Tag: Bernie Sanders

Minnesota’s Presidential Hopeful Klobuchar Campaign Called 3 Percent Polling Number ‘Huge News’ in Fundraising Pitch

Anthony Gockowski

  Sen. Amy Klobuchar jumped from one percent to three percent between April and May in Monmouth University’s monthly polling, which her campaign called “huge news.” “There’s huge news in a new Monmouth poll. As more people learn more about Amy, her bold plans for our country, and how she’ll address the problems Americans face, they’re putting their support behind her,” a recent fundraising email from Klobuchar’s campaign said. “Polls go up and down, but this new Monmouth data confirms what we’re seeing on the ground: big crowds, great enthusiasm, and a surge of grassroots donations from Americans who want Amy to be our next president,” the email added. The poll, conducted by Monmouth University’s Polling Institute between May 16 and May 20, had Klobuchar polling at three percent overall. The poll, however, did show significant gains for female candidates, who received a combined 27 percent of support among Democratic voters, up from the 16 percent they received in April. “Women are commanding a larger slice of Democratic support than they were a few weeks ago and we are seeing bumps in their individual voter ratings,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “We can’t parse out…

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Kenneth Blackwell Commentary: Bernie and AOC Will Destroy Low-Income Americans with Their New ‘Banking Solutions’

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by Kenneth Blackwell   If you like unnecessarily long lines, surly clerks, and terrible service, then you’re probably going to love the latest idea to come from the fevered minds of some of the most radical Democrats in Congress. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom identify with the extremist “democratic-socialist” wing of the Democratic Party, have teamed up on a proposal to “help” lower-income Americans by authorizing the United States Postal Service (USPS) to offer banking services such as checking and savings accounts. Wonderful. Just as email and private delivery companies were finally liberating us from our longstanding dependence on that inept and inefficient government-mandated monopoly, the Democrats are trying to create brand new reasons to subject Americans to the ordeal of interacting with the postal service. The ostensible reason for turning the USPS into a quasi-bank is that many rural and low-income areas are underserved by traditional banks. Expanding access to basic financial services such as checking accounts is certainly a worthy goal, but it’s difficult to imagine a worse way to achieve it — encouraging people to deposit their savings with the DMV might do the trick, but that’s not under the federal government’s purview, so…

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Bernie Sanders to be the First 2020 Candidate to Call for Ban on Charter Schools

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by Neetu Chandak   Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is set to call for a ban on for-profit charter schools Saturday, which will make him the first 2020 presidential candidate to suggest such a policy. Sanders is slated to argue in an education policy speech in South Carolina Saturday that the increase in charter schools has taken money away from public schools and has disadvantaged the black community. “Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system,” Sanders tweeted Friday. “When we are in the White House we will ban for-profit charter schools.” Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system. When we are in the White House we will ban for-profit charter schools. https://t.co/LGY3ZaWiVm — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 17, 2019 Sanders’s charter school solutions include requiring charters to comply with the same oversight regulations for public schools, supporting unionization for charter school teachers and placing caps on CEO salaries, CNN reported. “As president I will stand with groups like the @NAACP and put a moratorium on federal funding of new charter schools until rules are in…

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‘Cowardice’: Nikki Haley Takes Aim At Ocasio-Cortez, Omar And Sanders Over Venezuela

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by Peter Hasson   Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley sharply criticized three prominent Democrats — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — for going soft on Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship. “On the fringes of the left, celebrity politicians refuse to condemn [Venezuelan dictator Nicolas] Maduro. Worse, some have actually embraced him,” Haley wrote in a Monday post for Stand For America, her new political organization. Haley ticked through the responses from Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Sanders, taking shots at each one. Ocasio-Cortez dodged when asked if Maduro was a legitimate ruler. “A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed,” commented Haley. Omar blamed “a lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela” in an April interview. “When I saw this, I couldn’t stay silent,” Haley wrote, explaining why she slammed Omar’s response in a viral tweet on May 1. .@IlhanMN the avg Venezuelan adult has lost 24 lbs. Babies have no medicine. Families have to walk miles in the heat to get the only meal they may have that day. All bc of the corrupt Maduro regime. Your comments are so far from the truth.…

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Ocasio-Cortez Claims Victory Against GOP on Climate Change Despite Green New Deal Getting Zero Votes

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by Michael Bastasch   New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seemed to take a victory lap on the Green New Deal, claiming her effort proved Republicans’ “climate denial is now a losing position.” “We chose to go on the climate offense with the #GreenNewDeal,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday night. “As a result, climate denial is now a losing position + we got GOP (incl #WheresMitch!) to finally admit that climate change is real + man-made.” We chose to go on the climate offense with the #GreenNewDeal. As a result, climate denial is now a losing position + we got GOP (incl #WheresMitch!) to finally admit that climate change is real + man-made. Now it’s time to go after predatory lending. Whose side is the GOP on? https://t.co/1nI4UQnEVB — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 10, 2019 Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, both Democrats, introduced the Green New Deal resolution in February, which calls for a complete societal transformation to fight global warming. While many Democratic presidential candidates and lawmakers endorsed the bill, moderate Democrats were less enthusiastic about the proposal. Democratic leadership largely sidestepped the matter, moving forward with alternative In fact, not a single Senate Democrat voted for the Green New Deal…

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Bernie Sanders Calls for Breaking Up Big Agriculture Monopolies

