Bernie Sanders position is the right one, if he is a member of the
Establishment. And I believe he is. A far to the Left member, but
nonetheless, a member who sees his role as one of restoring some of
that which the working class has lost in recent years. In that sense
Bernie and Thom Hartman are kindred spirits. I would like to believe
that the working folks could wrestle back some of their losses, but
even if that happens, the fact remains that those in power and
possessing the money and influence to buy and sell lawmakers, will
always come out on top.
While it is difficult to actually compare living conditions between
today and 1890, considering the world as it was then, life is not much
better or worse today than it was back then.
By that I mean, hope lost is hope lost whether you have a pittance
from the government or depend upon handouts from the churches, or
begging on the streets. People who are condemned to life long poverty
and disenfranchisement, are fully aware of the hopelessness of their
situation. They understand that the small changes made in an effort
to assist them are window dressing, at best.
Mostly the working poor, the unemployed, the disabled, like the
wounded vets, are spotlighted every four years by the so called
Progressive wing of the Democratic Party, in their quest to garner
enough votes to win.
And after the election it is back to business as usual.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/26/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well, I think that Bernie Sanders believed that if he had some
representatives on the platform committee and because he received 13
million
votes, he'd have leverage. I listened to most of the speech that he gave at
Town Hall in New York City on Thursday night via Common Dreams, and I've
also heard clips of interviews with him. Clearly, he made a choice and the
choice was that it would be more pragmatic to work for change within the
system than outside it. And to the extent that he finally got his ideas
heard through the media, he was correct, even if the media did distort what
he said. But Chris Hedges did say, about 2 weeks ago, that Bernie was
naïve,
and that the Democratic Party would squash him. One thing I do know, a
lot
of people who believed Bernie, will be very disheartened. He wants them to
continue to fight, within the system for years to come, to change politics.
But when they see that they can't even influence the platform which is just
symbolic, I wonder how they'll feel after the very corporate convention.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Jarvis [mailto:carjar82@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 11:01 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Miriam Vieni
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs
Fracking, TPP, and Israel Occupation
Are there really Progressives and Radicals out here who thought the DNC
would back any of Bernie Sander's platform planks? Hey! Have I got some
cool swamp land for you!
The news makes it sound as if the Progressive proposals were betrayed.
Forget that. You are only betrayed if you really believed the other guys
babble. The DNC never had the Working Class' interest at heart.
Never! Get over the idea that we Working Class Folk have a dog in this
fight. It is the Right head of the Monster fighting the Left head of the
Monster. Big money has taken over. We cannot "reform"
something that we have no stake in. The System is broke, as far as the
Working Class is concerned. But it is doing just fine and dandy, as far as
the First Class Corporate Citizens of the American Corporate Empire are
concerned. It's high time...in fact far past time, for the sleeping giant
to stir and slap the pesky Corporate Drones. Can we shake off the slick,
fast talking corporate shills and take our rightful place as first class
Americans?
Carl Jarvis
On 6/26/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and IsraelShadowproof's Kevin Gosztola.
Occupation Published on Saturday, June 25, 2016 by Common Dreams
Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and Israel
Occupation Appointees by Clinton and Wasserman Schulz resoundingly
reject numerous proposals put forth by Sanders surrogates by Lauren
McCauley, staff writer
Members of the Democratic party Platform Committee, including (from
left to
right) American Federation of State, County, and Muncipal Employees
executive assistant to the president, Paul Booth, U.S. Rep. Keith
Ellison (D-Minn.), former White House Energy and Climate Change Policy
director Carol Browner, and Palestinian rights academic James Zogby.
(Photo: DNCC) Despite its claims to want to unify voters ahead of
November's election, the Democratic party appears to be pushing for an
agenda that critics say ignores basic progressive policies, "staying
true" to their Corporate donors above all else.
During a 9-hour meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday, members of
the DNC's platform drafting committee voted down a number of measures
proposed by Bernie Sanders surrogates that would have come out against
the contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), fracking, and the
Israeli occupation of Palestine. At the same time, proposals to
support a carbon tax, Single Payer healthcare, and a $15 minimum wage
tied to inflation were also disregarded.
