Let's talk about Bernie Sanders.........

(**)>>Bernie Sanders obvious wanna be for the Presidency . I have looked at some of his "ideas", many of them are really good  . My own thoughts would be . If there was a slightest chance I'd for vote Barnie . I know I am getting those "chuckles" in the background , but it seems to me that he is more closer to what the public wants for a President . If you want to get out of poverty , you want to fix the system , you have to vote for him. I'm not into endorsing him , but it beats the nonsense of Hillary Clinton. He's a  (1)>>REAL SOCIALIST , unlike Obama who is a crony  capitalist , who "did not spread the wealth ....."  but raised your taxes . Barnie might just raise your taxes as well . Barnie Sanders has already altered the course of the 2016 campaign. His resonance with the Democratic Party's activist base has forced Clinton to tack left, repeatedly. But don't mistake this as Sanders' endgame. Senator Sanders accomplishments in fundraising, organization and support tell me he deserves far more and far better coverage by all media and especially the New York Times. Sanders has been around for a long time in political activism ,  Sanders also participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.In addition to his civil rights activism during the 1960s and 1970s, Sanders was active in several peace and antiwar movements. He was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Student Peace Union while attending the University of Chicago. Sanders applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War; his application was eventually turned down, by which point he was too old to be drafted. Although he opposed the war, Sanders never placed any blame on those who fought and has been a strong supporter of veterans' benefits.Sanders has always been an easier fit in Vermont than in Washington. Being a Socialist in the seat of two-party orthodoxy will do that. While he has generally championed liberal Democratic positions over the years — and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed his Senate campaign — Sanders has strenuously resisted calling himself a Democrat. And he has clung to a mantle — socialism — that brings considerable stigma, in large part for its association with authoritarian communist regimes (which Sanders is quick to disavow). Mr. Sanders is seen greeting voters on the campaign trail, first in small groups, then in gymnasiums, and finally at the huge rallies that became his hallmark. His wife is shown twice. At least 10 American flags can be spotted in different settings. And there are probably more Bernie Sanders smiles in evidence than many voters have ever seen. Despite a lack of name recognition, Sanders was the first candidate to reach a  million online donations in late September, in addition to catching up to the Clinton fundraising juggernaut. According to Think Progress, "Bernie Sanders is raising a lot of money from individual donors for his presidential bid, and he's doing it even faster than President Obama did during both of his campaigns."In September, Bernie Sanders was 7 points behind Hillary Clinton nationally, with momentum on his side and polls reflecting a genuine challenge to the former Secretary of State. Gone were the apathetic talking points about Clinton's inevitability, especially since Sanders had surpassed Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The media, and the Democratic political establishment, had no choice but to accept a genuine challenge from Bernie Sanders. Nothing exemplifies the difference between Clinton and Sanders more than the speech given by Representative Bernie Sanders in 2002.  (2)>>Opposing the Iraq War, Sanders foreshadowed the dire consequences of removing Saddam and engaging in a counterinsurgency war without an exit strategy. In terms of U.S. history, Bernie Sanders was unfortunately right about the Iraq War. From 2003-2010, there were 1003 suicide bombings in Iraq. MIT estimates that between 3.5 and 5 million refugees have been displaced because of the war. Recent studies have concluded that because of the civil war between Shia and Sunni, internal upheavals resulting from the American-led invasion, and other factors, over 500,000 Iraqis have been killed because of the war.Bernie Sanders recently won the Congressional Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, in part because he has always worked to protect American soldiers and veterans. In his opposition speech to Congress, Sanders states clearly in his first reason to oppose the invasion that, "I have not heard any estimates of how many young American men and women might die in such a war.

Bernie Sanders knows what's wrong.