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  Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Sunday proposed a sweeping agriculture and rural investment plan to break up big agriculture monopolies and shift farm subsidies toward small family farmers. “I think a farmer that produces the food we eat may be almost as important as some crook on Wall Street who destroys the economy,” Sanders said during a campaign event in Osage, a town of fewer than 4,000 people. “Those of us who come from rural America have nothing to be ashamed about, and the time is long overdue for us to stand up and fight for our way of life.” Sanders’ plan expands on themes that have been central to his presidential campaign in Iowa since the start, including his emphasis on rural America and pledge to take on and break up big corporations. During his Sunday speech, Sanders outlined the dire circumstances confronting rural America — population decline, school and hospital closures and rising addiction and suicide rates in many rural counties nationwide — as the impetus for his policy. His plan includes a number of antitrust proposals, including breaking up existing agriculture monopolies and placing a moratorium on future mergers by big agriculture companies. He would…

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FLASHBACK: Bernie Asks Group Of Young Children, ‘Anyone Ever Seen Cocaine?’

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by Henry Rodgers   Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 2020 presidential candidate, once asked a group of children if they had ever seen cocaine and if they smoked cigarettes when he was the mayor of Burlington, while talking to kids as a part of his old television show. In an episode of Sanders’s show “Bernie Speaks with the Community,” which was created in the 1980s, he is sitting on top of a wooden picnic table with a microphone speaking with a group of children about a variety of issues, with a focus on drugs. Politico obtained footage of the show and released it Friday. “Do any of the older kids you know have some problems with drugs?” Sanders asked the children. “Who wants to talk to me about that? What about drugs? Is that a problem?” “I like coke!” one little boy said. “Tell me about that,” Sanders asked. “I like Coca-Cola!” the boy corrects himself. “Oh, Coca-Cola. Alright, but who knows about cocaine?” Sanders continued. “Anyone ever seen cocaine? Do any of the kids know people who use drugs like that?” Sanders asked. “You don’t have to tell me who, but I bet you do.” A couple children at…

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DFL State Rep Supports Allowing Minnesota Prisoners to Vote

Anthony Gockowski

  A DFL state representative revealed during a recent debate on the Minnesota House floor that he supports allowing incarcerated individuals to vote from prison. “I actually am looking forward to a bill or amendment … that would put Minnesota in line with states like Vermont and Maine that actually allow individuals who are locked up to vote. So I look forward to the day when we have that bill on the floor to debate it,” said Rep. Raymond Dehn (DFL-Minneapolis), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Elections. The comments were made during a Tuesday debate on the omnibus state government and veterans and military affairs finance bill, a massive spending bill that would draw $1.2 billion from the state’s general fund during the next biennium. Specifically, the House was debating an amendment put forward by Rep. Jim Nash (R-Waconia) that would have removed language on elections from the omnibus bill. He argued that election measures typically receive their own bill. “We have one of the most hyper-partisan elections bills you have ever seen,” Nash added. Dehn’s position that prisoners should be granted the right to vote is supported by some Democratic presidential candidates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sanders…

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Commentary: The Lies, Clichés, and Hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders

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by Conrad Black   There is something seriously disconcerting about the sight of the leading declared Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, embracing the most imperishable charlatan in American political history, the supposedly reverend Al Sharpton. This most improbable clergyman, although he is only 64, is so worn down by what Dr. Johnson called the “disingenuousness of years,” he now looks like an ambulatory waxwork dummy. He has been exposed countless times for scams, falsehoods, and incitements to violence. Of all prominent African-Americans, only Louis Farrakhan is more odious. Now that Sanders is the front-runner, with the possible exception of Joe (Hamlet) Biden, it is time to start taking a closer look at him. I’ve always been curious why he would have worked for a time on a Stalinist Kibbutz after the 20th Communist Party Congress where Stalin’s infamies and atrocities were publicly denounced by Nikita Khrushchev. Sanders apparently was a renegade Communist as a youth, regarding Khrushchev as a mealy-mouthed compromiser. It was eccentric that he spent his honeymoon in Moscow, but that, I suppose, is the business of no one but the then-newlyweds. Our country has seemed benignly incurious about a man running officially as a socialist with a…

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Ohio’s Tim Ryan Says He’s ‘Concerned’ With Rise of Socialism in His Party, But Calls Health Care a ‘Human Right’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), a 2020 presidential hopeful, said on CNN Wednesday that he’s “concerned” about the rise of socialism within the Democratic Party. “I’m concerned about it because if we are going to de-carbonize the American economy it’s not going to be some centralized bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. that’s going to make it happen. It’s going to be part targeted government investments that do need to be robust, but it’s going to be the free market that’s, at the end of the day, going to make that happen,” Ryan said on CNN’s New Day. Ryan said that only the “innovation” and “creativity” of the free market will allow for America’s economy to go carbon free. “You can be hostile to concentration of wealth. You can be hostile to income inequality. You can be hostile to greed. We can’t be hostile to the free-enterprise system. That’s how we get past China,” Ryan continued. 2020 hopeful @RepTimRyan says he’s “concerned” about socialism and the Democratic Party. “You can be hostile to concentration of wealth, you can be hostile to income inequality … We can't be hostile to the free-enterprise system. That’s how we get past China.” pic.twitter.com/ahlwI09rqb — CNN This Morning…

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Fox News Will Host Klobuchar for Town Hall While DNC Refuses to Partner with Network for Debates