In a statement, Sanders said he was "disappointed and dismayed" that
representatives of Hillary Clinton and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman
Schulz rejected the proposal on trade put forth by Sanders appointee Rep.
Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), despite the fact that the presumed nominee
has herself come out against the 12-nation deal.
"Inexplicable" was how Sanders described the move, adding: "It is hard
for me to understand why Secretary Clinton's delegates won't stand
behind Secretary Clinton's positions in the party's platform."
The panel also rejected amendments suggested by 350.org co-founder
Bill McKibben, another Sanders pick, that would have imposed a carbon
tax, declared a national moratorium on fracking as well as new fossil
fuel drilling leases on federal lands and waters.
"This is not a political problem of the sort that we are used to
dealing with," McKibben stated during the marathon debate. "Most
political problems yield well to the formula that we've kept adopting
on thing after thing-compromise, we'll go halfway, we'll get part of
this done. That's because most political problems are really between
different groups of people. They're between industry and
environmentalists. That is not the case here."
"Former U.S. Representative Howard Berman, American Federation of
State, County, and Muncipal Employees executive assistant to the
president, Paul Booth, former White House Energy and Climate Change
Policy director Carol Browner, Ohio State Representative Alicia Reece,
former State Department official Wendy Sherman, and Center for
American Progress President Neera Tanden all raised their hands to
prevent a moratorium from becoming a part of the platform," noted
According to Gosztola's reporting on the exchange, Dr. Cornel Westcraft.
lambasted the aforementioned panel members, particularly Browner, for
"endorsing reform incrementalism" in the face of an urgent planetary
crisis.
"When you're on the edge of the abyss or when you're on that stove, to
use the language of Malcolm X, you don't use the language of
incrementalism. It hurts, and the species is hurting," West said.
Other progressive policies were adopted piecemeal, such as the $15
minimum wage, which the committee accepted but without the amendment
put forth by Ellison that would have indexed the wage to inflation.
The panel did vote unanimously to back a proposal to abolish the death
penalty and adopted language calling for breaking up too-big-to-fail
banks and enacting a modern-day Glass-Steagall Act-measures that
Sanders said he was "pleased" about.
According to AP, the final discussion "centered on the
Israel-Palestinian conflict."
"The committee defeated an amendment by Sanders supporter James Zogby
that would have called for providing Palestinians with 'an end to
occupation and illegal settlements' and urged an international effort
to rebuild Gaza," AP reports, measures which Zogby said Sanders helped
Instead, AP reports, the adopted draft "advocates working toward athe assembly.
'two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict' that
guarantees Israel's security with recognized borders 'and provides the
Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity.'"
Citing these "moral failures" of the platform draft, West abstained
during the final vote to send the document to review by the full
Platform Committee next month in Orlando, Florida.
"If we can't say a word about TPP, if we can't talk about
Medicare-for-All explicitly, if the greatest prophetic voice dealing
with pending ecologically catastrophe can hardly win a vote, and if we
can't even acknowledge occupation... it seems there is no way in good
conscience I can say, 'Take it to the next stage,'" West declared before
"I wasn't raised like that," he said. "I have to abstain. I have noZogby. (Photo: DNCC)
other moral option, it would be a violation of my own limited sense of
moral integrity and spiritual conscience," adding, "That's how I roll."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
3.0 License Skip to main content //
. DONATE
. SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTER
Sunday, June 26, 2016
. Home
. World
. U.S.
. Canada
. Climate
. War & Peace
. Economy
. Rights
. Solutions
. What 'Our Revolution' Wants
. Brexit!
. Election 2016
Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and Israel
Occupation Published on Saturday, June 25, 2016 by Common Dreams
Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and Israel
Occupation Appointees by Clinton and Wasserman Schulz resoundingly
reject numerous proposals put forth by Sanders surrogates by Lauren
McCauley, staff writer
. 249 Comments
.
. Members of the Democratic party Platform Committee, including (from
left to right) American Federation of State, County, and Muncipal
Employees executive assistant to the president, Paul Booth, U.S. Rep.
Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), former White House Energy and Climate Change
Policy director Carol Browner, and Palestinian rights academic James
. Despite its claims to want to unify voters ahead of November'sShadowproof's Kevin Gosztola.
election, the Democratic party appears to be pushing for an agenda
that critics say ignores basic progressive policies, "staying true" to
their Corporate donors above all else.
. During a 9-hour meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday, members of
the DNC's platform drafting committee voted down a number of measures
proposed by Bernie Sanders surrogates that would have come out against
the contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), fracking, and the
Israeli occupation of Palestine. At the same time, proposals to
support a carbon tax, Single Payer healthcare, and a $15 minimum wage
tied to inflation were also disregarded.
. In a statement, Sanders said he was "disappointed and dismayed" that
representatives of Hillary Clinton and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman
Schulz rejected the proposal on trade put forth by Sanders appointee Rep.
Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), despite the fact that the presumed nominee
has herself come out against the 12-nation deal.
.
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/myj16-articlehttps://secure
.actbl
ue.com/contribute/page/myj16-article
"Inexplicable" was how Sanders described the move, adding: "It is hard
for me to understand why Secretary Clinton's delegates won't stand
behind Secretary Clinton's positions in the party's platform."
The panel also rejected amendments suggested by 350.org co-founder
Bill McKibben, another Sanders pick, that would have imposed a carbon
tax, declared a national moratorium on fracking as well as new fossil
fuel drilling leases on federal lands and waters.
"This is not a political problem of the sort that we are used to
dealing with," McKibben stated during the marathon debate. "Most
political problems yield well to the formula that we've kept adopting
on thing after thing-compromise, we'll go halfway, we'll get part of
this done. That's because most political problems are really between
different groups of people. They're between industry and
environmentalists. That is not the case here."
"Former U.S. Representative Howard Berman, American Federation of
State, County, and Muncipal Employees executive assistant to the
president, Paul Booth, former White House Energy and Climate Change
Policy director Carol Browner, Ohio State Representative Alicia Reece,
former State Department official Wendy Sherman, and Center for
American Progress President Neera Tanden all raised their hands to
prevent a moratorium from becoming a part of the platform," noted
According to Gosztola's reporting on the exchange, Dr. Cornel Westcraft.
lambasted the aforementioned panel members, particularly Browner, for
"endorsing reform incrementalism" in the face of an urgent planetary
crisis.
"When you're on the edge of the abyss or when you're on that stove, to
use the language of Malcolm X, you don't use the language of
incrementalism. It hurts, and the species is hurting," West said.
Other progressive policies were adopted piecemeal, such as the $15
minimum wage, which the committee accepted but without the amendment
put forth by Ellison that would have indexed the wage to inflation.
The panel did vote unanimously to back a proposal to abolish the death
penalty and adopted language calling for breaking up too-big-to-fail
banks and enacting a modern-day Glass-Steagall Act-measures that
Sanders said he was "pleased" about.
According to AP, the final discussion "centered on the
Israel-Palestinian conflict."
"The committee defeated an amendment by Sanders supporter James Zogby
that would have called for providing Palestinians with 'an end to
occupation and illegal settlements' and urged an international effort
to rebuild Gaza," AP reports, measures which Zogby said Sanders helped
Instead, AP reports, the adopted draft "advocates working toward athe assembly.
'two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict' that
guarantees Israel's security with recognized borders 'and provides the
Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity.'"
Citing these "moral failures" of the platform draft, West abstained
during the final vote to send the document to review by the full
Platform Committee next month in Orlando, Florida.
"If we can't say a word about TPP, if we can't talk about
Medicare-for-All explicitly, if the greatest prophetic voice dealing
with pending ecologically catastrophe can hardly win a vote, and if we
can't even acknowledge occupation... it seems there is no way in good
conscience I can say, 'Take it to the next stage,'" West declared before
"I wasn't raised like that," he said. "I have to abstain. I have no
other moral option, it would be a violation of my own limited sense of
moral integrity and spiritual conscience," adding, "That's how I roll."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
3.0 License
