Weekend at Bernie Sanders

Gray Matter
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Democratic candidate for president Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) while admitting it was poorly written defended his recently surfaced 1972 rape fantasy essay as akin to the controversial book about female sexual submission, “Fifty Shades of Grey.” (Breitbart.com, 5/31/2015)

When a Republican says something stupid about rape, their professional life ends. Let's see what happens to Bernie. (Why look, he's gaining in the polls!)


Off the Clift
During this week’s version of the syndicated public affairs show “The McLaughlin Group,” The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift debated that Hillary Clinton’s wealth could actually be beneficial for her.
....
“If she’s elected, she would probably be the richest president ever, But is this a liability? I look back at FDR, I mean, he was very wealthy. He did a lot of great things for the little people.” (Breitbart.com, 5/31/2015)

If this line of reasoning sounds familiar, then you are remembering that it is exactly what Democrats said about Mitt Romney's wealth....how beneficial it would be for "the little people."

Ah, RedStateVT is just pulling your leg. What Democrats actually said was that Mitt Romney was a rapacious capitalist who had put millions of people out of work, killed others and whose wealth was a stain on America. 


By George
On his Sunday morning news show George Stephanopolous took time out from reporting on the scandal in which newsman George Stephanopolous made undisclosed contributions to the Clinton Crime family Foundation. Instead, Stephanopolous turned his attention to a scandal in which a formerly prominent Republican politician who left office eight years ago was indicted. (RedStateVT, 5/31/2015)

Hillary: I can do lots of different accents!

Needy
“We need paid sick leave and guaranteed vacation time for all,” said Mr. Sanders, an independent who is challenging Hillary Rodham Clinton the Democratic nomination.

For Mr. Sanders, the proposal fits into his socialist-style platform of making tuition at public universities free and increasing the minimum wage.

Mr. Sanders has long applauded the European system where people in countries such as Denmark and Finland receive at least a month of paid vacation.

“People are under stress, they’re exhausted,”Mr. Sanders said during a recent interview with Bill Maher on HBO. “We should begin to look at other countries in Europe where people get by law five or six weeks vacation.” (New York Times, 5/28/2015)

Sometimes it is just best to let Bernie speak.

OK, we can't resist. Here is who Bernie appeals to: In addition to naive and foolish young people, anyone who is lazy and disaffected, who harbors inchoate grievances and believes that their situation in life is due to someone somewhere who screwed them.


Removal
The Obama administration Friday removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a crucial step in normalizing ties between Washington and Havana and the latest progress in President Obama’s push to thaw relations between the United States and the island nation. (New York Times, 5/29/2015)

Obama is NOT coddling repressive regimes.
Obama is NOT coddling repressive regimes.
Obama is NOT coddling repressive regimes.
Obama is NOT coddling repressive regimes.
Obama is NOT coddling repressive regimes.
Obama is NOT coddling repressive regimes.
Obama is coddling repressive regimes.

Farm Fresh

Democrat candidates reveal campaign slogans:

Hillary Clinton: It's my turn (let's get it over with)

                 also: Vote for me. I'm a grandmother. 

Bernie Sanders: Everything free

Martin O'Malley: Have you seen your other choices?

                   also: I'm not a nut


Assumptions
Among liberals, it’s almost universally assumed that of the two major parties, it’s the Republicans who have become more extreme over the years. That’s a self-flattering but false narrative. (Peter Wehner, New York Times, 5/27/2015)

Good article that our Liberal friends should read. They rail endlessly about the Tea Party, but the Tea Party started as nothing more than a bunch of people who were frightened about the fiscal imprudence of our politicians. Liberals promptly labeled them "extreme."


