Sanders as a third-party candidate.....might it work?

[Lauren Johnson]

From Alan Maki's Facebook page, posted 4 August 2016

It should have been obvious to anyone that when Bernie Sanders launched his campaign for president from the home of one of Minnesota's wealthiest Zionist couples, Sam and Sylvia Kaplan, that he was being used by the Democrats to front for Hillary Clinton since the Kaplans have been staunch supporters of both Bill and Hillary Clinton for years.

Hillary Clinton chose both of her "opponents;" Sanders and Trump... The Republicans have figured out they have been had but many of Sanders' supporters still cling to him as if he is some kind of cult leader.

https://www.facebook.com/maki.alan?fref=nf

I'm shocked, shocked.

[R.K. Locke]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-cor...SKCN0ZD311


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016...corruption


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...-jets.html

[Cliff Varnell]

This is what I'm talk'n about!

Occupy the Democratic Party!

http://www.salon.com/2016/08/07/dont-wor...heting-up/

Don't worry, Berniecrats: The populist insurgency is ratcheting up

Sanders didn't win the White House, but he did help build a progressive-populist movement that will outlive 2016

Jim Hightower

What an amazing Democratic primary season it was! And we now have this happy result: WE WON!

"We" being the millions of young people, mad-as-hell working stiffs, independents, deep-rooted progressives and other "outsiders" who felt The Bern and forged a new, game-changing, populist force of, by and for grassroots Americans. True, this progressive-populist coalition did not win the White House on its first go 'round behind the feisty Sanders insurgency (which the the smug political establishment had literally laughed at when he began his run). But they are not laughing now, for even they can see the outsider revolt against the power elites won something even more momentous than the 2016 election: The future.
Back in April 2015, when the blunt democratic socialist from Vermont issued a call for disenchanted voters to join him, not merely in a campaign for the presidency, but in a long-term movement to "revitalize American democracy so that government works for all of us," even his more optimistic backers couldn't have dreamed the movement would come so far so quickly. Let's reflect on some fundamental changes this progressive uprising has achieved in the past 15 months:

• It yanked the national debate out of the hands of the Washington and corporate elites both devoted for more than 30 years to rigging all the rules to further enrich the 1 percenters at the expense of everyone else and proved that future success requires Democrats to abandon their effete namby-pambyism and embrace the vision, message and issues of unabashed populism.
  

• It revived true bottom-up campaigning through innovative social media outreach, the empowerment of hundreds of thousands of engaged supporters and volunteers, instantaneous mass communication via cell phones and turning people out by turning them on by finally addressing inequality head-on and proposing bold policies that appeal directly to the workaday majority's interests.
  

• It lifted from the political scrap heap up to the top of our national discourse the concerns of middle- and low-income families: creating good, middle-class jobs through a national program of infrastructure repair and development of the green economy; enacting a $15 minimum wage; removing crushing education debt from the backs of students; coping with the imminent crisis of climate change; repealing the Supreme Court's democracy-destroying Citizens United edict; implementing pay equity for women; stopping the war machine's constant adventurism; expanding Social Security; providing Medicare for all; halting the unjust mass incarceration of African Americans and Latinos; defunding the disastrous drug war; demilitarizing our police forces; replenishing our public treasury by taxing Wall Street speculators; and generally restoring economic fairness, social justice, and equal opportunity for all as central purposes of public policy.
  

• It raised some $229 million in more than 8 million small donations (averaging only $27 each), including millions from low-income people who sent in $5 or even $1, thus debunking the myth that Democrats can only be competitive by joining Republicans in taking corrupting big money from corporations and setting up "dark money" Super PACs.
  

More importantly, the Bernie movement created a hopeful, formidable and growing populist political channel that is both insistently democratic and independent of the Democratic Party. This state-based, national network of Berniecrats will keep building its connections, pushing its agenda and backing populist candidates in the House, Senate and other races this fall. Then, on to next year's campaigns for mayor, city council, etc., which will be charged by the 20,000 Sanders supporters who have, according to Bernie, signed up to get info on running. Then on to the 2018 midterm congressional elections. And then to the 2020 presidential campaign. Onward!

