Thursday Reads: Debate Hangover and Sanders’ Slip-Ups
Posted: March 10, 2016 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Bernie Sanders, Florida Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton 40 Comments
Good Morning!!
The photos in this post come from a project called “Eyes as Big as Plates.” From the blog’s “about” page:
Eyes as Big as Plates is the ongoing collaborative project between the Finnish-Norwegian artist duo Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth. Starting out as a play on characters from Nordic folklore, Eyes as Big as Plates has evolved into a continual search for modern human’s belonging to nature. The series is produced in collaboration with retired farmers, fishermen, zoologists, plumbers, opera singers, housewives, artists, academics and ninety year old parachutists. Since 2011 the artist duo has portrayed seniors in Norway, Finland, France, US, UK, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, Japan and Greenland. Each image in the series presents a solitary figure in a landscape, dressed in elements from surroundings that indicate neither time nor place. Here nature acts as both content and context: characters literally inhabit the landscape wearing sculptures they create in collaboration with the artists.
As active participants in our contemporary society, these seniors encourage the rediscovery of a demographic group too often labelled as marginalized or even as a stereotypical cliché. It is in this light that the project aims to generate new perspectives on who we are and where we belong.
I encourage you to go to the site and look at more of these amazing portraits of elders in nature.
The peacefulness portrayed in these beautiful photos stands in sharp contrast to the angry, violent, racist, sexist, and generally chaotic nature of today’s U.S. culture. Those characteristics are only being amplified by the presidential primary campaigns we have been watching for months.
I honestly don’t know how much more I can handle. Last night’s debate was hard for me to watch, and I got so angry at the questions put to Hillary Clinton that I had trouble sleeping. I’m feeling exhausted and I have a sore throat. I really don’t want to come down with another cold, so I’ll probably try to take a nap at some point. Anyway, if this post seems disjointed and littered with typos, you’ll know why.
I’m not going to say much about the questions asked of Hillary at the Washington Post/Univision debate. They were just plain disgusting, and I don’t want to get enraged again. She was asked about Benghazi, her Email non-scandal, and why nobody likes her. She was even asked if she would step down if she is indicted–a ridiculous and insulting questions that she refused to answer. It was disgraceful, and the Post and Univision should apologize to Hillary, the voters of Florida, and the general public.
In this post I’m going to focus on Bernie’s performance. In my rage last night I actually missed the bombshell that Bernie Sanders was hit with about his support for Fidel Castro when he was Mayor of Burlington, VT and refused to repudiate it. I don’t think he was asked about his strong support for Daniel Ortega (I will check the transcript and update if necessary), but I assume that Floridians will soon learn about that too.
Univision also showed the famous clip of Sanders on the Lou Dobbs show in which he argued against the Immigration bill that was sponsored by Ted Kennedy and supported by Hillary Clinton. I posted this article previously, but I’m going to include it again here, because it provides very good background information on Sanders’ support for dictatorial regimes in Latin America.
Michael Moynihan at The Daily Beast: When Bernie Sanders Thought Castro and the Sandinistas Could Teach America a Lesson.
In the 1980s, any Bernie Sanders event or interview inevitably wended toward a denunciation of Washington’s Central America policy, typically punctuated with a full-throated defense of the dictatorship in Nicaragua. As one sympathetic biographer wrote in 1991, Sanders “probably has done more than any other elected politician in the country to actively support the Sandinistas and their revolution.” Reflecting on a Potemkin tour of revolutionary Nicaragua he took in 1985, Sanders marveled that he was, “believe it or not, the highest ranking American official” to attend a parade celebrating the Sandinista seizure of power.
It’s quite easy to believe, actually, when one wonders what elected American official would knowingly join a group of largely unelected officials of various “fraternal” Soviet dictatorships while, just a few feet away, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega bellows into a microphone that the United States is governed by a criminal band of terrorists.