Headline You Won't See
'JV Team' ISIS Captures Ramadi and Palmyra


Grade = F
America’s most powerful former law professor is getting a re-education in the Constitution, and on present course President Obama might flunk out. Witness Tuesday’s federal appeals-court rebuke of his 2014 immigration order, including language that suggests the Administration will also lose on the legal and policy merits. (Wall Street Journal, 5/27/2015)

We can only hope. Meanwhile we quote the following:

"...the 'problem' that Obama is purporting to fix is the absence of a law granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Rather than executing a law, Obama is making one up - arrogating to himself a function that the Constitution explicitly allocates to Congress....the absence of a congressional law granting amnesty is not evidence of political failure that must somehow be corrected by unilateral executive action; it is evidence of the lack of popular consensus regarding illegal immigration." (Heather MacDonald, Manhattan Institute, Practical Thoughts on Immigration, quoted from Imprimis, February 2015)

Bernie's Campaign Strategy Leaked: Will Run as Grumpy Old White Guy

10 Questions for Bernie Sanders

1)  You are a socialist. Name a country where socialism works.

2)  You have complained endlessly about "millionaires and billionaires" not paying their fair share. Does this include George Soros, Tom Steyer and Jeffrey Katzenberg?

3)  What legislation have you sponsored and passed in your term in the Senate?

4)  You had Senate oversight of the Veterans Affairs Department. Are you to blame for the scandals that were uncovered there during your term?

5)  You have said that you will not criticize Hillary Clinton. Presumably your Republican opponents will not get the same treatment. Why does Hillary get a free pass?

6)  Grade President Obama's performance as president on a scale of 1 to 10.

7)  Your wife received a six figure severance from Burlington College when she was replaced. Did you refuse the money? If not, why not?

8)  Will your campaign end with a bang or a whisper?

9)  Will you continue your campaign as a third party candidate if RedStateVT is able to round up funding?

10) Is anyone responsible for their own situation in life according to your worldview or is everyone a victim?

Bonus question: Have you received any advice from Howard Dean, the last screwball presidential candidate from Vermont?

Smelly
He doesn’t flinch over returning to the 90 percent personal income tax rates of the 1950s for top earners. And if reducing income inequality reduces economic growth, he says, that’s fine. “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants,” he said, “when children are hungry in this country.” (New York Times, 5/26/2015)

As RedStateVT gleefully predicted, the presidential run of Colonel Bernie Sanders gives the whole country the opportunity to learn firsthand about his nutjob ideas. Here we learn that he wants to confiscate the wealth of those who are successful and that too much deodorant causes poverty. 

Thank you Colonel! We eagerly look forward to hearing more of your ideas on how to fix America. 

Thank You Veterans!

Liberal Logic
Liberals want restrictions on guns, but not on abortion.


Skirt Chasers
Republican Rivals Skirt Specifics on Plans to Fight ISIS, Read Down to Paragraph Twenty to Find Out What Hillary Clinton Would Do (New York Times headline, 5/24/2015)

OK, we added that last part.


What Did Hillary Know and When Did She Know It?
Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received emails from her top aides warning about dangerous security conditions in Benghazi, Libya, in the run-up to the terrorist attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans there in 2012, documents disclosed on Friday show. (Wall Street Journal, 5/24/2015)

A Liberal friend recently said that George Bush could have prevented 9/11 because he received national security briefings that said: Bin Laden determined to attack U.S. Apparently Bush did not make the obvious connection that this meant that nineteen Islamic fascists would hijack planes and fly them into buildings and kill over three thousand Americans. 

Anyway, here we have news that Hillary Clinton received warnings from her own people at the State Department about a very specific danger at a very specific place. She did nothing. And so when the Benghazi attack happened - the date was again 9/11 - she immediately blamed a video. 

Anyone listening?


The Dangler
But this “opportunity” didn’t just emerge organically — which is actually where “opportunities” are supposed to come from. It did not result from changing conditions that opened a new possibility of finding common ground. Iran’s behavior didn’t change, and its pursuit of nuclear weapons didn’t change. Obama manufactured what (deputy national security adviser Ben) Rhodes called an opportunity by pursuing a deal with Iran and dangling all kinds of carrots in front of the mullahs. And why? Because he wants a foreign-policy legacy to match the size and scope of his key legacy in domestic policy. (John Podhoretz, New York Post, 5/25/2015)

The single greatest threat to U.S. national security is.....Barack Obama.


