Obama Must Make Ending Racial Inequality His Focus
David Love: President Obama—or Reverend President—has captured America’s attention on racial inequality. He must make the issue his central theme for his remaining time in office. READ MORE
TUESDAY, 30 JUNE 2015
Obama Must Make Ending Racial Inequality His Focus
David Love: President Obama—or Reverend President—has captured America’s attention on racial inequality. He must make the issue his central theme for his remaining time in office.
Robert Gordh: If discrimination completely disappeared, immense gaps of inequality would still yawn between the levels of well being for whites and blacks.
Rosemary Joyce: The legal debates about marriage equality, in California, in other states, and in Washington, have consistently highlighted the indignities that anti-marriage equality arguments introduced.
Kathy Kelly: For now, it remains a blessing to work alongside people awake together here in Kabul, even in darkness, working to face burdens with kindness, ready to join with kindred spirits near and far, faces aglow with precious glimmers of a coming day.
Scott Prosterman:Berkeley rents have risen between 10-30% over the past year. This is a shocking “low-ball” estimate. The past six months have left me researching rental housing options again, and I’m finding more like a 50%+ increase in that time.
Bernie Sanders has spent the past month climbing in the early primary polls and delivering his stump speech tooverflow crowds in town halls and school gymnasiums from New Hampshire to Nevada. But even as the independent senator from Vermont builds momentum on the ground and in the bank — he's already raised $8.3 million in mostly small donations — there is no place more energized and passionate about his campaign than the Internet. On social media, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is being run in reverse: Supporters lavish the same kind of attention on Sanders' every tweet or Facebook post that the network news broadcasts typically devote to Hillary Clinton's daily grind. To get at why, Mic posed two simple questions to the truest believers: How did you first hear about Bernie Sanders, and what do you think sets him apart from all the other candidates? Their answers — more than 1,600 in a little more than 24 hours — ranged from deeply drawn-out laundry lists of Sanders' pet issues to personal stories to loud-and-proud arguments attesting to his unique political substance. The Sanders phenomenon might be new to national press, but the senator has been forging and fortifying his ties to the progressive activist community for decades. His early success is less a "surge" than the natural progression of slow-building wave Sanders hopes will crest inland — in Iowa, perhaps? — as the first contest of the primary season begins early next year.More than 5,000 supporters turned out for Sanders' first campaign rally, on May 26, in Burlington, Vermont. Source: Christian Mazza/Mic For now, the real strength of Sanders' support seems to lie in the trust he inspires among potential voters. Though many expressed admiration for Clinton, the idea that Sanders is "different from all the other candidates" popped up over and again. This aligns with the most recent polling from Bloomberg, which finds Sanders with a significant lead over the "frontrunner" on the question of authenticity. In New Hampshire and Iowa, Sanders leads Clinton by 12 and 17 points, respectively. Still, the numbers can leave you cold. The responses to our unscientific survey will not. Here are the "Sanderistas" in their own words: He speaks a very harsh truth to the powerful on Wall Street... Walt Burnham: "Bernie Sanders has been telling the same truths about corporate malfeasance, banks, Wall Street, education, equal opportunity, the environment — for many years. He's been sneered at and dismissed by the corporate shills in Congress all the while but he has never wavered or been cowed by their arrogance. HE STRIKES ME AS A SINCERELY HONEST PERSON, a true rarity in politics. He has an appropriately feisty nature." Source: MCT/Getty Images
... and he doesn't stop speaking until he's good and ready.
Colleen Kennedy: "Sanders was the keynote at the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit this year. My job as a volunteer was to make sure his speech didn't run past his allotted time slot, and I was provided signs to hold up to him so he would know when to stop. He filibustered for 17 extra minutes and pointed right at my face as he did it.
It was the most magical thing that ever happened to me."
The message in those speeches is consistent and passionate...
Beth Sarver: "His energy is gruff yet kind, honest and takes no bullshit. His ideas are sound and resonate with me deeply. He is consistent and sassy and he is communicating honestly about one of the most important aspect of politics, engaged citizenry. The only way that he will win, is if all of us engage and do our part by voting and investing our creative capitol in improving this nation for all people.
There is not one other candidate that inspires me at all."
... and it's not an act — he's the same on the campaign trail as he is visiting a college class.