Anthony Gockowski

  2020 Democrats are reportedly “flocking” to Fox News to participate in the network’s town hall events, the next of which will feature Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the network announced Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) Monday night town hall event on Fox News was the most-watched town hall of the 2020 campaign thus far, according to The Daily Beast. More than 2.5 million viewers tuned in for the event, compared to CNN’s recent town hall with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), which attracted 1.95 million viewers. On the night of the town hall, rival network MSNBC had 1.44 million viewers, while CNN had just 913,000. The event was described as a “ratings smash,” but that isn’t stopping the Democratic National Committee from refusing to partner with Fox News for any 2020 debates. In fact, during a Monday morning interview on Fox News, DNC Chairman Tom Perez said he wouldn’t reconsider the decision. “Here is why we won’t do that. Because I don’t have faith in your leadership at Fox News at the senior levels,” Perez told anchor Bill Hemmer. “I have great respect for Bret and for Chris and for you, but you’ve demonstrated, above your pay grade, they don’t trust…

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Bernie Sanders Donated Less Than One Percent to Charity First Year He Made Over One Million Dollars

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by Andrew Kerr   Vermont Sen. and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s charitable contributions fell far under the average for his income bracket the first year he reported earning more than one million dollars. Sanders released 10 years of tax returns Monday, revealing that he earned an average of $280,975 per year from 2009 through 2015, and that his income skyrocketed to $1,062,626 in 2016 due to sales of his best-selling book, “Our Revolution.” Sanders reported $10,600 in charitable contributions in 2016, making up slightly less than one percent of his reported income and falling under the $21,365 average charitable contribution for Americans who earned $250,000 or more that year, according to the latest available IRS data. The self-avowed Democratic-socialist purchased his third home in 2016 — a $575,000 lake-front property in Vermont, according to Fox News. The following year, Sanders donated $36,300 of his adjusted gross income of $1,131,925 to charity.   Year Adjusted Gross Income Charitable Gifts Percent to Charity 2018 $561,293 $18,950 3.38% 2017 $1,131,925 $36,300 3.21% 2016 $1,062,626 $10,600 1.00% 2015 $240,610 $6,150 2.56% 2014 $205,271 $8,350 4.07% 2013 $278,779 $6,800 2.44% 2012 $280,954 $1,900 0.68% 2011 $324,870 $5,500 1.69% 2010 $321,596 $5,750 1.79% 2009 $314,742…

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Bernie Sanders Calls on Trump to End Federal Contracts for GM During Lordstown Campaign Stop

Anthony Gockowski

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stopped in Lordstown, Ohio Sunday afternoon during his campaign swing through key battleground states, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. “Together, we are going to make sure that does not happen again. We’re going to win here in Wisconsin. We’re going to win in Indiana, We’re going to win in Ohio. We’re going to win in Michigan. We’re going to win in Pennsylvania and together we’re going to win this election,” Sanders said during a Saturday rally in Madison, Wisconsin. On Sunday, the Vermont senator and 2020 hopeful participated in a town hall with the American Federation of Teachers in Lordstown, Ohio, a community that has received significant national attention after the recent closure of its General Motors plant. “This is a really important meeting, and it’s an important meeting not just to discuss the horrific impact on this small town, this community, about GM preferring to give billions of dollars in stock buybacks to make the very rich even richer while they chose to close down this plant and other plants around the country, but the discussion that we are having here today, right here, is a discussion that impacts virtually every state in this…

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Bernie Sanders Admits He’s a Millionaire

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by Peter Hasson   Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, admitted Tuesday that he is a part of the millionaire class. Sanders often rails against millionaires on the campaign stump and opened his 2016 presidential campaign by bragging that he didn’t “have millionaire or billionaire friends.” But Sanders himself is now a millionaire, he acknowledged to The New York Times. “I wrote a best-selling book,” he told the paper. “If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.” Sanders also pledged to release 10 years of his tax returns within the coming week. “April 15 is coming,” Sanders told the Times. “We wanted to release 10 years of tax returns. April 15, 2019, will be the 10th year, so I think you will see them.” Sanders, who owns three houses, has often cited the “proliferation of millionaires and billionaires” in America as evidence that the economy is rigged against working people. “Are we comfortable to see a huge increase in millionaires and billionaires but have more people living in poverty than ever? I know I’m not,” he wrote in a December 2016 tweet. A great nation is judged not by how many millionaires and billionaires…

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Klobuchar Hauls in $5.2 Million in First Quarter, But Trails High-Profile Candidates

Anthony Gockowski

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) revealed Monday that her presidential campaign raised $5.2 million in the first fundraising quarter of 2019, which ended Friday. The Minnesota senator currently has $7 million in cash on hand after transferring some funds from her Senate campaign account. Klobuchar announced her candidacy on February 11, meaning she was able to raise the $5.2 million in roughly seven weeks, but the figure pales in comparison to some of her more high-profile competitors. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), for instance, raised $6 million in just the first 24 hours of his campaign. Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, meanwhile, raised $9.4 million in the 18 days between announcing candidacy and the close of the quarter, according to Business Insider, which reports that O’Rourke raised $6.1 million in the first 24 hours. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who declared candidacy in January, raised a total of $12 million, while Sanders led the pack with $18.2 million in total donations. Klobuchar does have a slight lead over Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who raised $5 million since launching his campaign. Dark-horse candidate Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, raised $7 million in the first quarter of 2019. Klobuchar’s campaign said it had nearly…

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In First Quarter, Sanders Takes Early Lead in 2020 Fundraising