Wrongly
“They’ve got the wrong guy,” said Robin Ficker, a lawyer who has represented Mr. Wint in the past and said he may again in this case. “It’s not in his nature. The police were under pressure to make an arrest, and they’re really straining here, overreaching.”
...
Mr. Wint has a record of criminal and violent behavior going back at least a decade. He was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend and pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of property. A woman who lived with Mr. Wint, as well as his father, each obtained a protective order against him, claiming he had threatened them with violence. (New York Times, 5/23/2015)

We officially nominate Robin Ficker as Lawyer of the Year!

What We Learned From Our Liberal Friends

Yes, we at RedStateVT have dear friends who are Liberals. In a recent free-wheeling conversation we learned the following:

--The problem with politics is money in politics. The Koch brothers' money.

--Ted Cruz is evil. He wants to do away with government.

--Business is under-regulated.

--The 170 bikers in Texas who were recently arrested after a shoot-out were treated more leniently than black suspects.

--There is no substance to the (various) Hillary Clinton scandals.

--Republicans were responsible for the financial meltdown.

--There was civility in politics until the Tea Party came along.

--Our friends were actually Republicans until the party became too extreme.

Meanwhile, all we can say to our Liberal friends is: you are winning. The worst president in American history is not held accountable. Hillary Clinton will survive the corruption that surrounds her and become the next president. George Stephanopolous keeps his job. The Boy Scouts are going gay and now so is Ireland. And on and on. 


Gram-ma-ma
This week, as she campaigned in Iowa, in Chicago and, starting Friday, in New Hampshire — a relative flurry of activity — she generally filled each day with one event open to the news media, a smaller one with a pool reporter, and then some unexpected stops where she ordered coffee or bought toys for her grandchild. Always the grandchild. (New York Times, 5/22/2015)

And make no mistake about it, Hillary's granddaughter will be the secret weapon in the campaign. When times get tough, when the e-mail scandal heats up again, when new facts emerge about Benghazi, when more sordid details are learned about the Clinton Crime Family Foundation, the granddaughter will make her appearance. The narrative will then become: how can those heartless Republicans attack....a kindly grandmother. 

You read it here first.


The Circulator
The emails also show that Mrs. Clinton was circulating information about the attacks in Benghazi that contradicted the Obama administration’s initial narrative of what occurred, and that she was concerned about how Republicans could use the incidents to undermine President Obama. (New York Times, 5/21/2015)

Good thing we read down to paragraph 9 in this article, otherwise we would not have learned this 'factoid.' We might have thought that this little bombshell would have been in the headline, or maybe the first paragraph. But we would have been wrong....

Emotional Poison

Collapse
The last Iraqi security forces fled Ramadi on Sunday, as the city fell completely to the militants of the Islamic State, who ransacked the provincial military headquarters, seizing a large store of weapons, and killed people loyal to the government, according to security officials and tribal leaders. (New York Times, 5/18/2015)

Not mentioned in this article - not even once - was the name "President Obama." The same Obama who called ISIS the JV team. The same Obama whose policies in Iraq have led to the squandering of hard fought military gains, turning them into losses. 

Meanwhile, the Liberal Media will never stop writing stories about George Bush and "Mission Accomplished." And people like "John" writing in the Comments section of the New York Times will tell us that the fall of Ramadi was Bush's fault...somehow. Why Bush has been out of office for, what is it now, at least a year.

As the Wall Street Journal reminds us (5/19/2015):
("The Democratic left" is) now trying to change the subject back to Iraq circa 2003 and away from the current, rampant disorder there that reflects poorly on the current President and implicates his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. For the record, none of the individuals running for the Republican presidential nomination cast a vote on the Iraq war. Hillary Clinton, then Senator from New York, did—in favor of the war....


New York Times Political News Coverage Today, May 19, 2015
Name Recognition Is Not the Problem for Clinton
5 Things You Might Not Know About Hillary Clinton
Clinton Says Citizens United Would Guide Her Supreme Court Picks
Hillary Clinton May Not Need a Second Chance to Make a First Impression
State Department Proposes January Release of Hillary Clinton 

And then this:

Road to 2016: Can Republicans Avoid the Romney Tax Trap?

What Liberal Media bias? What Liberal Media bias!