday morning, there were more than 1,300 cases of coronavirus in the United States. Forty-four states, including Washington, D.C. have seen cases of the coronavirus. Thirty-six coronavirus deaths have been reported in the United States.

Most people who get the coronavirus have mild cases with symptoms being fever and cough and usually recover in about two weeks but older adults and people with pre-existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The virus attacks mainly the lungs and heart.

President Trump has called for a more inclusive temporary travel ban to be enforced and to begin on Friday.

The President and Vice President Mike Pence have both been giving televised public announcements over the concerns of the coronavirus.

This is not a time to be planning travel. Keep safe and wash your hands often. Keep away from large gatherings and stay home if you feel sick and contact your healthcare provider.

Imam Featured at Sanders Rally

  ,
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

One of the two front runners for the top Democrat position, Bernie Sanders I-Vt., featured an imam at a weekend rally in Dearborn, Michigan.

Imam Sayed Hassan al-Qazwini, who had made claims in the past that ISIS is “connected to Israel” as part of a conspiracy to murder people to make the religion of Islam look bad. The Imam praised Sanders for uniting Americans.

Al-Qazwini said, “ISIS somehow is connected to Israel. And ISIS is playing the role of the arm of the Zionists in the Muslim world to kill more Muslims and non-Muslims so it can define the name of Islam, so people can blame Islam for its atrocities, so people will be alienated from this religion.”

This is an archived video posted on Twitter that shows the imam speaking on the subject:

Later, in the comments to the tweet the imam claimed that Muslims in Europe and the U.S. were put in danger by ISIS’ actions and that Zionists were to blame because they benefited from these atrocities.

Sanders’ campaign has some out of the box supporters and this past weekend added Phillip Agnew, who is an artist and organizer, to its official staff.

Agnew had tweeted the day bin Laden was killed by American Navy Seals and in the tweet said.  “I don’t believe sh*t America, and by default Obama, says. Sorry. We prolly BEEN killed Osama. All choreography. Got no proof; gut feeling.”

Also, Agnew had made derogatory statement about Michelle Obama’s looks.

Agnew apologized for all the remarks in a tweet saying “Thank you for holding me accountable.”

Here is his tweet:

It appears that Sanders attracts some rather vocal campaign staffers and supporters.

Sanders is Jewish and declined to go to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference saying he would boycott the massive conference and accused its leaders of welcoming bigots.

May I remind everyone that Sanders is a self proclaimed socialist and communism is not far off from those ideals? Sanders’ supporters don’t seem to appreciate freedom or the American way of life that we have fought so hard to attain.

As well as writing, I am a graphic artist. I happened to make a meme that represents my thinking on socialism.

Here it is:

Bloomberg Claims NRA Helped Sanders

  ,
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

As of Monday, the internal war in the Democratic party is in full bloom. The former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, started to attack Senator Bernie Sanders I-Vt., on gun control issues.

Just ahead of the South Carolina Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, Bloomberg posted an ad on his Twitter account that hits Sanders hard on his views for the use of guns.

The ad displays Sanders taking pro-gun stances in Congress and accuses Sanders of getting elected to Congress with the help of the NRA multiple times.

In the ad a 1990 letter by chief Wayne LaPierre of the NRA is cited. It shows that Sanders is a better choice for Vermont than former Republican Representative Peter Smith. An assault-weapons ban was backed by Smith.

The caption on the ad reads, “With that letter, and thousands of dollars in advertising, the NRA helped elect Bernie Sanders to Congress. Sanders voted with the NRA and opposed federal background checks by trying to block the Brady Bill 5 [sic] times.”

Here is the ad posted on Twitter by Bloomberg:

The timing of the ad comes at a critical time because Sanders won big in the Nevada caucuses. Sanders, on the other hand, had a very poor showing in the Nevada Democratic debate.