Jordan Dixon: "I first heard Bernie speak in my "Race Relations in the United States" class at the University of Vermont. I remember thinking 'Wow, this congressman is taking time out of his schedule to talk to a bunch of first year students?' He showed me that a politician doesn't have to be the stereotype we've always seen: spewing what they think we want to hear but remaining distant and detached from their constituents, only focused on where the money comes from and staying in their seat of power."
In difficult or politically sensitive moments, Sanders is honest about his feelings...
Jackie Kabanda: "After the Charlestown shootings, others expressed sadness but talked about not really knowing what happened or why. Bernie cut through the noise to name it what it was: racism. And specifically, racism not just expressed by one violent individual, but a systemic problem in the country today. No euphemism, no dancing around it. You can't address or solve a problem without naming it.
That's when I knew he was different, for the better."
... even if that means he needs to bail on young visitors to return to work.
Peter Huffman: "I had a meeting with Bernie Sanders as a high schooler at his office in the Capitol. What set him apart from the other big name politicians that I met was that he wasn't 'sugary sweet' and he didn't try to pretend that he wasn't busy. He was all business. He talked with us, connected as a human being, and explained that we, as a nation, were in the middle of a huge crisis (the debt crisis of Summer '11) and that he needed to get back to the floor."
His consistency and fiery style has built new trust among disillusioned voters...
Eddy Tingles: "Even as someone far from Bernie on the political spectrum, he's literally the only candidate I trust. I like Rand's libertarian politics but his willingness to cater to the mainstream at the expense of his values puts him behind Bernie. I first heard about Bernie on the internet a few months before he started talking about a presidential run, and he just seems like a real straight shooter."
... and strikes a serious contrast with candidates who have wavered on big issues.
Scott Novak: "My boyfriend and I are huge Bernie Sanders supporters. Unlike Clinton, Bernie has been standing up for LGBT Americans for years now. Notably, he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Clinton administration signed into law. I first heard about Bernie after the 2008 financial crisis when he called out the big banks for their crimes, and I have admired him ever since."
But there is one question:
Drew Martin: "Bernie has been our collective conscience for many years now. The question is, do we have the courage to vote for him?"
If those latest polls out of the early voting states are any indication, Democrats have become increasingly willing to consider the prospect. With more than seven months until the first caucus-goers begin lining up at schoolhouses and election halls across Iowa, one thing seems inarguably clear: If Sanders doesn't win, he won't be able to blame the Internet.
In its final ruling for the term, the Supreme Court weakened the EPA's ability to do its job, namely it's ability to regulate power plants. Let's face it, with all those rulings in favor of human beings, the conservative justices had to throw a bone to their political allies.
The good news and a possibly huge step forward for Americans suffering from a plethora of ailments, diseases, and disorders, was hailed by marijuana reform advocates because the President eased restrictions on cannabis research. Read more »
In its final ruling for the term, the Supreme Court weakened the EPA's ability to do its job, namely it's ability to regulate power plants. Let's face it, with all those rulings in favor of human beings, the conservative justices had to throw a bone to their political allies. Read more »
Public pressure finally became too much for NBC as the network finally did the right thing and dumped Donald Trump from The Apprentice and won't televise the beauty pageants that he owns. Read more »
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is so unpopular in Kentucky that the state's voters thought KFC's Colonel Sanders would be a better senator that McConnell. Read more »
The public backlash against Donald Trump's racism is growing into a tsunami of outrage as more than 213,000 Americans have signed a petition telling NBC to stop working with Donald Trump. Read more »
By ruling that Arizona's Independent Redistricting Commission is constitutional, the Supreme Court of the United States kicked plutocrat-loving, election rigging, gerrymandering Republicans in the gut. Read more »
Fearing the United States would abandon its membership in the club of death-penalty countries like Iran and China, the Supreme Court ruled that death by legal injection is constitutional. Read more »
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver perfectly summed up all of the incorrect Republican predictions of the end of Obamacare in less than two minutes. Read more »
You can legitimately pooh-pooh Santorum and his chances of winning elected office ever again in his lifetime but he is now just a voice in the choir Read more »
SEE BELOW FOR THE 1001STTIME THE REITERATION OF DEMAND PAYMENT OF RETIREMENT PAY WHICH SHELL REFUSED TO HONOR IN THE PRESENCE AND DEEMED APPROVAL OF THE HONORABLE MAGISTRATES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES