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A handful of Democratic presidential candidates are touting the amount of money they’ve raised in the first fundraising period of a 2020 primary fight that will last into next spring. The totals for the first quarter, which ran through March 31, are the first measure of how candidates are faring. Details for the entire field won’t be known until candidates file their required disclosures with the Federal Election Commission by April 15, but here are some takeaways from what the campaigns have released so far: Bernie Really Is A Front Runner Bernie Sanders joins former Vice President Joe Biden atop many polls of prospective Democratic primary voters. But Sanders has something Biden doesn’t have (yet): a campaign operation raking in cash. The senator from Vermont, who showed surprising fundraising heft in his upstart challenge to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago, raised more than $18 million in the 41 days between his official campaign launch and March 31, giving him $28 million cash on hand. Those totals are expected to lead the Democratic field, putting pressure on other heavyweights, including Biden, who is still deciding whether to run and who is navigating accusations that he’s acted inappropriately toward…

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Bernie Sanders Promises To Offset CO2 From His Private Jet Flights

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by Tim Pearce   Sen. Bernie Sanders pledged to offset carbon emissions from his 2020 presidential campaign travel by donating contributions to renewable energy projects. “Bernie Sanders is a champion in the fight for climate justice and, like him, we know we need to address our emissions through action, not just rhetoric,” Sanders’s campaign manager Faiz Shakir told HuffPost in a statement Thursday. “We are proud to lead the way in the fight against climate change by acting boldly to move our energy system away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable energy sources.” The pledge follows a March 15 announcement that Sanders’s campaign would be the first presidential campaign to unionize under organized labor. I’m proud that our campaign is the first presidential campaign to unionize. We cannot just support unions with words, we must back it up with actions. On this campaign and when we are in the White House, we are going make it easier for people to join unions, not harder. https://t.co/JNv3dpss6D — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 15, 2019 Sanders has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to travel across the country on private jets during past campaigns. During his 2018 Senate re-election campaign, the Vermont senator…

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Commentary: In Bernie and AOC’s Democrat Party, Radical is the New Normal

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by Jeffery Rendall   What makes a radical? The word itself has many implications and connotations. The dictionary indicates “radical” (when used as a noun) means, “a person who advocates thorough or complete political or social reform; a member of a political party or part of a party pursuing such aims.” In the past, being labeled a “radical” was often seen as a bad thing, though today’s Democrats appear quite smitten with the designation. You could argue the party became radicalized during the 1960’s Vietnam era – or even prior to that – but there’s no questioning today’s Democrats’ dedication to all things “fundamental change.” Last week’s party-line vote on the incredibly destructive and unconstitutional H.R. 1 proved it (again). Not content to merely restrict free speech rights, the proposal, if it were to actually become law (and survive numerous court challenges), would radicalize the way Americans treat political speech and voting. H.R. 1 would even extend the franchise to illegal aliens in local elections. States would see many of their police powers to oversee elections wrested away and placed in the hands of federal bureaucrats. It’s truly scary to envision the far-reaching scope of contemporary Democrat radicalism. Naturally, the party’s emerging leadership ascribes…

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Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Campaign Will Be the First to Unionize

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by Molly Prince   Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Friday that his 2020 campaign voluntarily recognized a bargaining unit organized with a labor union, making it the first major party presidential campaign to do so. “I’m proud that our campaign is the first presidential campaign to unionize. We cannot just support unions with words, we must back it up with actions,” the Independent senator tweeted. “On this campaign and when we are in the White House, we are going make it easier for people to join unions, not harder.” I’m proud that our campaign is the first presidential campaign to unionize. We cannot just support unions with words, we must back it up with actions. On this campaign and when we are in the White House, we are going make it easier for people to join unions, not harder. https://t.co/JNv3dpss6D — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 15, 2019 A majority of the Sanders campaign staffers decided upon United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 as the representative union. The union primarily represents food and retail service workers, however, it also represents employees of Solidarity Strategies, which is Chuck Rocha’s consulting firm, reported The Huffington Post. Rocha has a close relationship with…

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Bernie and Biden Are Leading the Field in Iowa by Enormous Margins

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by Chris White   Former Vice President Joe Biden and self-avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders are leading the polls in Iowa, according to a poll published Sunday. The two septuagenarians are so far besting their younger, female Democratic opponents in the race to unseat President Donald Trump. Nearly 27 percent of likely Democratic caucus attendees say Biden is their first choice for president, according to a new Des Moines Register poll. His numbers are down slightly from the 32 percent who said the same in December, but it still tops every other Democrat vying for the top spot. Biden is leading the pack even though he has not yet entered the race. Biden has a 2-percentage-point advantage over Sanders, a Vermont Democrat who runs to the left of the former VP. The poll of 401 likely Democratic caucus attendees was conducted March 3 through 6 and contains a 4.9 percent margin of error. Analysts argue the poll should put some wind in Biden’s sails as he considering an announcement. “If I’m Joe Biden sitting on the fence and I see this poll, this might make me want to jump in,” J. Ann Selzer, president of the Des Moines-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll,…

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New WSJ Poll Suggests Trump’s Attacks On Socialism Could Gain Traction Ahead of 2020