Onward in-fucking-deed!

[Cliff Varnell]

Occupy the Democratic Party cont'd..

From DailyKos

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/7...s-delegate

Thoughts on going forward, from a Bernie Sanders delegate

By Egberto Willies


emphasis added

I was a supporter of the values espoused by Bernie Sanders before I even knew who Bernie Sanders was. I would
wager that most Sanders fans had that nascent seed, just needing some external nutrition to have it germinate.

Unlike the 2008 election (where I initially supported Sen. Hillary Clinton before I jumped on Sen. Barack Obama's
train), my support for Bernie Sanders was instantaneous. He articulated the fundamental beliefs of the moral left
in no uncertain terms.

During the Democratic primaries, I wrote extensively about Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, pointing out their
flaws and their strengths. It was clear that Bernie Sanders made us dream of what a more fair America could be,
while Hillary Clinton told us about the America she thought she could bring to fruition. Her America seemed too
unambitiousa place where we did what the corporatocracy allowed, instead of demanding change from the corporatocracy.
After all, the corporate state is our creation.

As Bernie inspired us by talking about what could be, Hillary moved ever so gradually toward his rhetoric. Some may see
that as disingenuous, but I see it as a positive. All we have is the utterances of politicians. It is up to us to ensure
politicians' statements get codified into law. Politicians, whether Bernie or Hillary, should never have our blind faith.

Hillary Clinton ultimately won the Democratic nomination to be president of the United States, and many Bernie Sanders
delegates are upset. They believe the establishment robbed them of the opportunity to have a real progressive in the
White House. Many Sanders delegates are justifiably angry with the concerted effort by the plutocracy (read: Democratic
National Committee, the corporate media, and the corporatocracy) to ensure a Clinton victory. Wikileaks exposed the
"collusion" between the corporate media, the DNC, and, indirectly, the Clinton campaign. Neither I nor any engaged
Bernie Sanders supporter needed to be informed by Wikileaks, as all of this was inferred from the start of the Sanders
campaign. But Bernie Sanders is a big boy, and he knew what he was up against.

Any establishment does what it needs to do to survive, and the natural order is to do what it takes. It is incumbent
on those who understand that change is necessary to win the hearts of those who are comfortable, yet still harmed by
establishment politics. Bernie Sanders did not accomplish that task. We did not accomplish that task. Change is a slow
process that requires dedication, humility, and perseverance.

I walked and rallied in two big parades in Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention. The first was an
amalgamation of every group on the left, from "No TPP," to Planned Parenthood, to Black Lives Matter, to climate change
activists, and more. The second was a huge Bernie Sanders parade that extended for almost a mile. The passion in both
of the parades and their respective rallies was palpable. I spoke to dozens of people along the way. The most impressive
thing is how educated these folks were on issues, and the passion and conviction they had. While most were Bernie Sanders
supporters, I ran into many Hillary Clinton supporters in both parades as well. This passion, this acknowledgment of
issues that affect us all, must get past the choir and into the masses. That is how we extend and expand the revolution.

Inside of the Democratic Convention, there were many legitimate issue-driven protests, mostly on war and TPP, by
Bernie Sanders delegates and Code Pink. They felt they were not sufficiently heard in the platform and rules committees.
When Sen. Merkley spoke out against the TPP, I raised my "No TPP" sign along with dozens of delegates from the Texas
delegation, and hundreds throughout the massive Wells Fargo Center. Interestingly, a media that usually blows these
types of protests out of proportion covered so few that most of my friends watching on TV were unaware of most of the
protest happening throughout the Democratic Convention. Yes, they saw some coverage of the protests on the streets,
but scant coverage on the inside. Speculate now!

After the long primaries, after the debates, after the convention, I decided to honor what Bernie Sanders asked his
delegates and those they represent to do. I decided to honor my word. From the beginning, I said I would vote for and
support the legitimate winner of the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton and her campaign, along with her helpers
in the corporate media (and the corporatocracy) did what it took to win the nomination.