Barnie Sanders knows exactly what is wrong with our economy, the  poverty inducing system  . Last April he gave out some points that hit the reality with me  , (3)>>why America is going the wrong way . This is from the Article "For A Political Revolution" :

This is what a rigged economic system looks like. At a time when millions of American workers have seen declines in their incomes and are working longer hours for lower wages, the wealth of the billionaire class is soaring in a way that few can imagine. If you can believe it, between 2013 and 2015, the 14 wealthiest individuals in the country saw their net worth increase by over $157 billion. Children go hungry, veterans sleep out on the streets, senior citizens cannot afford their prescription drugs -- and 14 individuals saw a $157-billion increase in their wealth over a two-year period.

 (4)>>Bernie's Heathcare Plan.

Bernie Sanders deserves credit for one-upping Barack Obama.  The President claimed to give everyone affordable coverage and save families $2,500.  Sanders says he’ll give everyone unlimited access to every provider in the country and all conceivable health services that are provided now or will be invented in the future — saving middle-class families $5,807.  Don’t expect to spend that money any time soon.This is all the more unbelievable because the Sanders plans appears to fling open the doors to the Treasury.  “Medicare for All” is far more generous than Medicare or private health plans.  It would eliminate all cost-sharing requirements, making all services free to the patient.  With no out-of-pocket costs, patients will no longer question the value of an additional test or office visit, which would bend the cost curve the wrong way.  Sanders would also cover all of Medicare’s benefits plus vision, hearing, and dental care, as well as long-term and palliative care.  If his plan is really as generous as claimed, health spending would skyrocket.The truth is that if you want to save a trillion dollars a year in health-care spending, you can’t do it solely by cutting administrative costs and drug prices. You have to be willing to spend far less on medical procedures and services, and to be far more rigorous about expenditures for new medical technology. That would probably mean a drop in income for some doctors, particularly high-priced specialists, as well as for many hospitals. Providers would also have to relinquish a great deal of control over their facilities and equipment.It’s unclear whether Sanders would eliminate deductibles and co-pays. These costs currently exist under Medicare, and his 2013 bill makes no mention of changing the system. But the breakdown from his campaign lists both as $0. (See website : http://www.healthcare-now.org/index.php?s=Bernie+Sanders+S.+1782 ) As far as I can tell, Sanders’ plan has not yet been analyzed by independent think tanks or academics. So we ran back-of-the-envelope estimates for revenue from Sanders’ health care taxes using 2013 tax return data from the Internal Revenue Service. Skeptics pummeled Bernie Sanders this week for proposing sweeping policies that defy political realities, but almost nothing compares to his approach on immigration.Some 9 million undocumented immigrants would gain health care under the Democratic presidential candidate’s single-payer plan, senior policy adviser for the Sanders campaign Warren Gunnels said. But before that could happen, Sanders must first nearly double the number of immigrants given executive relief from deportation. Then he would pass comprehensive immigration reform. By the time Sanders would implement his “Medicare for All” plan, Gunnels said, millions of immigrants would already be on a pathway to citizenship. Hitting the campaign trail on her mother’s behalf, Chelsea Clinton attacked Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ universal health care plan."Sen. Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the CHIP program, dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance," Clinton said in New Hampshire Jan. 12. "I don't want to empower Republican governors to take away Medicaid, to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans. And I think very much that's what Sen. Sanders' plan would do." The Sanders campaign and his supporters swiftly called Clinton’s statements inaccurate, so we decided to look into them ourselves — in particular, her claim that Sanders’ plan would "empower" governors "to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans."Given that Sanders’ proposed plan specifically calls health insurance an entitlement for all, we found that this is a mischaracterization at best.

CAN HE WIN?