Bloomberg has donated large sums of money to anti-gun groups and even started his own anti-gun organization which is called “Everytown for Gun Safety” in response to the Sandy Hook mass shooting.

The organization then helped organize students who witnessed or were affected in another mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

In 2012 Sanders had a bad rating of a D-minus from the NRA. Sanders, in reality, is no friend of the NRA or pro-gun lobbyists.

Sanders tweeted out this:

The Bloomberg ad shows Sanders’ quotes on Vermont being a “rural” state and that Sanders voted with the NRA in 2005 that ensured gun manufacturers would not be held responsible for crimes committed with their products.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that allowed Sandy Hook families to sue Remington Arms, which is the gun manufacturer, in state court.

We are seeing a pattern that shows that before a Democratic debate, issues are brought to light by the 2020 candidates and that those issues are brought into the attacks on each other on the stage on live TV in front of millions of viewers.

My presumption is that Bloomberg may attack Sanders on gun control issues during the upcoming debate in order to not come across as weak as he did in the debate in Nevada.

Will it work for Bloomberg? Time will tell.

Aren’t election years fun? This election has our freedom at stake and yet I find the players on the Democratic side to be somewhat pathetic but possibly fun to watch them destroy each other.

Do You Enjoy President Trump’s Humor?

  ,
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

President Trump has been watching the Democrat 2020 candidates battle each other and a couple of things that have happened over this past week must have sparked his interest and even put a smile on his face.

Senator Bernie Sanders I-Vt., had a big win in Nevada and the close call in Iowa, where he came in second place, or maybe first place, because no one seems to want to disclose what really happened in Iowa, has the Democratic establishment in a frenzy.

What happens in Iowa, stays in Iowa? I thought that was Las Vegas, Nevada. I’d have to guess all these caucuses are starting to get confusing.

Sanders has his party claiming that he has some involvement with Russia and that President Vladimir Putin  would like to see Sanders win the nomination and the 2020 general election.

Sanders has denied any affiliation with Russians and in fact, made a comment of denial.

Sanders said, “I don’t care, frankly, who [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants to be president. My message to Putin is clear: stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.”

Personally, I don’t see Sanders getting the chance to be president so Putin must be having a good laugh about this.

Trump decided to give the opposing party some advice. After all, they seemed like they needed it.

It is quite obvious that President Trump has a pretty good sense of humor. His supporters enjoy his perky personality.

Trump tweeted this:

It appears that lawmakers on Capitol Hill and some people who are familiar with the subject have knowledge of alleged Russian attempts at influencing the 2020 election.

It has been alleged that during a House intelligence briefing, lawmakers learned that Russia wanted Trump to win.

Marc Short, chief of staff for Vice President Pence, sharply denied that intelligence pointed to Russia wanting Trump to win.

Reports are alleging that Representative Adam Schiff D-Calif., leaked this information.

Short said that news of Russian interference or preferences is the result of “selective” leaking from the House Intelligence Committee led by Schiff.

This information must have sparked something with Trump because he too accused Schiff of spreading disinformation.

Trump tweeted:

I don’t know about you but I find this to be comical and to me there’s nothing that strikes my funny bone more than a tweet from Trump when he’s in a humorous mood.

Will there be a Brokered Democratic Convention?

  ,
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

It appears that there is no clear frontrunner in the Democratic race for the leadership of the party.

The Iowa caucuses are less than six weeks away and there is no outright favorite. In more than a half of a century we have not seen a convention that goes beyond a first ballot but we may see it happen.

If this first ballot does not work out, and it certainly looks like that is a possibility,  we will see a brokered or contested convention.

The last time that either of the major party nominating conventions went past a first ballot was 1952. In that year Adlai Stevenson won the Democratic nomination on the third ballot.

Kathy Sullivan, the Democratic National Committee member from New Hampshire, recently said, “It could happen, it would be exciting to see it go past the first ballot because it would be so unusual.”

Sullivan added, “It’s been a long, long, long time since there’s been a second ballot at a Democratic convention.”

