When it comes to Fighter Jets, Bernie Sanders is a class a hypocrite!

Looks like ol’ Bernie is saying one thing nationally and saying another locally in Vermont.

Via WSJ:

BURLINGTON, Vt.—Bernie Sanders’s support for a plan to base military jets in his home state has put him at odds with some progressives who otherwise approve of his platforms.

Mr. Sanders has joined with Democratic and Republican officials in Vermont to support the plan, which is set to start sending F-35 jets to the Burlington International Airport next month and base 20 aircraft there by the summer of 2020.

Mr. Sanders, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, said the jets would provide an economic boost that he would prefer go to Vermont, rather than another state, and that the purchase of the jets—which will replace older ones that the state’s Air National Guard squadron used—had already been approved.

The Air Guard told Mr. Sanders that there are “a whole lot of jobs that are involved, a whole lot of revenue coming into the community,” he said, “and I thought that made sense to me.”

If the program doesn’t come to Vermont, Mr. Sanders said, it would be “a major blow” that would shrink the state’s Air National Guard. “If they don’t have planes to fly, there ain’t going to be too much for them to do,” he said.

His supporters are not to happy about either:

Dozens of activists—many of whom said they have voted for Mr. Sanders—said his support for the program is contrary to his national platforms on a range of related issues.

Mr. Sanders’s stance has made for some unlikely defenders—and opponents.

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and co-chair of Mr. Sanders’s campaign for president, said he aligns with Mr. Sanders on “98 or 99 percent of his stuff”—but not on the fighter jets being put in Vermont.

“I think we agree that the thing should not have been approved. We agree that it should not be funded. But now that it’s been approved, he believes it’s OK for them to come here. I believe it’s not,” Mr. Cohen said.

Mr. Cohen has repeatedly protested the planned jets, including once being arrested last year for blasting audio to mimic jet noise in downtown Burlington. While he still opposes them, he is no longer actively campaigning against them because he is focusing his time on the Sanders presidential campaign.

Others aren’t as forgiving.

“I support a lot of what Bernie stands for but this is a dealbreaker for me, if he is saying one thing nationally, and another locally,” said Stan Hills, a retired firefighter living in Burlington.

Meanwhile, Nicole Citro, a co-owner of an insurance agency in South Burlington, has always voted for Republican candidates, but she thinks Mr. Sanders’s approach on the F-35s is pragmatic.

“Much to the chagrin of his progressive supporters is that he’s always been a huge supporter of the Vermont National Guard,” Ms. Citro said. “The vantage point that Bernie was coming from was what’s the economic impact? And what makes sense for the constituency? Even though it’s kind of against what normal progressives think.” Ms. Citro created a campaign called “Green Ribbons for the F-35,” which encourages residents to show their support for the project by displaying green ribbons outside their homes.

Dozens of activists showed up at a Burlington City Council meeting last week wearing red to show their opposition to the program.The council voted unanimously to oppose a nuclear-weapon delivery system at the base. Still, any decisions on basing jets or arming them would lie with the federal government.

“When you have a nuclear device where you are living, you become a target,” said Jean Rook, a retiree living in Burlington who said she was disappointed with Mr. Sanders over his handling of the issue.

Just another Socialist Democrat, who says what people want to hear Nationally, but locally, he says something else. And these idiots want to elect this old fool? Idiots, all of them. 🙄

Good question

Indeed it is…

VDare.com asks:

The perpetrators of this atrocity of course come from cultures in which free speech and civil discourse are not an objective value – including Sheyman.

But after Donald Trump has been repeatedly badgered about being tepidly approved of by a man with whom he has never had contact who more than a generation ago was involved with the KKK the question is obvious:

WILL BERNIE SANDERS DENOUNCE TRUMP’S VIOLENT REPRESSION BY HIS SUPPORTERS?

Will the MSM even ask?

Don’t hold your breath.

Interesting reading: The DNC, Hillary and Barnie

This is some very interesting reading about the dog fight between Hillary and Bernie.

Check it out:

One of the objections to Bernie Sanders’s candidacy that I keep reading on social media is that “he’s not even a Democrat.” People who say this appear to believe that it’s vitally important to be loyal to the institution of the Democratic Party as the last and only bulwark against the rising tide of insanity… – Source: Why the Dems Need Bernie More Than Bernie Needs the Dems | The Mahablog

Bernie Sanders can hang it up, NYT endorses Hillary Clinton

I figured this was coming:

For the past painful year, the Republican presidential contenders have been bombarding Americans with empty propaganda slogans and competing, bizarrely, to present themselves as the least experienced person for the most important elected job in the world. Democratic primary voters, on the other hand, after a substantive debate over real issues, have the chance to nominate one of the most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history.