None of this bothered Sanders, though, because he largely shared Ortega’s worldview. While opposition to Reagan’s policy in Central America—including indefensible decisions like the mining of Managua harbor—was common amongst mainstream Democrats, it was rare to find outright support for the Soviet-funded, Cuban-trained Sandinistas. Indeed, Congress’s vote to cut off administration funding of the anti-Sandinista Contra guerrillas precipitated the Iran-Contra scandal.
But despite its aversion to elections, brutal suppression of dissent, hideous mistreatment of indigenous Nicaraguans, and rejection of basic democratic norms, Sanders thought Managua’s Marxist-Leninist clique had much to teach Burlington: “Vermont could set an example to the rest of the nation similar to the type of example Nicaragua is setting for the rest of Latin America.”
There’s much more about Sanders’ support for Daniel Ortega’s reign of terror in Nicaragua at the link.
As usual, there wasn’t a single question about abortion rights or the continuing efforts by Republicans to control women’s bodies, even though a horrendous Florida anti-abortion bill became law yesterday. Think Progress:
As presidential debates pile up, abortion rights advocates find themselves asking the same question after each event: Why is no one asking about abortion? But candidates’ silence on abortion was more deafening than usual at Wednesday night’s Democratic debate in Florida — where a controversial bill against abortion access was signed into law earlier in the day.
The Florida bill is nearly identical to the Texas law currently in front of the Supreme Court, using the guise of ‘supporting women’s health’ to significantly cut women’s access to abortion, contraception, and STI prevention and treatment services across the state. The Texas bill has already lead to thousands of unplanned pregnancies and100,000 self-induced abortions done by women unable to access a clinic. Latina women have been disproportionately affected by Texas’ bill — and with an equally large Latina population in Florida, the Sunshine State’s new bill could produce similarly grim results.
The Wednesday debate, co-hosted by Univision, focused heavily on immigration policy, specifically addressing the large population of Latino voters in Florida. But no moderater or candidate mentioned the impact Florida’s law could have on this population.
Because it’s apparently more important to ask Clinton stupid personal question that she has already answered repeatedly. And on Sanders’ admiration for Castro’s leadership of Cuba:
In 1989 Sanders traveled to Cuba on a trip organized by the Center for Cuban Studies, a pro-Castro group based in New York, hoping to come away with a “balanced” picture of the communist dictatorship. The late, legendary Vermont journalist Peter Freyne sighed that Sanders “came back singing the praises of Fidel Castro.”
“I think there is tremendous ignorance in this country as to what is going on in Cuba,” Sanders told The Burlington Free Press before he left. It’s a country with “deficiencies,” he acknowledged, but one that has made “enormous progress” in “improving the lives of poor people and working people.” When he returned to Burlington, Sanders excitedly reported that Cuba had “solved some very important problems” like hunger and homelessness. “I did not see a hungry child. I did not see any homeless people,” he told the Free Press. “Cuba today not only has free healthcare but very high quality healthcare.”
Sanders had a hunch that Cubans actually appreciated living in a one-party state. “The people we met had an almost religious affection for [Fidel Castro]. The revolution there is far deep and more profound than I understood it to be. It really is a revolution in terms of values.” It was a conclusion he had come to long before visiting the country. Years earlier Sanders said something similar during a press conference: “You know, not to say Fidel Castro and Cuba are perfect—they are certainly not—but just because Ronald Reagan dislikes these people does not mean to say the people in these nations feel the same.”
There is, of course, a mechanism to measure the levels of popular content amongst thecampesinos. Perhaps it’s too much to expect a democratic socialist to be familiar with the free election, a democratic nicety the Cuban government hasn’t availed itself of during its almost 60 years in power.
Again, much more at the link. I suppose Bernie supporters will be defending Latin American dictatorships after Bernie was finally questioned about all this last night.
Another interesting question Sanders was asked last night was about his support for the wacko “Minutemen” who were patrolling the Mexican boarder during the Bush administration.
Evan McMorris-Santoro at Buzzfeed (Dec. 9, 2015): In 2006, Bernie Sanders Voted In Support Of An Immigration Conspiracy Theory.
