Why the CBC-PAC Endorsed Hillary and Snubbed Bernie

For those of you who were paying attention, former civil rights activist and Martin Luther King Jr. right-hand man John Lewis announced that the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee (which is a subset of the Congressional Black Caucus itself) was endorsing Hillary Clinton.  During this endorsement announcement, John Lewis mentioned that he never saw Bernie Sanders being a civil rights activist back in the 60s.  He made it a point to take some very pointed shots at Bernie Sanders.  To all Sanders supporters, these accusations sounded like cheap shots, given that Sanders has a well-documented history of fighting for the African American community.

What you probably didn't know is that there is a very specific reason that the CBC-PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton and not Bernie Sanders and it has shockingly little to do with the candidates' records in civil rights.  After perusing the members of the CBC-PAC, it becomes crystal clear that their motivation had much more to do with the fact that the 20-member board of the PAC contains lobbyists.  They are not just any lobbyists either.  Here is a brief list of the lobbying connections of the CBC-PAC:

• Daron Watts: Daron is a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma. Purdue Pharma is the maker of the highly addictive opioid OxyContin.
• Mike McKay & Chaka Burgess: McKay and Burgess are lobbyists for the student loan giant Navient.  Navient is a spin-off from Sallie Mae.
• Albert Wynn: Wynn is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry, specifically for Lorillard Tobacco, the maker of Newport cigarettes.

In addition to these members of the CBC-PAC, some of the fundraisers for the PAC (in the most recent fundraising cycle) include:

• Vic Fazio: Lobbyist for Corrections Corporation of America, which is a major owner of for-profit prisons and is owned by Republican leader Thomas Beasley.
• David Adams: Lobbyist for Wal-Mart, which is the biggest gun distributor in the United States.

Finally, there is one more major corporate connection:

• Hazel Dukes: Head of the NAACP who also had a big hand in paving the way for Wal-Mart stores to be opened in New York City.

Hazel was the one who criticized Bernie in saying that he was not a factor in the fight for civil rights.

Now, take all of that information and consider the that Bernie Sanders has centered his campaign around fighting Wall Street and forcing Corporate America to be accountable and pay their fair share of taxes, directly impacting Wal-Mart and Lorillard.  He has singled out the pharmaceutical industry for their exorbitant and arbitrary drug costs, directly impacting Purdue Pharma.  He has said that he wants free college for all students who want to go, directly impacting Navient.  He has said we should be ashamed of ourselves for the number of people we imprison and has stated solemnly that we will not be the world leader in imprisonment by the end of his presidency, directly impacting Corrections Corporation of America.

Finally, take into consideration that many people in the Congressional Black Caucus such as Keith Ellison have stated unambiguously that they were not asked for their input on this endorsement and they do not endorse Hillary Clinton.  Is it really hard to figure out what's going on here?

In the end, it's all about money.  And this is why campaign finance reform is the most important issue of our time.  The money from Corporate America will cause people in any level of power to do their bidding in exchange for their money.  Corporate America has an incredibly deep reach and can dictate the issues candidates even talk about, much less where they stand on the issues.

Bernie Sanders does not play this game.  He does not take corporate money.  He does not have ulterior motives.  He could take their money and be another politician who makes claims about the middle class, while actually passing legislation that only benefits corporations.  He chooses not to.

And this is just one example.  Believe me, there are many, many more.

Sources:

• https://theintercept.com/2016/02/11/congressional-black-caucus-hillary/
• http://www.cbcpac.org/

Dolores Huerta Should Be Ashamed of Herself

http://www.latinorebels.com/2016/02/21/dolores-huertas-english-only-moment-at-caucus-what-happened-last-night-in-las-vegas/

So, I'll start off by saying I'm not sure what happened at Harrah's in Las Vegas at the Democratic Caucus. But it sounds like nobody is really sure, least of all Dolores Huerta.

The story, from what I can tell, goes like this: the moderator at the Democratic Caucus at Harrah's in Las Vegas asked the audience if someone could translate the speech to Spanish, labor activist and Hillary Clinton supporter Dolores Huerta offered her services. Sanders supporters begin to yell "No!" repeatedly, asking for a "neutral" to do the translating, perhaps fearing that a staunch Hillary supporter may alter the language to favor her candidate. Or perhaps they can't trust that someone whose foundation has received money from Hillary's foundation can be trusted to fairly and impartially translate the speeches. That's a completely fair concern.  The moderator realizes that the incredible lack of preparation on his committee's behalf is resulting in a scene. As one account says:

The caucus chair quiets us down and says, “We need a translator, the first person who gets to the stage can be the translator.” A Bernie guy went up, somebody else for Hillary went up, and nobody agreed with that. The caucus chair said, “Since there’s no consensus on a translator, the caucus will be conducted in English only.”