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by Chris White   Only a scant few Americans view socialism in a favorable light, according to a Wall Street Journal poll published Sunday. The poll numbers come as President Donald Trump and the Republican Party continue painting Democrats as socialists ahead of the 2020 election. Only 18 percent of all Americans say they view socialism positively, while 50 percent view it negatively, the poll notes. The numbers for capitalism are tilted in the operation direction: roughly 50 percent of adults view it positively, with only 19 percent saying they view the U.S.’s overarching economic system negatively. The poll, which was conducted between Feb. 24-27, also shows that most Americans have a very low opinion of presidential candidates who are above the age of 75 and a socialist. Only 37 percent of people are enthusiastic about a septuagenarian running for office. The numbers are worse if that person is a socialist. Only 25 percent of people would support such a candidate. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) played a key role in helping Democratic candidates like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez topple establishment Democrats in 2018 primary races. DSA leaders are looking to replicate that success at the national level as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a…

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Bernie Sanders Emerges As Early Frontrunner As Democrats Line Up to Announce for 2020 Race

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by Molly Prince   Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is kicking off his campaign for the presidency as the leading candidate for the Democratic ticket in 2020. Sanders announced on Tuesday that he will be officially launching a bid for the presidency to continue the “political revolution” that he began in 2016. He has been consistently polling as the top contender behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to reveal his presidential aspirations. Of the candidates who have officially entered the race, Sanders has been leading the pack for months. The self-proclaimed democratic socialist is significantly ahead in the polls compared to his fellow presidential hopefuls, according to Real Clear Politics’ average of polls. Sanders is nearly seven points ahead of Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris on average and nine points ahead of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Sanders unsuccessfully ran a 2016 presidential campaign as a Democrat. Although his run was initially considered a long-shot bid, Sanders won 23 primaries and caucuses. He also won more than 45 percent of pledged delegates, compared to challenger Hillary Clinton’s 54 percent. Sanders is no longer an unknown candidate; he has a ready-made network of staff and volunteers and maintains…

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Commentary: Democrats Move from Crony Capitalism to Class Warfare

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by CHQ staff   Nothing illustrates how far Left the Democratic Party has moved than the reaction of the Democrats’ most popular and media savvy politicians to the news that Amazon was abandoning plans to build part of its East Coast headquarters in the New York city of Long Island City. The move will cause New York to lose the 25,000 jobs that were expected to be created as well as some $27 billion in tax revenue the online behemoth was expected to pay into the Empire State’s coffers over the next decade. Yet, as our friend Peter A. List at LaborUnionReport.com reported to his readers, three of the Democrats’ most popular politicians –Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [NY-14], Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-MA], and Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-VT] seemed happy with Amazon’s decision to not create the jobs in New York. “Amazon – one of the wealthiest companies on the planet – just walked away from billions in taxpayer bribes, all because some elected officials in New York aren’t sucking up to them enough,” Sen. Warren tweeted. ” How long will we allow giant corporations to hold our democracy hostage?” ” Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated,…

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Commentary: Nine Big Questions To Ask the Democratic Socialist in Your Life

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by Hunter Baker   Democratic socialism is hot in the United States right now. Both the American media and young people seem to be enamored of the thought of steeply progressive, redistributive tax rates designed to achieve some vision of justice. As with most public policy ideas, we tend to get pretty far down the road before we ask basic questions related to the project. In other words, we imagine a result that appeals to us before we’ve really considered whether other effects are likely and whether the proposal is morally right in the first place. Accordingly, I encourage anyone thinking about democratic socialism to ask the following questions: 1. What is the moral basis for taxing some incomes at higher rates than others? 2. Do we imagine that incomes are entirely the result of some random process? While John Rawls makes an argument along those lines — essentially, that no one really deserves their money because they didn’t control the family they were born into, their genes, etc. — there is a reasonable argument to be made that many people with such advantages seem to fail, while others who lack those advantages seem to succeed. In other words, attributes…

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EPA Climate Model Shows ‘Green New Deal’ Would Avert a ‘Barely Detectable’ Amount of Global Warming

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by Michael Bastasch   Democrats are increasingly lining up behind New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a “Green New Deal,” but few, if any, have talked about its actual impact on global warming. Even if all the Green New Deal’s goals were achieved, it would have a negligible, and likely immeasurable, impact on projected global warming, according to climate model simulation provided by a libertarian think tank. “I seriously think the effect would — at best — be barely detectable in the climate record,” Patrick Michaels, a climatologist with the Cato Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Cato developed its own “Carbon Tax Temperature-Savings Calculator” to estimate the amount of warming that might be averted through reducing greenhouse gas emissions, like carbon dioxide. The carbon calculator is based on the so-called “MAGICC” climate model simulator, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency. So, how much warming would a “Green New Deal” avert by the end of the century? Slightly under 0.14 degrees Celsius, according to Cato’s temperature calculator. “The year-to-year variation is very close to the total amount of warming that would be ‘saved’ by 2100, according to EPA’s own…

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Allegations of Sexual Harassment And Sexism In Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Campaign Haunt 2020 Chances

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by Molly Prince   As Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders gears up for a potential 2020 presidential run, allegations regarding the mistreatment of women on his 2016 campaign may hinder his chances at the White House. Former staffers on the Sanders campaign have been detailing instances of sexism and sexual harassment while working on his presidential bid in 2016, according to a New York Times report published Wednesday. After a letter circulated in December referring to a “dangerous dynamic” between the men and women on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, claims of rampant “sexual violence and harassment” have been on the forefront of discussions among former Sanders supporters. The letter, which was signed by more than two dozen women, requested to sit down with the Vermont senator and his closest advisers to discuss the issue at hand. The Sanders campaign has also been hit with accusations of sexism stemming from the pay disparity between genders. Salary records reportedly show that male staffers earned thousands of dollars more than female staffers for the same jobs. “Was it too male? Yes. Was it too white? Yes. Would this be a priority to remedy on any future campaign? Definitely, and we share deeply in the…