I am not voting against Donald Trump. I am voting for Hillary Clinton as the better choice. I am voting for Hillary Clinton
because I think of all viable candidates running she will appoint acceptable Supreme Court justices. Some of us have the
privilege and wherewithal to withstand a presidency that would hurt women, hurt those with pre-existing health conditions,
hurt those who recently acquired health insurance, reinstitute trickle-down economics on steroids, and more. But I am
voting for Hillary Clinton because I am committed to more than the purity of my values. I am committed to the practical
realities of my family, friends, neighbors, and other fellow Americans. I must see through the eyes of the many I was
unable to convince that the political revolution could be here now.

Make no mistake: I continue to believe in the political revolution. I will continue to play my part. The day after
Hillary Clinton is elected president, I will be watching to ensure she is living up to her commitments. If she doesn't,
it is incumbent on us all to react. And most importantly, it is important for us to remain engaged, and for her to know
that we are engagedso that she thinks twice before deceiving us.

Bernie's people know Nov 9 is the time...

[Paul Rigby]

Occupy the Democratic Party cont'd..

From DailyKos

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/7...s-delegate

Thoughts on going forward, from a Bernie Sanders delegate

By Egberto Willies


emphasis added

I was a supporter of the values espoused by Bernie Sanders before I even knew who Bernie Sanders was. I would
wager that most Sanders fans had that nascent seed, just needing some external nutrition to have it germinate.

Unlike the 2008 election (where I initially supported Sen. Hillary Clinton before I jumped on Sen. Barack Obama's
train), my support for Bernie Sanders was instantaneous. He articulated the fundamental beliefs of the moral left
in no uncertain terms.

During the Democratic primaries, I wrote extensively about Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, pointing out their
flaws and their strengths. It was clear that Bernie Sanders made us dream of what a more fair America could be,
while Hillary Clinton told us about the America she thought she could bring to fruition. Her America seemed too
unambitiousa place where we did what the corporatocracy allowed, instead of demanding change from the corporatocracy.
After all, the corporate state is our creation.

As Bernie inspired us by talking about what could be, Hillary moved ever so gradually toward his rhetoric. Some may see
that as disingenuous, but I see it as a positive. All we have is the utterances of politicians. It is up to us to ensure
politicians' statements get codified into law. Politicians, whether Bernie or Hillary, should never have our blind faith.

Hillary Clinton ultimately won the Democratic nomination to be president of the United States, and many Bernie Sanders
delegates are upset. They believe the establishment robbed them of the opportunity to have a real progressive in the
White House. Many Sanders delegates are justifiably angry with the concerted effort by the plutocracy (read: Democratic
National Committee, the corporate media, and the corporatocracy) to ensure a Clinton victory. Wikileaks exposed the
"collusion" between the corporate media, the DNC, and, indirectly, the Clinton campaign. Neither I nor any engaged
Bernie Sanders supporter needed to be informed by Wikileaks, as all of this was inferred from the start of the Sanders
campaign. But Bernie Sanders is a big boy, and he knew what he was up against.

Any establishment does what it needs to do to survive, and the natural order is to do what it takes. It is incumbent
on those who understand that change is necessary to win the hearts of those who are comfortable, yet still harmed by
establishment politics. Bernie Sanders did not accomplish that task. We did not accomplish that task. Change is a slow
process that requires dedication, humility, and perseverance.

I walked and rallied in two big parades in Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention. The first was an
amalgamation of every group on the left, from "No TPP," to Planned Parenthood, to Black Lives Matter, to climate change
activists, and more. The second was a huge Bernie Sanders parade that extended for almost a mile. The passion in both
of the parades and their respective rallies was palpable. I spoke to dozens of people along the way. The most impressive
thing is how educated these folks were on issues, and the passion and conviction they had. While most were Bernie Sanders
supporters, I ran into many Hillary Clinton supporters in both parades as well. This passion, this acknowledgment of
issues that affect us all, must get past the choir and into the masses. That is how we extend and expand the revolution.