As far as I can tell, that is the only time that phrase "English only" is uttered and certainly the first time.

Now, this is where I have a massive problem. Dolores Huerta speaks to the media and absolutely lambastes Bernie Sanders supporters, insinuating repeatedly that they are racists.

She also said

"I don’t feel that Sanders’ people respect our community. They stopped the people from having a [Spanish] translation in something as important as these caucuses that are taking place. They are showing that they don’t respect us."

In the event that there were one or two or even a handful of people yelling "English only" in the crowd, it is incredibly disingenuous and disrespectful to castigate essentially all Bernie Sanders supporters for this event.  It was even more incredibly tactless and reckless to go to the media and light the fire of racial prejudice where it isn't.  To make Sanders supporters wear the shame of racial prejudice of a whole community because a particularly prominent and persuasive leader of the Latino community wanted to opportunistically use an event of fabricated racial prejudice in order to sway some political leverage to her candidate is altogether unnerving.

There is no excuse for this.  We should be discussing how unsettling it is that the Nevada Democratic Caucus didn't have the foresight to hire their own interpreter.  We should not be descending into the bullshit and lies method of campaigning that has been the sole domain of the GOP this campaign season.  The Democratic race has been issue-based.  It has been above this duplicitous muckraking.  Let's get back to that.

So, Dolores Huerta, you owe Bernie Sanders, his supporters, and most of all, the Latino community an apology.

In My Head

I'm one of those people who get so wrapped up in my head that I perform perfunctory tasks without any higher level cognition whatsoever. I was so entrenched in a thought that I had to go back and check my coffee mug to see if I had added cream and sugar. I did.

What was I thinking about?

I was thinking about how I never thought I would be actively campaigning against the potential first female president of the United States. I always thought it would be an amazing day when that came, a day for the country to celebrate a monumental step away from treating its women as lessers.

Instead, inaugurating the first female president fills me with dread. Dread for the prolongment of the status quo. Dread of the rich bankers and corporate CEOs continuing to have more political power than ordinary people. Dread that the wealth gap will become ever wider.

I never thought that such a huge step for social progress would have deal-breaking strings attached. How foolish and idealistic can I be for not expecting this?

Candidate Idolatry and Embracing Ignorance

A teacher in an elementary school in Santa Cruz is talking about how Bernie Sanders just wants to give us free stuff and that's not how things work.

I am pretty opinionated, but that just sounds incredibly arrogant to say about how someone who has been working in a governmental position since before this teacher was alive that "that's not how things work."

Besides...that's the fucking point. It DOES work in other countries and it SHOULD work here.

He said that everything is fine and we should just keep doing what we're doing.

Everything is fine? Have you been paying attention, motherfucker?

Democrats can be just as stupid as republicans. And Bernie supporters can be just as stupid as any of them. Stupid doesn't discriminate.

It's this arrogant, holier-than-thou, I've made up my mind and nobody can change my mind fucking attitude that has ruined the political frontier of America.

People get behind their candidate and will essentially fabricate justifications for why their candidate is receiving criticimism. This is incredibly dangerous. We should look at ALL candidates, including the one we support with a skeptical eye. Similarly, we should praise even our most vilified rival if they have good ideas.

I honestly believe there is something in this culture with how we elevate football (and sports generally) above so many things, such as civic participation, that we look to it for how to behave in civics. Our team is our team and we stay loyal to it no matter what. We make excuses for Tom Brady deflating balls just like we make excuses for Hillary's email server. This is not how we should operate intellectually about the future of the country. If our candidate makes an assertion that could be devastating, it is your obligation to disagree.

This is exactly what Bernie Sanders was saying about President Obama. Generally, he thinks Obama has done a great job and he agrees with most of what he does. But he voices his opinion when he disagrees. And nobody should be chastised for doing so!

This is one of the big things that Hillary Clinton has done that has really bothered me at a fundamental level. She berated Sanders for disagreeing with President Obama, as if we should all idolize him and blindly assent to every decision he makes.

I cannot think of something more patently un-American! It was easily one of the most shocking and disgraceful attacks leveled at Sen. Sanders by the Clinton campaign.

So, from here on, just allow for the possibility that you are dead fucking wrong...about everything. Try to learn something at every juncture. Embrace your ignorance and don't be ashamed of it.

And I promise I'll do the same.