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Commentary: Millions of Americans Would Be Hurt By Bernie Sanders’ War on Walmart

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by Amanda Snell   Sen. Bernie Sanders is back again, with yet another attempt to indirectly mandate the $15 an hour minimum wage. It’s called the Stop WALMART Act, or Stop Welfare for Any Large Monopoly Amassing Revenue from Taxpayers Act. It would affect large (500-plus employees) companies, and among other things would prohibit them from buying back stock unless they pay employees at least $15 an hour. [For a discussion of why big companies sometimes buy back their own stock click here] Taking to Twitter, Sanders, I-Vt., attacked the Walton family specifically. [The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution.] I say to the Walton family of Walmart: The American people are sick and tired of subsidizing your greed. Get off of welfare and pay your workers a living wage. pic.twitter.com/VxgIxQEON8 — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 16, 2018 Walmart is an obvious target for the democratic socialist: The company’s total revenue in 2018 was a cool $500 billion, and it employs more than 1.5 million people in the U.S. alone. Socialists like Sanders are eager to portray big corporations as the epitome of capitalism’s evil, but in…

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Commentary: Bernie Sanders Should Be Thrown Out of Politics for Supporting Venezuela’s Oppressors

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by Barry Brownstein   Would you use a doctor or dentist who didn’t believe in germ theory and used the same instruments all day without sterilizing them? What would you say if, when their patients developed infections, the doctor or dentist insisted he meant well and argued that capitalism, not germs, causes infections? Allowing such a practitioner to keep their license would be madness. Yet we elect and support politicians who believe something other than socialism causes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. In his Wall Street Journal report Venezuela is Starving, Juan Forero reports on the worsening tragedy: Jean Pierre Planchart, a year old, has the drawn face of an old man and a cry that is little more than a whimper. His ribs show through his skin. He weighs just 11 pounds. His mother, Maria Planchart, tried to feed him what she could find combing through the trash—scraps of chicken or potato. She finally took him to a hospital in Caracas, where she prays a rice-milk concoction keeps her son alive. “I watched him sleep and sleep, getting weaker, all the time losing weight,” said Ms. Planchart, 34 years old. “I never thought I’d see Venezuela like this.”…

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Walter Williams Commentary: Our Ignorance Of Socialism is Dangerous

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by Walter E. Williams   A recent Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation survey found that 51 percent of American millennials would rather live in a socialist or communist country than in a capitalist country. Only 42 percent prefer the latter. Twenty-five percent of millennials who know who Vladimir Lenin was view him favorably. Lenin was the first premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Half of millennials have never heard of communist Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1959 and was responsible for the deaths of 45 million Chinese people. The number of people who died at the hands of Josef Stalin may be as high as 62 million. However, almost one-third of millennials think former President George W. Bush is responsible for more killings than Stalin. By the way, Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, was responsible for the deaths of about 20 million people. The Nazis come in as a poor third in terms of history’s most prolific mass murderers. According to professor Rudolph Rummel’s research, the 20th century, mankind’s most brutal century, saw 262 million people’s lives destroyed at the hands of their own governments. Young people who weren’t alive…

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Obama Meets with Florida Loser Andrew Gillum Igniting 2020 Speculation

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by Molly Prince   Defeated Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum sat down with former President Barack Obama on Tuesday, launching speculation that he may be another Democrat added to the already long list of those considering a 2020 presidential run. Gillum met with the former president while he was in Washington, D.C., to address the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, according to CNN. While speaking at the event, he dodged answering questions regarding his presidential aspirations. “I’m plan on being married to my wife. That is all I’m planning,” Gillum said. “What I am committed to doing between now and 2020 is doing everything I can to make the state of Florida available and winnable for the Democratic nominee for president.” Prior to his ultimate defeat, Gillum, the former mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, faced backlash on a variety of fronts, including his anti-police stances and ties to anti-Israel and anti-Zionist organizations. Gillum‘s campaign had been fraught with scandals from the onset. Tallahassee City Hall has been under FBI investigation since as early as 2015 as part of an ongoing corruption probe. Records were released in October showing that an undercover FBI agent gave him tickets to a Broadway show, undermining his claims that he received the gift from…

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Ocasio-Cortez Sees Global Warming as Way to Push Social and Racial Agenda

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by Michael Bastasch   Democratic Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said the “Green New Deal” plan she supports would be used to achieve liberal “economic, social and racial justice” goals along with fighting global warming. “We can use the transition to 100 percent energy as the vehicle to truly deliver and establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States of America,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a Tuesday panel discussion alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and environmental activist Bill McKibben. The soon-to-be New York representative has spent her time in Washington, D.C. promoting a “Green New Deal” to transition the U.S. to 100 percent green energy. Ocasio-Cortez even joined protesters occupying House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office in support of the plan. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest person elected to Congress, is calling for a climate change revolution alongside potential 2020 presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders pic.twitter.com/0oxh0g0etl — The Guardian (@guardian) December 5, 2018 Pelosi wants to bring global warming to the forefront when Democrats take control of the House in 2018, but Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and a handful of other Democrats want to go even further. While light on details, proponents said the “Green New Deal” could create millions of jobs in…