A few months before Democrats swept the 2006 elections, an outcry raged in the fringier corners of the immigration debate. Treasonous American officials were tipping off the Mexican government about the whereabouts of Minutemen patrols, the argument went, making it impossible for the private army bent on preventing undocumented immigrants from crossing the border to do their jobs.
The outcry made it to Congress, where Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, a Republican, introduced an amendment clearly directed at the Minutemen story. The amendment barred the Department of Homeland Security from providing “a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group, operating in the State of California, Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona.”
Kingston’s amendment overwhelmingly passed the Republican-controlled Congress, including the votes of 76 Democrats, most of them from the party’s then-strong Blue Dog conservative wing. Another person voted for the measure, too: Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent in the midst of the campaign that would send him the U.S. Senate….
For Sanders, the amendment is another in a string of past votes that aren’t quite in line with the exact progressive priorities of 2015. Much like past positions on guns that the senator has had to navigate this year, his immigration positions have at times posed some challenges with the new Democratic base and the party’s priorities….
The amendment was meant to protect the Minutemen, and only concerned the southern border of the United States. A short floor debate over the amendment took place on June 6, 2006. Republican backers of the amendment spoke of “the total lawlessness of people coming illegally over the border at night” and how the Minutmen — “definitely not politically correct in Washington, D.C.,” Kingston, the Republican sponsor said — “filled a void which the government was unable to fill.”
Read more about the amendment at the link. Sanders claimed last night that it was part of a larger bill so he had to vote for it, but it was actually a separate piece of legislation that Sanders voted for.
These are just a few examples of oppo research against Sanders that has been ignored so far by the media and pooh poohed by Bernie’s supporters. How would all this go over in a General Election? And I’m just talking about reactions from Democratic voters, not the vicious attacks that would come from the GOP.
Sanders’ vote against the auto bailout also came up last night; here are some enlightening tweets about that:
That’s all I’ve got for today. What are your thoughts on the debate after a night’s rest? What other stories are you following?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Have a nice day, everyone.
There is a Republican debate tonight, but I simply cannot stand to watch it. If Dak posts a live blog, I’ll read your comments.
I’ll do it! At least I can’t stand all the candidates tonight and hope they all get hateful questions!
Thanks. I still haven’t figured out what time it is.
It’s on CNN, starting at 8:30 Eastern with Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, Hugh Hewitt and Stephen Dinan.
Thanks.
couldn’t watch the debate, I have to watch my blood pressure. This election has gone on way too long already. The election and inauguration will be an anti-climax. Except if Trump gets in and then we will all die of shock.
I loved this quote “Perhaps it’s too much to expect a democratic socialist to be familiar with the free election, a democratic nicety the Cuban government hasn’t availed itself of during its almost 60 years in power.” If the republicans had their way they would be in power and have no elections, either. They have pretty much said so.
Thank goodness that was the last Democratic debate. God, it was awful!
Oh FFS!!!
What the hell is a Liberal going to watch? MSNBC is UNBEARABLE!!!
Andrea Mitchell is horrible. How many segments is she going to do about how unlikable and “untrustable” Hillary Clinton is.
The only TV station I used to watch from here is Europe was MSNBC but now I’ve had it. If the only place you can expect some modicus of fairness towards HRC is Hardball with Chris Matthews, you may just give up cable news altogether.
Btw she lost MI by less than 20.000 votes, while crushing Saint Bernie in MS, but it just doesn’t seem to matter.
I’ve switched to watching CNN for when returns are coming in, but I shut it off when Van Jones and David Axelrod start attacking Hillary.
I’m really surprised how ignorant Van Jones is about the stuff he’s commenting on. Axelrod was embarrassed by people on Twitter last night when he was quick to accuse HRC of lying about something she was actually right on, only he didn’t know that.
The auto bailout? There’s some tweets in my post about it. Armando (BTD) really let him have it.