Hillary Clinton would be the first woman nominated by a major party. She served as a senator from a major state (New York) and as secretary of state — not to mention her experience on the national stage as first lady with her brilliant and flawed husband, President Bill Clinton. The Times editorial board has endorsed her three times for federal office — twice for Senate and once in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary — and is doing so again with confidence and enthusiasm.

Mrs. Clinton’s main opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist, has proved to be more formidable than most people, including Mrs. Clinton, anticipated. He has brought income inequality and the lingering pain of the middle class to center stage and pushed Mrs. Clinton a bit more to the left than she might have gone on economic issues. Mr. Sanders has also surfaced important foreign policy questions, including the need for greater restraint in the use of military force.

In the end, though, Mr. Sanders does not have the breadth of experience or policy ideas that Mrs. Clinton offers. His boldest proposals — to break up the banks and to start all over on health care reform with a Medicare-for-all system — have earned him support among alienated middle-class voters and young people. But his plans for achieving them aren’t realistic, while Mrs. Clinton has very good, and achievable, proposals in both areas.

The third Democratic contender, Martin O’Malley, is a personable and reasonable liberal who seems more suited for the jobs he has already had — governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore — than for president. Source: Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination – The New York Times

It is basically over now for Barnie; the NYT carries a good deal of weight with the establishment left. I just do not see Barnie Sanders beating Clinton now.

Others: JustOneMinute, Politico, The Daily Caller, Advocate, Business Insider, The Slot, Mediaite, New York’s PIX11, The Week and Washington Post

Audio: Obama talks about Iowa, Hillary, Sanders and 2016

The full audio:

The Story via Politico:

Barack Obama, that prematurely gray elder statesman, is laboring mightily to remain neutral during Hillary Clinton’s battle with Bernie Sanders in Iowa, the state that cemented his political legend and secured his path to the presidency.

But in a candid 40-minute interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast as the first flakes of the blizzard fell outside the Oval Office, he couldn’t hide his obvious affection for Clinton or his implicit feeling that she, not Sanders, best understands the unpalatable pragmatic demands of a presidency he likens to the world’s most challenging walk-and-chew-gum exercise.

“[The] one thing everybody understands is that this job right here, you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing,” a relaxed and reflective Obama told me in his most expansive discussion of the 2016 race to date.

Iowa isn’t just a state on the map for Obama. It’s the birthplace of his hope-and-change phenomenon, “the most satisfying political period in my career,” he says — “what politics should be” — and a bittersweet reminder of how far from the garden he’s gotten after seven bruising years in the White House.

The caucuses have a fierce-urgency-of-now quality as Obama reckons with the end of his presidency — the kickoff of a process of choosing a Democratic successor he hopes can secure his as-yet unsecured legacy, to keep Donald Trump or Ted Cruz or somebody else from undoing much of what he has done. And he was convinced Clinton was that candidate, prior to the emergence of Sanders, friends and associates have told me over the past 18 months.

“Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose,” he said. “I think Hillary came in with the both privilege — and burden — of being perceived as the front-runner. … You’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before — that’s a disadvantage to her.”

He also spoke of Bernie Sanders:

Obama didn’t utter an unkind word about Sanders, who has been respectfully critical of his administration’s reluctance to prosecute Wall Street executives and his decision to abandon a single-payer health care system as politically impractical. But he was kinder to Clinton. When I asked Obama whether he thought Sanders needed to expand his horizons, if the Vermont senator was too much a one-issue candidate too narrowly focused on income inequality, the presidente didn’t dispute the assertion.

Gesturing toward the Resolute Desk, with its spread-winged eagle seal, first brought into the Oval Office by John F. Kennedy, Obama said of Sanders: “Well, I don’t want to play political consultant, because obviously what he’s doing is working. I will say that the longer you go in the process, the more you’re going to have to pass a series of hurdles that the voters are going to put in front of you.”

Then he added: “As you’ll recall, I was sitting at my desk there just a little over a week ago … writing my State of the Union speech, and somebody walks in and says, ‘A couple of our sailors wandered into Iranian waters’” — and here he stopped to chuckle in disbelief — “that’s maybe a dramatic example, but not an unusual example of the job.”