Inside of the Democratic Convention, there were many legitimate issue-driven protests, mostly on war and TPP, by
Bernie Sanders delegates and Code Pink. They felt they were not sufficiently heard in the platform and rules committees.
When Sen. Merkley spoke out against the TPP, I raised my "No TPP" sign along with dozens of delegates from the Texas
delegation, and hundreds throughout the massive Wells Fargo Center. Interestingly, a media that usually blows these
types of protests out of proportion covered so few that most of my friends watching on TV were unaware of most of the
protest happening throughout the Democratic Convention. Yes, they saw some coverage of the protests on the streets,
but scant coverage on the inside. Speculate now!

After the long primaries, after the debates, after the convention, I decided to honor what Bernie Sanders asked his
delegates and those they represent to do. I decided to honor my word. From the beginning, I said I would vote for and
support the legitimate winner of the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton and her campaign, along with her helpers
in the corporate media (and the corporatocracy) did what it took to win the nomination.

I am not voting against Donald Trump. I am voting for Hillary Clinton as the better choice. I am voting for Hillary Clinton
because I think of all viable candidates running she will appoint acceptable Supreme Court justices. Some of us have the
privilege and wherewithal to withstand a presidency that would hurt women, hurt those with pre-existing health conditions,
hurt those who recently acquired health insurance, reinstitute trickle-down economics on steroids, and more. But I am
voting for Hillary Clinton because I am committed to more than the purity of my values. I am committed to the practical
realities of my family, friends, neighbors, and other fellow Americans. I must see through the eyes of the many I was
unable to convince that the political revolution could be here now.

Make no mistake: I continue to believe in the political revolution. I will continue to play my part. The day after
Hillary Clinton is elected president, I will be watching to ensure she is living up to her commitments. If she doesn't,
it is incumbent on us all to react. And most importantly, it is important for us to remain engaged, and for her to know
that we are engagedso that she thinks twice before deceiving us.

Bernie's people know Nov 9 is the time...

I haven't read such illogical, dishonest & fatuous balls since I last cast an eye over my CV. And the latter was better written.

[Cliff Varnell]

I haven't read such illogical, dishonest & fatuous balls since I last cast an eye over my CV. And the latter was better written.

Okay. How about this one?

http://www.salon.com/2016/08/06/this-is-...-election/

This is not a moment, it's a movement: More at stake for Sanders supporters than merely the 2016 election


Defeating Trump in November is imperative, but so is maintaining a popular movement long after the votes are cast

[URL="http://www.salon.com/writer/conor_lynch/"]Conor Lynch

[/URL]The chaotic and disorderly start to last week's Democratic National Convention was unsurprising after Wikileaks released nearly 20,000 embarrassing DNC emails just days earlier that implicated top party officials in favoring Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders during the presidential primaries (though most Sanders supporters had already suspected this, party officials had strongly denied any kind of favoritism).

On the first day of the convention, Sanders delegates were loud and outspoken in their discontent, booing the recently resigned DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz off the stage at her state's delegate breakfast and drowning out convention speakers with every mention of Clinton's name. Outside the Wells Fargo Center, meanwhile, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Philadelphia though the convention area was sealed off by a four-mile long fence, which kept things relatively peaceful for attendees.
This tense and contentious climate continued throughout the week, with a group of Sanders delegates staging a walkout on Tuesday night after Clinton was formally nominated and outside protests becoming increasingly unruly as the week progressed.

In spite of all this disorder, the Democratic convention was, broadly speaking, a success especially when compared to the previous week's Republican National Convention, which some of the most prominent Republican figures declined to attend because of their party's nominee. For Democrats, the disunity was as plain and evident as Donald Trump's xenophobia; but the speakers were effective and inspiring, which, in an election against Trump's intolerable negativity, was probably enough.
Still, the stark differences and disagreements between Clinton and Sanders supporters were on full display, and this infighting will no doubt shape the future of the party. In a nutshell, the former are predominately Democratic partisans who subscribe to a binary way of thinking about politics (e.g., Republican vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal), while the latter tend to be progressives who champion principles over party and reject partisan narratives. At the convention, the former rolled their eyes and shook their heads in disgust whenever the latter booed or chanted (nothing irks Democratic partisans quite like rudeness), and were attending for their candidate and their party. The latter, who showed up with pro-Palestinian rights and anti-TPP signs, attended the convention for their candidate, but more importantly, for their movement.

