#Bernie Sanders Rules Out

Bernie Sanders Rules Out Third Party Run If He Doesn’t Win Democratic Nomination Bernie Sanders explicitly ruled out a third party presidential bid if he fails to secure the Democratic nomination.      Read more »

Bernie Sanders Rules Out Third Party Run If He Doesn’t Win Democratic Nomination Bernie Sanders explicitly ruled out a third party presidential bid if he fails to secure the Democratic nomination.     Read more » New Jersey Voters Would Rather Legalize Pot Than Vote For Chris Christie Again In his own state, and all across America, voters actually like marijuana more than they like Chris Christie.     Read more » White House Promises Obama Will Veto Republican Bill To Defund Planned Parenthood President Obama is standing by Planned Parenthood as the White House confirmed that he will veto the Republican bill to defund the organization.     Read more » Fox News Says Don’t Worry if Times’ Clinton Email Story Wrong, Keep Talking About it Judith Miller says don't worry about facts, we need more coverage. This is Fox-speak for "We've got nothing, so let's keep talking about it"     Read more » President Obama Tears Boehner And McConnell A New One At Highway Bill Signing While he signed the three-month transportation funding bill, President Obama delivered a stern lecture to Congress in general and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell specifically about their total inability to govern.     Read more » Hillary Clinton Just Destroyed Jeb Bush’s Entire Presidential Campaign In 41 Seconds During her speech at the National Urban League Conference today, Hillary Clinton obliterated Jeb Bush's presidential campaign in less than forty-five seconds.     Read more » Donald Trump Exposes Koch Republicans As Glaring Fascists Republicans have tapped into the religious and conservative negative reaction to 21st Century modernity, or social progress as it is called     Read more » Ted Cruz’s Hilarious Challenge to Debate President Obama on Iran Senate "No-Show" Cruz says Obama "snuggles up to" radical Islamic regimes, but suggests Obama is too busy golfing to take him up on it     Read more »

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

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Why Bernie Sanders Is The Millennials' President

Are you feelin the Bern?

Dana Eble in Scene on Jul 27, 2015

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Millennials, born somewhere between late 1980s and early 2000s, have reached a tipping point in society. As of this year we outnumber the baby boomers, meaning if we unite for a cause, we should get what we want. The 2016 presidential election is approaching, and whoever wins will be able to elect several supreme court members who will serve a lifetime position.

The trouble with people our age is the “uniting” part. We grew up hearing and seeing the hypocrisy of politicians, leaving us apathetic. We were promised a fulfilling life and job if we went to college and got a degree, but now that we're here, only 17% of us actually have jobs lined up upon graduation and we are burdened with an average student debt of $29,000 in Michigan alone.

Bernie Sanders wants to make four year public college and universities free, giving $70 million a year to replace the tuition students pay. Two-thirds of that money would come from the federal government(by imposing a tax on Wall Street investments) and the remaining one-third from the states. His legislation is modeled after systems in place in countries like Germany, Denmark and Sweden. By eliminating the burden of student debt, Sanders would open doors to a brighter future for more Americans.

Next on the list for Sanders is to provide health care for every American and raise the minimum wage to $15. Millennials are the most under-insured generation in history -- roughly one in four do not have any form of insurance. Sanders was a supporter of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, but felt it was only a small step in the right direction. More can be done to help Americans and stop health care companies from profiting billions of dollars a year. Having health care should be a right to every citizen, and not just a privilege for the upper classes. Read more about Bernie's health care legislation here. On raising the minimum wage, Sanders introduced the "Workplace Democracy Act" to strengthen unions.

Climate change is also something Sanders stands for. At this point, there is no denying the reality that we are destroying our planet. The carelessness of generations before us has become our problem. In 2013 Sanders and Barbara Boxer introduced "The Gold Standard for Climate Change" legislation which would tax carbon emissions from the largest fossil fuel producers, raising an estimated $1.2 trillion. The money raised would go towards investing in cleaner, more efficient energy, tripling the federal budget for energy research.The legislation also calls for more rules and restrictions on fracking for oil.

Sanders is the only candidate who does not accept money from big corporations. He deeply believes that we need to get corporations out of politics and stop them from buying our representatives. Since April he has raised over $15 million from individual donors (the average donation being around $33). Sanders wants to repeal the Citizens United Supreme Court decision from 2010 with his constitutional amendment, called "Democracy Is for People." If you're not aware of the Citizens United decision, it basically said that corporations are allowed to spend an unlimited amount of money on advertisements and other political tools for their chosen politician. Sanders also voted for the Disclose Act, which aims to shine a light on the dark money in politics.