I saw this also. She was awful interviewing Ed Rendle, former Pen Governor. He artfully brought up Hillary’s long wonderful history of democratic values, how NY loved her as a Senator and re-elected her second term by a landslide and what a great SOS she was. He did not bash BS. Pat J. Would be pleased with her old boy friend from years ago. Andrea was nasty as usual. CNN over the top. I smell Koch/Cheney $$$ for BS. JMO. US has no professional media now. Thanks for the live blogs BB, Dak! I did watch last night because of my BP!
Luv the elder photos……..great to support, and share so they can do a book. Thanks BB.
Aren’t they lovely? I was really struck by them.
I don’t know how Hillary can stomach these “debates”.
This is pretty much how everyone of these damn charades goes:
The Miami debate was Clinton’s personal nightmare
That is too funny! I can’t believe that’s from WaPo! How refreshing.
P.S. I quit watching cable news in 2008 and haven’t missed a thing. Just following blogs like SkyDancing has kept me informed. Reading the very astute comments and articles online has kept me more informed I think than a cable-only diet of dead-wrong pundits and shockingly ignorant journalists.
The drivel on MSNBC (Maddow included), CBS, ABC or CNN is unwatchable. Even PBS Newshour lost me a long time ago and you can throw NPR in there as well unless it’s music. I accidentally listened to NPR referring to Ron Goldman yet again not by name but as Nicole Simpson’s “friend” – he was NOT! He was a waiter she was acquainted with at the restaurant who brought her glasses back FFS!!! 20 years and they are still repeating bad journalism like a bunch of parrots.
I also ignore American newspapers – print or online; prefer Al Jazeera or the Guardian. (But thanks for the WaPo link!!! haha) I stay informed and blood pressure is kept in check for the most part.
l think we all keep each other centered! I’d feel alone in the world without this safe haven!!!! At least we’re not being trolled yet but that could change!
Me too! Hugs to all of you for keeping me sane!
Me, three!
Ditto on all points (although I’ve added the Guardian to my iffy list). I never imagined it could get worse than 2008, but here we are. The one bright note for me is that the Toronto Star has posted Daniel Dale to the Washington Bureau. Two things: Daniel Dale is an intelligent, incisive, principled reporter who (added bonus) writes well. And, the TO Star has eliminated the comments feature. The resulting improvement in performance of the news and opinion writers is amazing to see… I think they are now doing their jobs without having to fear the mean-spirited repercussions. Another factor: the publisher, John Honderich, is a true journalist, not, first and foremost, a “business man”.
Interesting….good to know.
I’m very glad we have this place.
Watching TV news anchors and pundits makes me angry so I don’t watch them. They don’t add anything to my understanding of current events.
l Hear The songs of angry men!
Oh, yes.
http://cincinnati.suntimes.com/cin-politics-government/7/102/333083/hillary-clinton-confirmed-for-cnn-town-hall-at-ohio-state
Here we go again. At least it’s a town hall
Oh no! Well at least Roland Martin might be somewhat sympathetic to Hillary.
At least she’s not too tired to attend and respond to questions unlike BS who didn’t have time for a question about Syria from a refugee from there.
I am thoroughly fed up! All I hear is “St. Bernie”, a non Democrat who is standing in the way of the first woman POTUS who is by far the most qualified and experienced to hold this office while he skates through, mouthing the same “millionaires and billionaires” crap that he has been repeating at every speech and debate. His “freebies” are unrealistic and impractical yet the dumbbells out there are falling all over themselves and buying it.
The man is not a Democrat. He is not a party loyalist. His entire career has been spent in congress with few bills credited to his account.
This is a woman who has served children and women for the past 35 years. She has been a leader when it comes to the poor and voiceless. She has been First Lady, a US senator, and a Secretary of State who has been defiled, demeaned and crucified by the opposition yet as she says “is still standing”.
I have to turn off the t.v. since so much crap is being thrown her way and much of it is sexist.
Bernie is standing in the way of the first female candidate for president and for that I will not forgive. His finger waving and crankiness is getting pretty old when you consider that there very well may be a Trump or Cruz candidacy which will leave this nation in worse shape than is now.