This conflict between the party faithful and those who are committed to a broader movement reveals a struggle currently taking place in the Democratic party and this struggle highlights the difference between electoral politics and movement politics, a subject that Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor at The Nation, touched on in an article last week:
"Elected officials, even the best and most principled, operate within the parameters of possibility that they discern in their constituency. In that sense, elected officials and American presidents most of all are the end of the political digestive system. Electoral politics is usually the last place change gets felt… Movement politics, on the other hand, is about reshaping and redefining those parameters. Moving the goalposts."

For Sanders and many of his supporters, the political revolution is far from over; but at the same time, the next few months must be dedicated first and foremost to stopping Donald Trump (i.e., electoral politics). In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Jane Sanders explained her husband's decision to endorse Clinton: "His choice was to endorse [Clinton] but, at the same time, fight like hell to keep the revolution alive, and keep alive the issues that we all stand behind. So we need [our supporters]. We need them engaged, and we need them to participate. And whatever they decide, it's their conscience, and they should decide whatever they want. Our job is to defeat Donald Trump; our conscience says we can't have that."

Bernie supporters seem to have taken the senator's call for a political revolution to heart, and in April, a group of Sanders campaign staffers and volunteers introduced a plan to "recruit and run 400+ candidates as a single, unified campaign with a single plan" for the 2018 midterm elections. This bold initiative, called "Brand New Congress," is a nonpartisan campaign based on shared principles rather than party identification; a fusion of electoral politics and movement politics with the ultimate goal of electing principled non-politicians across the country. In a statement to this author, co-founder of Brand New Congress and former Sanders volunteer Saikat Chakrabarti explained the group's aims:
"The candidates would be running a unified campaign with a single bold plan to, among other things, fix our criminal justice system, rapidly move to 100 percent renewable energy, end the corrupting influence of money in politics, and invest massively in our industries to end our current income inequality by creating high wage jobs for everyone… We plan to win by running these candidates in a single, unified, presidential-style campaign that will, like Bernie's campaign, be able to focus large amounts of small dollar donors and grassroots volunteer efforts towards a single powerful goal. Our goal is also to create a Congress that accurately represents the demographics, gender, and wealth of Americans."

For the next several months, progressives must keep in mind the difference between electoral politics and movement politics. Defeating Donald Trump in November is imperative, but so is maintaining a popular movement long after the votes are cast. "Sanders allowed us to realize that there really are millions of us who share similar goals and together we have enough power to outraise and outact our billionaire-backed rivals," remarked Chakrabarti. "But to actually achieve the changes we want to see, we need to strategize for the long term because this revolution is not going to happen overnight. We should assume that until the actual problems in this country are fixed, the movement and desire to fix those problems is not going to go away. No one person or group saying that the movement should continue is going to keep it going the movement is going to continue because we have some very urgent crises in this country, we know that these crises can be solved, and we now see that the people actually do have the power to solve them."

Sanders' legacy will be determined not in the next few months, but in the years ahead; and if his supporters remain as committed to the cause in the future as they are today, then the senator's legacy is in good hands.

[Peter Lemkin]

While Iceland in many ways is not the US, they are setting the example of how a 'third' and small party can quickly become the dominant party. Yes, they have a parliamentary system and proportional representation rather than winner-take-all in the USA [in every aspect of life, by the way!]...but still, this Pirate Party that only a few years ago was laughed at and/or ignored is about to become the leading party it seems! May it happen in the USA...somehow...although I think the Deep Political system would even use nukes to prevent such......IMHO

We are popular, not populist' says head of Iceland's Pirate Party as public support soars

Published time: 13 Aug, 2016 11:28
Get short URL


People demonstrate against Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson in Reykjavik, Iceland on April 4, 2016. © Stigtryggur Johannsson / Reuters