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Bernie Sanders – Climate Hawk Spends Nearly $300K on Private Jet Travel in Month

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by Peter Hasson   Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s re-election campaign spent just under $300,000 on private jet use in October, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show. The Sanders campaign, which is funded primarily by small-dollar donors, paid Apollo Jets $297,685.50 on Oct. 10, FEC records reveal. The payment was marked for “transportation.” “This expense was for transportation for the senator’s 9-day, 9-state tour to support Democratic candidates up and down the ballot ahead of Election Day,” campaign spokeswoman Arianna Jones told local website VtDigger.com, which first reported on the jet expenses. “This cost covered the entirety of the tour from Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, California, and back to Vermont,” Jones said. Sanders’s private jet use comes despite the senator’s hard-line stance on climate change, which he has consistently called “the single greatest threat facing our planet.” Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet. On Nov 6th, we must show up at the polls from coast to coast and stand with candidates who are willing and ready to accelerate our transition to clean energy, and finally put people before the profits of polluters. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 18, 2018 Because flying generates significantly more greenhouse gases than driving, climate hawks generally…

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Bernie Sanders Opens Up On Whether He’s Running For President In 2020

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by Molly Prince   Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders revealed on Monday that he will “probably” launch a bid for president if another candidate does not emerge who is more likely to beat President Donald Trump in 2020. “If there’s somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I’ll work my ass off to elect him or her,” Sanders said in an interview with New York Magazine. “If it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run.” Sanders, who unsuccessfully ran a 2016 presidential campaign as a Democrat, asserted that while he does not particularly desire to hold the position, the ideas he espouses are best for the country. “I’m not one of those sons of multimillionaires whose parents told them they were going to become president of the United States,” Sanders continued. “I don’t wake up in the morning with any burning desire that I have to be president.” The Vermont senator has frequently criticized Trump both politically and personally, however, he has recently heated up his rhetoric against the president. “We must be honest and straightforward and say that we have a president…

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Bernie Sanders: Trump is a Racist, Sexist, Bigot

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by Molly Prince   Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders heated up his rhetoric against President Donald Trump on Wednesday while speaking at the National Action Network’s annual legislative and policy conference in Washington, D.C. “We must be honest and straightforward and say that we have a president who is a racist, a president who is a sexist, a president who is a homophobe, a president who is a xenophobe and a president who is a religious bigot,” Sanders told the crowd, according to The Hill. The Vermont senator’s comments drew a round of applause. “It gives me no joy to tell you that,” Sanders continued. “But that is the simple truth and we’ve got to confront that truth.” The National Action Network is a nonprofit organization founded by Rev. Al Sharpton. The group refers to itself as a “civil rights organization” and has been credited with drawing national attention to issues such as police brutality and racial profiling. “I don’t have to tell anybody in this room, least of all in this room, the history of discrimination that this country has experienced going way, way back before slavery,” said the progressive senator. “When the settlers came and did terrible things to the…

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Bernie Sanders Can’t Commit to Serving Full Senate Term, Says It’s ‘Impossible to be a Senator and a President at the Same Time’

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Bernie Sanders

by Hanna Bogorowski   U.S. Senate candidate in Vermont and incumbent Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders chatted about a possible 2020 presidential run at a Monday forum, in which he wouldn’t say whether he’d commit to fulfilling a six-year term if re-elected, because it’s impossible to be a senator and a president at the same time. Sanders, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, said at a Senate debate Monday night in Winooski, Vermont, that he’s not definitely throwing in another bid, but also wouldn’t say if he’s planning to completely serve another term. Right now, my focus is on the year 2018, but if you’re asking me to make an absolute pledge as to whether I’ll be running for president or not, I’m not going to make that pledge, Sanders said, according to local Vermont newspaper Seven Days. The simple truth is I have not made that decision. But I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I may not run. I may. But on the other hand, I may not, the senator said. Among the chatter of potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, Sanders currently leads the field of contenders in terms of media attention and headlines, according to a Politico…

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Bernie Sanders’ Misguided ‘Stop BEZOS’ Bill Would Backfire on Workers

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by Amanda Snell and David Kreutzer   No single company gets perhaps as much attention in the news as Amazon. The online retailing giant has surpassed $1 trillion in market value and is now searching for a city to place its second headquarters. Amazon has done enormous good in making Americans’ lives more convenient. But not everyone is a fan. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced a bill targeting Amazon and its founding CEO, Jeff Bezos. Appropriately labeled the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act (Stop BEZOS), this bill is an unabashed attack on Bezos and his immensely successful company. Stop BEZOS is meant to incentivize large companies, like Amazon, to pay a “living wage.” Sanders defines a living wage as $15/hour. This bill would require such companies to pay taxes (dollar for dollar) on the amount of government assistance that its employees collect. The implicit logic of the Stop BEZOS Act is that Amazon pays its employees subsistence wages (just enough to keep them from starving). In this alternate reality, every dollar of government assistance allows Amazon to pay their employees a dollar less. Were this true, the simplest, most effective solution would be to deny any government benefits to the employees…

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Bredesen Budgets Like Bernie Sanders Does, New Ad Says