Last but certainly not least, Sanders is a spokesman for minorities and women's rights. In 1972 Sanders wrote a letter calling on many changes, including abolishing laws on gay marriage. (Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, said in a 2004 speech that she believes marriage is between a man and a woman). Sanders believes women have a right to their bodies and that birth control should be affordable and available. Sanders was present for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech and marched on Washington with the audience. Sanders has stated that although we have come a long way since King's iconic speech, the African American community is still facing many persecutions (watch his tribute to "I Have a Dream"). If elected, Sanders would be the first Jewish president.

Bernie Sanders has a long track record of sticking up for the American people. His ideas are refreshing and what we need to restore our country to where it should be, the best in the world. He's fighting for all of the issues that us millennials have been handed. This election is about more than democrat or republican, it's about caring for our own and improving the quality of life in America. 

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Dana Eble

Sigma Kappa at Central Michigan University. Avid tweeter and lover of dogs.

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Tony Norman: Bernie Sanders for president: Yes, he could

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July 31, 2015 12:00 AM

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Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette

Pia Colucci, right, of Oakland waits for Bernie Sanders to begin speaking during a telecast broadcasted at a meet-up held in Lawrenceville on Wednesday. Supporters of the Democratic presidential hopeful gathered across the country to watch the telecast.

By Tony Norman / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has more than a few fans in Pittsburgh, judging by the turnout for his first televised meet-up since his poll numbers began shifting in a positive direction nationally. The muggy Wednesday evening air did its best to discourage a line from forming outside the Spirit Lounge on 51st Street in Lawrenceville, but 350 supporters squeezed into the former Moose Lodge that had once been the home to many a studio ’rasslin’ night.

After ponying up the suggested $5 donation at the door, the cross-generational crowd of Democrats and fellow travelers jockeyed for the best vantage point in front of a projection screen on the east end of the hall. Mr. Sanders would televise his remarks to 3,100 similar gatherings across the country from an apartment in Washington, D.C., shortly after 7 p.m. Eastern time.

According to organizers, Mr. Sanders would be addressing as many as 100,000 supporters nationwide — a number that should concern the complacent Democratic establishment, even though the insurgent candidate trails former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton by as much as 40 points in some polls.

Still, Bernie Sanders has roughly the same level of name recognition that Sen. Barack Obama had at this point in his underdog campaign against Mrs. Clinton. Unlike Mr. Obama, who was still trying to justify his candidacy to skeptical black leaders already committed to Mrs. Clinton in the summer of 2007, Mr. Sanders is drawing more energetic and enthusiastic crowds than Mrs. Clinton — a sign that the party’s progressive and liberal base is hungry for something it isn’t getting from its presumptive front-runner.

There is still time for Mrs. Clinton to ignite the passion of grass-roots Democrats, of course, but Bernie Sanders is on fire right now in ways no other candidate for the nomination can remotely claim. When he finally appeared on screen to make his speech, there was a collective roar from the crowd that felt almost primal — a mix of sweat, genuine giddiness and exasperation that it has taken so long for a candidate who shares their deepest convictions and disappointment with the status quo to finally emerge.

Technical difficulties with the live stream signal on Pittsburgh’s end prevented him from being heard at first, but when his Brooklyn-forged accent finally broke through the buffering silence, the crowd was primed to hear the candidate declare his allegiance to their issues and priorities.

“The American people are saying loudly and clearly — enough is enough,” Mr. Sanders said after ticking off a series of priorities that would occupy his days in the White House. The candidate would return to this mantra many times after promising to reverse 40 years of middle-class decline and income inequality, raising the minimum wage, affordable college education and combating the “real unemployment rate” he insisted was over 10 percent.

“Maybe, just maybe, instead of higher rates of incarceration,” he said referencing minority youth, “we could provide them with education and jobs.” In a tip-of-the-hat to the #BlackLivesMatter movement that heckled him a week earlier, Mr. Sanders pledged to fight against institutional racism. Just as he was beginning say something about instituting a campaign finance system that didn’t reward corporate bribery, Mr. Sanders’ image froze on the screen, prompting someone in the crowd to shout: “It’s a conspiracy!”

Everybody laughed. Meanwhile, the organizers frantically tried to stop the buffering from undermining the evening’s No. 1 intent: generate commitments to work on the Sanders campaign and recruit others. The event’s technicians restored the signal only to watch as it got sluggish and stalled again minutes later. I’m sure the irony was not lost on the tech-savvy crowd as they shouted out possible fixes. Still, the crowd had already gotten the gist of the speech: Bernie Sanders was their man — for now.