Vowing to promote institutional reform and the right to privacy, Pirate Party leader Birgitta Jonsdottir says her party is ready to shake up old-school politics, as polls suggest over one in four Icelanders will vote for it in upcoming October elections.
The anti-establishment party, which currently has only three MPs in the Icelandic parliament, could see 18 to 20 elected in the next election, the latest opinion polls suggest, according to Iceland Monitor.
Read more
With football dreams dashed, Iceland's Pirate Party gets down to transforming its economy
Jonsdottir, a former member of the WikiLeaks team, says the Pirate Party, founded four years ago, is ready to form a government with any coalition partner that supports its agenda to bring about a "fundamental system change."
"I look at us and I think, we are equipped to do this," she told the Guardian.
"Actually, the fact we haven't done it before and that we won't have any old-school people telling us how, means we'll do it more carefully. We will be doing things very differently.
"...we are well prepared now. This is about change driven not by fear, but by courage and hope. We are popular, not populist," she added.
Icelanders' distrust of politicians reached a boiling point when the Panama Papers revealed that then-Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson had once owned an offshore company (now controlled by his wife) that held debt from failed Icelandic banks. Thousands of people, outraged by their PM's alleged offshore accounts, took to the streets of Iceland's capital in what appeared to be the largest protest in the country's history. The scandal prompted Gunnlaugsson to resign in early April, with early general elections likely to be held in October.
Read more
Panama Papers leak leads to largest protest' in Iceland's history (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)
Experts say they can "very easily see" the Pirate Party, which advocates "direct democracy, transparency, civil rights, self-determination rights, access to information and responsible decision making," winning 20-25% of the vote this fall.
"After that, their success will depend on what they can really deliver; how much they make of their first term," Eva Heida Önnudóttir, a political scientist at the University of Iceland, told the Guardian.
"With numbers like those, you risk becoming a part of the establishment."
Önnudóttir, who likens the Pirates' appeal in Iceland to that of Podemos in Spain and or Syriza in Greece, says that even though the Pirates "don't have clear policies in many areas, people are genuinely drawn to their principles of transforming democracy and improving transparency."
"We are a democracy in transition in Iceland, like everywhere else... We need to modernize our democracies," the Pirate Party leader told Reuters in June.
"People look at governments like a big daddy to take care of everything, but at some point you have to grow up and take responsibility," she added.

[Drew Phipps]

Green Party candidate Jill Stein wants a new 9/11 investigation
Newsy Staff
Sep 10th 2016 11:40AM

http://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/09/.../21469446/

Jill Stein wants a new investigation into the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The Green Party presidential candidate released a statement on her website that said, "We need to learn the full story of 9/11." Stein claims the 9/11 Commission was stonewalled by the Bush administration and said the report "contained so many omissions and distortions."

And a few of the commission members did say the administration gave them obstacles. Stein points out the co-chairs of the report wrote a book saying they thought, in many ways, the commission was set up to fail. The 9/11 Commission was given $3 million and just over a year to complete its report. And it had a rocky start. The commission had to wait about four months before they could get to work. And it wasn't until recently that 28 redacted pages from the 9/11 report were published. Those pages showed evidence linking Saudi Arabia to the 9/11 attacks. Granted, the pages didn't show a smoking gun connecting Saudi leaders with al-Qaida, but they did confirm something people had thought for a while.

Stein vows if she's elected president, she'd create a new 9/11 Commission not "dominated by members with an interest in protecting the reputation and careers of foreign affairs and intelligence communities." As for the presidential election, Real Clear Politics reports Stein is earning an average of 3.3 percent of the vote behind Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who has 9 percent.

In case you were still wondering if her campaign was still viable after her acts of vandalism/activism in North Dakota, I'm supposing that will be the last straw.

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

The Sanders mistakes happened because the 1968 RFK campaign is the least known development in Twentieth Century US history. This lack of mediated "knowledge" re the RFK campaign is the result of lots of hard work by professionals.


Its also the result of too little integration of the political assassinations into the LONG term evolution of the 1) the National Security State and 2) the long term history of the Democratic party.


Please solve these problems right now.