Even if the possibility of a brokered convention is not a strong possibility, conditions in this race could possibly lead to no candidate holding a clear majority of delegates when they head into the July Democratic convention in Milwaukee.

Here’s where the electoral college comes into play. We’ve all heard about superdelegates. These delegates are the party elders and insiders. But the superdelegates were stripped of their power in the 2016 primary battle. After all, Hillary Clinton was destined to win, if only in the minds of the Democrats.

This upcoming election does not have a presumed frontrunner so the superdelegates could become important and their powers would be activated.

They would be free to boost the candidates of their choosing. Their choice is not an easy task. Who could possibly beat the incumbent, President Trump? None, as far as I can see.

The top tier consists of four candidates. They are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

The donors to the Democrats are a diverse group. Sanders, Warren and even a long shot candidate like tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang could see their campaigns funded by people-powered donations into the primary process.

Online contributions are interfering with the once powerful wealthy donors  who still back more establishment candidates and those candidates would be Biden or possibly Buttigieg.

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and environmental advocate Tom Steyer are pouring hundreds of millions of their own money into their own campaigns. That alone could keep them going if they can manage to hang in the race long enough.

If three or four contenders are still standing when heading into April, they would all fall short of the 1,919 delegates that are needed to clinch the nomination on the first ballot.

Sullivan explained, “You’d have to have a situation where multiple candidates come out of the first four states with wins. You’d go into Super Tuesday and have some candidates concentrating in certain states, others in other states, because it’s very expensive to run in all the states on Super Tuesday. Not all the candidates can afford to do that.”

She went on to say, “So if we come out of Super Tuesday with no clear leader and then it becomes a state-by-state contest and then we end up in New York towards the end of April. If after that point we still don’t have [a clear leader], then yes, it goes to the convention and conceivably a second ballot.”

Democratic governors, senators, representatives, former high-ranking lawmakers and leading party officials, who make up the superdelegates, all backed their favorite candidate, Clinton, in 2016.

But after the 2016 election, the DNC pulled back the influence of superdelegates because of the anger of Sanders and his army of progressive supporters.

Now, the superdelegates are only unbound if the convention reaches a second round.

Then there is another scenario.

If one of the candidate gets strong in the early states, the nomination race could be over pretty fast.

In 2004 when then Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts wrapped his nomination early.

If the battle between the candidates goes to a second ballot in Milwaukee, Sullivan maintains that we shouldn’t expect to see a repeat of the contested conventions from the history books.

Sullivan said, “People refer to brokered conventions, which leads you to think of people in smoke-filled rooms making deals, cutting deals. I don’t think you’re going to see deal-making going on because all these people [delegates] are free agents. It would be a very democratic process.”

A Democratic process? Is she suggesting that the 2016 process wasn’t? No, Clinton was the clear choice for everyone in the party even if they cheated Sanders out of it.

Unfortunately for them, they were all wrong. They backed their candidate without any thought that Trump would or could defeat their choice for president.

Personally, I believe Trump will be the winner no matter who the Democrats put up against him.

If I were a Democrat, which I am not, I’d be panicking about now.

New Poll Shows These Candidates Leading

 
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

A new national poll shows who is leading the still large group of Democrats in the race to become the presidential nominee for 2020.

In a NPR PBS News Hour Marist poll released on Monday which was conducted by Public Opinion Director Lee Miringoff, former Vice President Joe Biden is at 24 percent and Bernie Sanders D-VT, at 22 percent in the polling of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters. The numbers are within the survey’s sampling error.

The poll was conducted between December 9th and 11th, with 1,508 registered voters nationwide, which included 704 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. They were questioned by live telephone operators. The margin of error for questions on the Democratic presidential primary is plus or minus 5.4 percentage points.

Other candidates are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth is at 17 percent after slipping slightly in the poll. South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who was a long-shot climbed to 13 percent support.

Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang is at 5 percent and Senator Cory Booker  D-NJ., Senator Amy Klobuchar D-MN., and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg all at 4 percent.

Senator Michael Bennet D-CO, Representative Tulsi Gabbard D-HI, and former Obama housing secretary and former San Antonio, Texas Mayor Julian Castro are all at 1 percent.

All other candidate else registered at less than 1 percent.

The next debate is scheduled for December 19, 2019 at 9:00 PM at Gersten Pavilion at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

The field is large and diverse but the question in most American’s minds is can anyone of these candidates beat President Trump.

What say you? Can a Democratic candidate beat Trump?

Trump Supporter Trolls Bernie Sanders

 
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

On Saturday, 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders I-Vt., was speaking at an Iowa campaign event when a he was confronted with a Trump supporter.

Sanders was speaking when a man stood up and began to deliver a message to President Trump.

Sanders seemed to know that something was up as the young man approached the microphone with his phone.

Before the man uttered a word, Sanders said, “Oh, he’s looking at his phone. I’m in trouble.”

When the man was given the opportunity to speak into the microphone, he delivered a message directly to President Trump.

The unidentified man said, “Mr. Trump, keep going man. You’re doing a good job. You know what, I’m a liberal.”

Well, not everyone was like minded and boos came from the crowd. That silenced the young man briefly but Sanders urged the crowd to let the man speak.

The man explained that he had voted for Sanders during the 2016 Democratic primary but is now fully behind Trump.

The man spoke into the microphone and said, “I don’t agree with anything you say. I used to. I voted for you in 2016. And I’ve been to Vietnam and seen what socialism has done. It’s destroyed the lives [of many].”

People in the crowd laughed but then the man spoke about how Socialism doesn’t work.

Wearing an army green hoodie the man shouted,  “You can laugh all you want. Donald Trump is helping our country. All right? He’s a good man. Socialism does not work.”

Sanders and the man continued to shout at each other but the man was escorted out of the room.

Here is a video that shows what happened:

Bernie Sanders: Gun Buybacks Unconstitutional?

  ,
Leave a comment

by Daveda Gruber:

On Sunday Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is fighting to be the 2020 presidential nominee, gave his views on gun control.

At a green jobs town hall in Charles City, Iowa, during a question and answer period, Sanders was given a question about mandatory gun buybacks, specifically AR15s and AK47s.

Sanders replied, “I don’t support ˗˗˗a mandatory buyback is essentially confiscation, which I think is unconstitutional. It means that I am going to walk into your house and take something whether you like it or not. I don’t think that stands up to constitutional scrutiny.”

Sander does have a plan of his own to control gun ownership. He plans to take a strong stance against the National Rifle Association. Sanders wants to increase background checks and he wants to see assault weapons.

Sanders went on to say, “We cannot allow the NRA to dictate policy because they’ve intimidated [President] Trump and they’ve intimidated the Republican party. I’m not going to be intimidated by them.”

Recently another 2020 Democratic candidate, Beto (Robert Francis) O’Rourke made mandatory gun buybacks or confiscation, whichever way you want to say it, a center point of his campaign.

Considering that O’Rourke dropped out of the race, that policy of buybacks, red flag laws, and a national registry, didn’t seem to be a winning policy.

Before O’Rourke withdrew from the race, he stated that police officers would have to enforce the buybacks and enter private homes to carry out the confiscation.

Really? I’m pretty much certain that our brave men in blue didn’t want to have to face this type of a law that O’Rourke would have implemented.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg took the same stance as Sanders in saying that buybacks are the same as confiscation.

Two other presidential candidates, Senator Cory Booker D-NJ., and Senator Kamala Harris D-Calif., support the buyback plan.

Folks, taking away our second amendment is never a good idea. Once citizens of any country lose a right, it’s not easy to get it back. As a matter of fact, a right is nearly impossible to get back once it is made unlawful.