“It’s more intense compared to even half a month ago,” said Josh Sickels, one of the Pittsburgh for Bernie meet-up organizers and the administrator of the campaign’s local Facebook page. Mr. Sickels said the Spirit Lounge meet-up tripled the size of the first meet-up at Schenley Plaza. “My friend Alex Austin, who helps me organize, held an event at Pitt and over 100 showed up there. I think there were 20 separate events in Allegheny County alone.”

Mr. Sickels said the campaign’s local Facebook page is flooded with people asking how they can help. “We are seeing a lot of people who are for the first time in their lives getting involved in the political process because of Bernie Sanders,” he said.

The Democrats are a long way from deciding who their standard bearer will be in 2016, but if enthusiasm for Mr. Sanders continues to build in places like Pittsburgh, the race for the White House could look far different than anyone ever imagined a year ago.

Tony Norman: tnorman@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1631, Twitter @TonyNormanPG.

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

A Decent Living for Home Caregivers—And Their Clients

A Decent Living for Home Caregivers—And Their Clients

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At-home caregivers are among the least protected and most undervalued workers in the U.S. Low federal reimbursement rates lay at the heart of the problem. 

By Heather Rogers

This article appears in the Summer 2015 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here.

Laddie Read, a 69-year-old with cerebral palsy, can’t get up without help. When he awoke one morning last April expecting to find his home-care aide and instead saw a complete stranger at the foot of his bed, Read was terrified. “I had no idea who was there,” he recalls. “If you were bedridden and somebody just walked into your house,” he says, “how would you feel?”

Read requires help to move from room to room, get into his wheelchair, use the bathroom, dress, and bathe. He can’t cook, shop, or clean the house. To assist with all these tasks, the Portland, Oregon, resident relies on home-care aides seven days a week. It turned out that the stranger was a replacement. His usual aide couldn’t come in—but no one bothered to tell Read. While abruptly losing caregivers isn’t uncommon in Read’s decades of using the service, it was no less upsetting. The new aide couldn’t understand what Read was saying—his caregivers must be trained to understand his severely impaired speech—and had no clear idea of how to perform the job. “It felt like hell,” Read said, speaking through an interpreter. “When this happens, my whole world stops.”

Thousands of people dependent on home-care workers face similar disruptions every day. Turnover in the industry is extreme. In 2014, the median rate topped 60 percent, as documented in an industry study—that’s six out of ten caregivers leaving the job every year. It’s not surprising that so many workers flee the profession, which has intense physical and emotional demands—and poverty wages. The median earnings are less than $21,000 a year. That’s well below the annual median across all occupations, which is almost $35,000, and just above the federal poverty line for a family of three. Earnings are so low that about half of all at-home caregivers are on some form of means-tested public assistance, including Medicaid and food stamps, according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a research organization.Why is pay so bad for these workers? One explanation is that home-care aides comprise several traditionally marginalized groups. About 90 percent of home-care workers are women; almost half are of color. And since the job doesn’t require a high school diploma, most have low education levels.America’s chronic devaluing of care work, be it for children, the ill, disabled, or aging, reinforces a vicious cycle of low status and low pay.So entrenched is the discriminatory view of caregiving that the country’s most important labor law deliberately shuts these workers out. When the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed in 1938, it transformed the lives of American workers by setting the eight-hour day and establishing other basic protections, including extra pay for overtime. However, the law excluded domestic caregivers. Astonishingly, it still does. As a result, home-care aides do not even have the right to receive minimum wage and overtime pay.

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#economic power translates into political power then vice versa

Robert Reich via Facebook.com

6 hrs · Edited ·

Roughly 12 million Americans get payday loans at an annualized rate of 300% or more. Citigroup – whose hugely-profitable OneMain Financial unit is one of the leading payday lenders – has poured money into state legislative races in order to prevent regulation of payday loans. Rick Glazier, a North Carolina legislator who witnessed Citi's handiwork, told the New York Times “it was one of the most brazen efforts by a special interest group to increase its own profits that I have ever seen.” Four months ago, Citigroup sold OneMain Financial to Springleaf Holdings in a cash deal valued at $4.25 billion.

The average payday borrower earns less than $18,000 a year. The CEO of Citigroup, Michael Corbat, was paid $14.5 million last year. The CEO of Springleaf Holdings, Michael Levine, was paid $78.7 million in 2013, the latest data available.

Another example of how economic power translates into political power to gain even more economic power.

The TRUTH will set you FREE.