I can’t do this anymore unless she can pull it out next week, something I feel just may not happen as long as Cranky Pants is held aloft by morons who find their opposition “cute”.
Bernie is just burnishing his own ego and has no concern for the nation at large. Anyone who believes that he can push through free education and free healthcare need to look closely as to how this can be accomplished. Does not compute!
I am completely demoralized at this juncture and not sure if I can recover from this utter nonsense.
She’ll win Florida and most likely Illinois. Ohio could be close, and no one knows about Missouri yet. But really all she needs is the Florida delegates to stay way ahead of him.
I always look to you to walk me off the ledge.
Away from the ledge. BB walks us away from the ledge. 😀 Me too. Thanks BB and Dak and all here!
LOL! I was so enraged last night, I would have throttled Bernie and those questioners if I could get my hands on them.
Agree!
BernieBros love this! Hypocrisy! http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000500281
This is excellent. Apologies if someone already posted it.
WaPo: Bernie Sanders’s most vitriolic supporters really test the meaning of the word ‘progressive’
Could this mysterious something be White Male Privilege?
Funny how the racism can be named and shamed. But the sexism? (Whaat? Did you say something? I can’t hear you.)
Yup. When you see what’s happening in this election campaign, it becomes very clear that women just don’t matter in American society. No discussion of women’s reproductive rights at the debate, no discussion of rampant violence against women, and no recognition of the rampant misogyny that is driving the media coverage.
Screamingly obvious double standards when it comes to women’s rights. Everything else comes first. It’s as if they cannot see a problem.
The pictures are beautiful, thank you. I want to try making a twig headdress now!
Good thing my wife wasn’t home for most of the debate, it unnerves her when I yell at the tv.
Was Jorge Ramos trying to prove something to Donald Trump or what?
It was almost worth all the rude questions directed to Hillary to have BS finally get asked some hard questions about his history with supporting the minutemen and flattering marxists. There’s a lot more “there” there and it makes him unelectable in the general, period. I wish they had made him answer the question about WHAT kind of Democratic Socialism he supports, but he evaded it and the moderators let it slide once again.
“SALINAS: In South Florida there are still open wounds among some exiles regarding socialism and communism. So please explain what is the difference between the socialism that you profess and the socialism in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.
SANDERS: Well, let me just answer that. What that was about was saying that the United States was wrong to try to invade Cuba, that the United States was wrong trying to support people to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, that the United States was wrong trying to overthrow in 1954, the government — democratically elected government of Guatemala.
Throughout the history of our relationship with Latin America we’ve operated under the so-called Monroe Doctrine, and that said the United States had the right do anything that they wanted to do in Latin America. So I actually went to Nicaragua and I very shortly opposed the Reagan administration’s efforts to overthrow that government. And I strongly opposed earlier Henry Kissinger and the — to overthrow the government of Salvador Aliende (ph) in Chile.
I think the United States should be working with governments around the world, not get involved in regime change. And all of these actions, by the way, in Latin America, brought forth a lot of very strong anti-American sentiments. That’s what that was about.”
Answer the question!
Still, I feel it opened the door to holding him more accountable, for his associations and the specifics of what he’s promising. What I’d like to see henceforth is more questioning about the real costs of his unrealistic pie in the sky.
One thing I haven’t seen anywhere is how his 15 dollar an hour minimum wage proposal might impact working families and the meager but crucial subsidies that are in place to support them? If your wage goes up too much (but not enough to make up for) you can lose Earned Income Credit, medicaid or child health assistance, heating assistance, free or reduced price school lunch and all the supports that are tied to that, child care subsidies, nutrition assistance, education grants. Single mothers especially can be worse off, if the wage increase is not enough to make up for the losses. Has anyone looked at that? I don’t trust BS to think inclusively enough to consider externalities or unintended consequences, especially where marginalized folks lives are concerned.
Love, love, the photos. Thx BB.