As much as I hate to say it; President Obama is correct about that one. The office of the President of the United States is a very difficult job and it requires someone who can handle the job. While Bernie Sanders might be a respectable person and all; if I were voting in a Democratic Primary, there is no way that I would vote for Bernie Sanders, I would most likely vote for Hillary Clinton. Because she has already been there and she seems, for a Democrat, a bit more reasonable, than Bernie Sanders.

Needless to say, being an ideologue is great; if you are an activist or even maybe a Senator. However, when you are the commander and chief, that is a whole other ballgame and there is a certain amount of pragmatism is required in that office, if you actually want to succeed at the job. You have to remember, when you are President; you are President of the people of the United States of America, not just the President of the people who voted for you. You have to take into account everyone, not just those who voted for you. This is why I am not too keen on Ted Cruz; he is an extreme ideologue on the right, where Bernie Sander is an extreme ideologue on the left.

This is where I think Donald Trump might just be the more pragmatic candidate, who might just be able to get things done in DC and put aside some of this partisan rancor that has become so terrible under Bush and Obama. Now, if we could just work on his humility and get him to stop retweeting stuff like this here.

Other Bloggers: Vox, The Daily Beast, USA Today, Yahoo Politics, John Hawkins’ Right Wing News, Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, ABC News, Shakesville, Slantpoint and The Week – Via Memeorandum

Bernie Sanders and DNC reach “an accord”

Well, that was quick. I guess the lawsuit and big dust up were avoided.

Washington Post reports:

The presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee on Friday, arguing that the party had unfairly suspended the campaign’s access to key voter information. After several tense hours, both sides announced a deal had been reached.

The suit came shortly after campaign manager Jeff Weaver acknowledged at a Washington news conference that Sanders staffers had improperly reviewed information gathered by rival Hillary Clinton earlier in the week. But he accused the DNC of overreacting to the breach by suspending the Sanders campaign’s ability to access the computer system containing information about Democratic-leaning voters, including data the campaign has gathered about its own supporters.

After midnight, Sanders and the DNC put out statements that both indicated the impasse had been resolved but that put remarkably different spins on the outcome. Sanders’s campaign said the DNC had “capitulated” and that Sanders would soon regain access to the data. The DNC said what happened was “completely unacceptable” and that it would continue to investigate the circumstances even as Sanders regained access to the valuable information.

I have two theories about why the DNC decided to settle. One is that the DNC is about broke and going to war with Sanders, who is obviously no pauper; would have bankrupted the Party. Two, is that if Sanders had been shut out; He would have ran as an independent, which would have resulted in chaos and would have ruined the Democrats ability to even win the election – thereby ruining Hillary’s chances. You have to realize, Bernie Sanders is getting the support of the disillusioned Obama supporters who feel that Obama and Democrats sold them up the river.

Believe me when I tell you this; I know all about that feeling of being sold up the river. I have mentioned this before; but, my Father is a retired G.M. worker and a member of the local UAW chapter here in Detroit. Back in the 1990’s when NAFTA was signed into law, by Bill Clinton; there were many people around these parts, who felt that the Democrats and Clinton, had sold them up the river. I and my family were one of those people.

So, I totally understand how they feel. I also know that this feeling was one of the motivations for me giving up on the Democratic Party. I mean, I honestly felt sold up the river; as a white guy, of southern heritage being called a “slope-headed racist,” It just made me think that my family and myself were sold up the river at the cost of getting Obama elected. Which is pretty ironic, considering the fact that Obama has basically sold most of the people, that elected him, up the river – in the name of global trade.

Which is precisely why I am at the political stance that I am now. I am conservative on social issues: Abortion is murder, homosexuality is morally wrong. You have to realize, that back, as recent as 30 years ago; these positions were pretty much mainstream Democratic Party positions; needless to say, that has changed, quite a bit in the last 30 years. The question is: What changed? It was not me, that is for sure. What changed: They did. The Democrats changed, not me. They are the ones who moved further to the left; not me.

I also, since filing for bankruptcy in 2004; have become a bit of a fiscal conservative too. Losing one’s livelihood will do that to a guy.

Either way, I am glad they settled; I would like to see Hillary fight for her quest to become the DNC’s nominee. To see it just handed to her, is against what that party supposedly stands for.

Others: Associated Press, TalkLeft and Power Line (via Memeorandum)

The DNC figures out a way to kneecap Bernie Sanders

I figured this was coming, I just didn’t know how they were going to do it.

Washington Post reports:

Video:

Story:

Officials with the Democratic National Committee have accused the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of improperly accessing confidential voter information gathered by the rival campaign of Hillary Clinton, according to several party officials.

Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator’s campaign manager, acknowledged that a staffer had viewed the information but blamed a software vendor hired by the DNC for a glitch that allowed access. Weaver said one Sanders staffer was fired over the incident.

The discovery sparked alarm at the DNC, which promptly shut off the Sanders campaign’s access to the strategically crucial list of likely Democratic voters.

The DNC maintains the master list and rents it to national and state campaigns, which then add their own, proprietary information gathered by field workers and volunteers. Firewalls are supposed to prevent campaigns from viewing data gathered by their rivals.

NGP VAN, the vendor that handles the master file, said the incident occurred Wednesday while a patch was being applied to the software. The process briefly opened a window into proprietary information from other campaigns, said the company’s chief, Stu Trevelyan. He said a full audit will be conducted.

The DNC has told the Sanders campaign that it will not be allowed access to the data again until it provides an explanation as well as assurances that all Clinton data has been destroyed.

Having his campaign cut off from the national party’s voter data is a strategic setback for Sanders — and could be a devastating blow if it lasts. The episode also raises questions about the DNC’s ability to provide strategic resources to campaigns and state parties.

It looks like the DNC is bound and determined to have Hillary Clinton be the nominee for President of the United States for the Democrats and they will stop at nothing to get her elected; including have a vendor purposely allow the Sanders campaign access a database, then penalize him for it.

It is a passive way to getting the old man to just leave the race, without resorting to being rude or worse, being labelled an anti-Semite. However, don’t you think that the Jewish media isn’t watching this; because they are, very much so. Needless to say, this should be very, very, interesting to watch play out in the media.

Something tells me however, that Sanders won’t reach for the Semite card at all. This is not to say that some of his surrogates will not. As you see the video above, lawsuits are already being threatened. As they say in lawyer speak, discovery is a bitch.

Others: Talking Points Memo, ABC News, blog.ngpvan.com, Bloomberg Business,Guardian, Engadget, addictinginfo.org, Hot Air, Politico, New York Times, Common Dreams,Syracuse Post-Standard, CNN, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,NBC News, Shakesville, Althouse, abc13.com, Business Insider and U.S. Uncut (Via Memeorandum)

Is the DNC trying to stifle the Democratic debates?

It sure seems that way.

The neocon Weekly Standard writes:

Bill Hyers, a senior strategist in the Martin O’Malley presidential campaign, is calling the new Democratic debate schedule “less democratic.”

“By inserting themselves into the debate process, the DNC has ironically made it less democratic. The schedule they have proposed does not give voters—nationally, and especially in early states—ample opportunity to hear from the Democratic candidates for President. If anything, it seems geared toward limiting debate and facilitating a coronation, not promoting a robust debate and primary process,” Hyers writes.

“Rather than giving the appearance of rigging the process and cutting off debate, the DNC should take themselves out of the process. They should let individual and truly independent news, political, and community organizations create their own debates and allow the Democratic candidates for President to participate. There is a long, proud tradition of voters in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire getting to hear early and often from candidates for President—the DNC schedule kills that tradition, and we shouldn’t stand for it.”

The Democrats have only six debates scheduled.

There is a reason for this; and I have to explain this one a bit. There are two factions in the Democratic Party, as in the Republican Party. There is the grassroots left, which is made of the normal people, who actually vote and are involved with progressive politics on the ground and the other faction —- the establishment or corporate left.

Hillary Clinton is the establishment candidate, she is seen as the electable one for the Democratic Party. She has money, funding and name recognition. Needless to say, the Party will be totally behind her. For the record, Barack Obama was seen as a grassroots candidate, when he was running. However, as time went on, it was very clear to many on the left; that he was just another establishment type.

Bernie Sanders however, is a grassroots progressive, he is not a part of the corporate left or establishment left. Bernie Sanders has tapped into the grassroots left, who feel that the Democratic Party establishment has sold them out. Donald Trump is doing the same very thing in the Republican Party with the conservative grassroots.

Martin O’Malley has a point and a very good one. However, if you think that the Democratic Party is going to stand by and risk loosing an election to some no-name candidate or some grassroots candidate, you are very highly mistaken. The Democrats have much to lose in the election. They already know that they are going to take hits in some red states; so, they are going to do everything they can to put forward the best candidate for the general election. The Democrats learned their lessons from 1968 and they are not about to implode again like they did then.

Bernie Sanders will not make it to the general election, I can assure you of that. The gatekeepers in that party will see to that; you watch and see. Neither will Donald Trump, as the GOP has too much to lose; they screwed it up last time, they will not do it again.