Jason M. Reynolds
political ad

Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen had a “rare rendezvous with the truth” in Chattanooga Tuesday, according to the Tennessee Republican Party, saying about the federal deficit, “Democrats — my own party — have never been great on the subject.” To mark the occasion, the GOP released a new ad showing how Democrats budget — just like U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) does. The ad is available to watch here.   The ad mentions how Democrats’ plans to provide Medicare to everyone would cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years, citing a study by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University and reported on Fox News. “If Phil Bredesen is elected and Senate Democrats regain control, they would choose current ranking member and socialist Bernie Sanders to lead the Budget Committee,” said Gillum Ferguson, the Tennessee Republican Party press secretary. The ad will run digitally statewide. “Bredesen’s claims to care about the federal debt are downright laughable since he would vote to put socialist Bernie Sanders — whose healthcare proposal would cost $32 trillion — as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee,” said Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden. “As governor, Bredesen irresponsibly raided hundreds of millions of dollars from the state highway fund and rainy…

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Marsha Blackburn: Phil Bredesen is Schumer’s ‘Number One Recruit’

Chris Butler
Chuck Schumer, Phil Bredesen, Marsha Blackburn

ADAMS, Tennessee–Democrats nationwide are interested in the Volunteer State right now, and it has everything to do with advancing the liberal progressive agenda, U.S. Senate Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn told a crowd in Adams Friday night. Blackburn’s opponent for that senate seat is former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is especially interested in this race, Blackburn said. “Chuck Schumer has said Phil Bredesen is his number one recruit,” Blackburn told the crowd of about 200 people. “Phil Bredesen and Tennessee is Chuck Schumer’s path to majority leader. We all know if Phil Bredesen were to go to D.C. what would be the first vote he would take? Chuck Schumer — that’s exactly right. A vote for Chuck Schumer for majority leader.” If Chuck Schumer is majority leader, and the Democrats control the U.S. Senate, then hard-core leftists will control many committee chairs, Blackburn said. U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein of California, for instance, would control the Judiciary Committee, Blackburn said. “That is the end of all these conservative judges and Supreme Court justices,” Blackburn said. President Donald Trump has thus far appointed one-seventh of the members of our federal judiciary. Those people are Constitutionalists…

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Socialists Very Active in Tennessee Democrat Party Politics

Chris Butler
Julie Gautreau

Socialists in Tennessee apparently have even more influence over the Tennessee Democratic Party than previously believed, including at the state level. Julie Gautreau (pictured), who represents the Knoxville chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, said as much to The Tennessee Star Tuesday. “A lot of DSA members are members of political parties,” Gautreau said. “I don’t have the statistics, but a lot of them are Democrats. We have members of our DSA chapter who are very active in the local Democratic Party and also in state Democratic Party politics.” Gautreau did not name names. The Knoxville chapter has about 165 members, she said. Gautreau said she did not know how many DSA members Tennessee has statewide. The DSA, she went on, came into existence in April 2016. Even though many members support Democrats it is still a non-partisan organization, she said. Members of the Tennessee Democratic Party did not return a request for comment Tuesday. Neither did anyone from the campaigns of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen or Democratic gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean. A recent press release from the Tennessee Republican Party, however, had something to say about this new breed of Democrat. “Democrats Karl Dean and Phil…

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Commentary: Millennials Blind to Socialism’s True History of Misery, Murder, and Refugees

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Despite several horrifying current examples of nations in the grip of socialism, many of America’s millennials are happily skipping down the socialist Yellow Brick Road toward an Oz that could never be. It isn’t just Bernie Sanders’ young legions of admirers. A recent survey showed that a whopping 44 percent of young people favor socialism over…

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Illegal Immigrants Will Receive Free Health Care Under Bernie’s Single Payer Bill

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Illegal immigrants will seemingly be eligible to receive Medicare benefits under Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ single payer health care bill, released Wednesday. The bill, dubbed “Medicare For All Act of 2017,” extends an enhanced version of Medicare coverage, absent virtually all out of pocket costs, to every U.S. resident, regardless of age or immigration status. “IN…

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Bernie Sanders Supporters Call for ‘Demexit’ After DNC Fraud Lawsuit Dismissed

Tennessee Star Staff

Ardent supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lashed out at the Democratic Party establishment and threatened to bail on the party after a federal judge in Florida dismissed a class-action suit Friday alleging that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) illegally favored Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over Sanders. The DNC’s treatment of Sanders, who switched his…

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GOP Lawmakers Ask AG to Intervene after Bernie Sanders Imposes ‘Religious Test’ on Trump Nominee

Tennessee Star Staff

Sixty-four Republican lawmakers sent a letter Friday asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reaffirm the constitutional prohibition against religious tests for public office. Led by Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the memo is a response to questions raised by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont Independent, at a hearing last month…

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Sen. Bernie Sanders Rips California Democrats for Pulling $400 Billion Single-Payer Bill, Asks Supporters to Pressure State Legislature

Tennessee Star Staff

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lashed out Saturday at California Democrats for shelving an ambitious single-payer bill, urging them to vote on the health-care legislation estimated to cost $400 billion per year. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced Friday that Senate Bill 562 had been pulled indefinitely because it “does not address many serious issues,” including “financing,…

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Bernie Sanders Tells Supporters to Act in ‘Unprecedented’ Ways to Thwart Republicans

Tennessee Star Staff

Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders says “unprecedented” actions by his supporters must be taken to stop Republicans from passing a health care bill in the Senate. A Facebook Live event Monday with Mr. Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren included a call for unorthodox actions to halt Republican efforts to replace Obamacare, former President Barack Obama’s signature…

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