Lets face the facts , Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton with a 8 point lead , he is popular as a alternative to the regular Democratic fanfare . I guess if he ran as a Independent , he'd be even more popular . His chances in the The  (5)>>Iowa Caucuses will be held on February 1, 2016. seem vary big .In 2016, Bernie represents the activists and Hillary the establishment . In the January 17th debate, Sanders pounded on this theme: "we have a corrupt campaign finance system where millionaires and billionaires are spending extraordinary amounts of money to buy elections." When each candidate was asked what she or he would do to bring the country together, Bernie replied, "The real issue is that Congress is owned by big money and refuses to do what the American people want them to do." Pew’s latest poll about attitudes toward government underscores the disgust: 74% of voters said most elected officials put their own interests ahead of the country’s. Just 19% of voters said “government is run for the benefit of all” vs. 76% who said it’s for “a few big interests.” They see politicians as the riggers of the system, not the unriggers who can solve it. They blame Washington for creating the loopholes, not the “special interests” for taking advantage of them. As the country begins to decide how it feels about the idea of socialism — thanks to Bernie Sanders's ascendant Democratic primary campaign — it's worth noting here that it's a word that many Democratic caucus-goers have clearly embraced. And, in fact, many even call themselves "socialists."Iowa is a swing state. But when it comes to its first-in-the-nation caucuses, its conservatives tend to be quite conservative, and its liberals tend to be quite liberal.Vote with your conviction of the best president for the country, do not try to jump on the bandwagon who has a chance to win. Bernie will definitely can be a  blessing for this country.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(**)>>Bernie Sanders . Bernie Sanders was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. Born in Brooklyn, Bernie was the younger of two sons in a modest-income family. After graduation from the University of Chicago in 1964, he moved to the Green Mountain State. Early in his career, Sanders was director of the American People’s Historical Society. Elected Mayor of Burlington by 12 votes in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont’s at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York(1)>>REAL SOCIALIST .In a similar manner, libertarians sometimes accuse National Socialism of being similar to, or a form of, communism. This is due to a misunderstanding of the word “socialism” as used by National Socialists. In the minds of many, “socialism” today refers to a society where all of the means of production are owned collectively (in reality, by the state). This is the Marxist goal: the abolishment of private property. It is not, however, a goal of National Socialism. (2)>>Opposing the Iraq . The costs of the war in Iraq, which Hillary Clinton voted for, are unfathomable. Over $2 trillion, including benefits owed US servicemen, and estimates as high as 1,000,000 deaths, including US servicemen. All for a war that even Bush officials now admit was based on a lie, i.e., that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Bernie Sanders, like 70% of Americans, opposed that war. The difference between the two candidates is night and day. Hillary's top four funders are Wall Street corporations, whereas Bernie's supporters are the American people. (3)>>why America is going the wrong way . YES he is right . There is something wrong. Politicians on both sides of the two party system have always known what is the root cause of income inequality . It's not just the wage gap as the cause , but it appears the American system has let the Big Neo - con cooperations like the banks devolve the American dream . If this trend continues we will have a nation of poor that will not be able to affording living with a decent wage . Say 30 years from now a person who today has a salary of 100,000 a year would not be able to afford living in the year 2030s  , since his wages would have to catch up , exceed 1 million a year just survive in the year 2030.  if you count the current and past levels of inflation , comparing salaries since the 1960s . The trend is going to further income inequality . So raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars now will not be any good to any one  living in the year 2030.(4)>>Bernie's Heathcare Plan. Bernie's plan will cover the entire continuum of health care, from inpatient to outpatient care; preventive to emergency care; primary care to specialty care, including long-term and palliative care; vision, hearing and oral health care; mental health and substance abuse services; as well as prescription medications, medical equipment, supplies, diagnostics and treatments…As a patient, all you need to do is go to the doctor and show your insurance card. Bernie's plan means no more copays, no more deductibles and no more fighting with insurance companies when they fail to pay for charges.....Under this plan, a family of four earning $50,000 would pay just $466 per year to the single-payer program, amounting to a savings of over $5,800 for that family each year. He will raise $630 billion by increasing the employer part of the payroll tax by 6.2 percent. He will raise $548 billion in various taxes on the rich along with the end of current tax breaks that subsidize health care.That's a total of $1.4 trillion.Current public spending on health care (mostly Medicare and Medicaid) runs around $1.2 trillion.This means that Sanders is figuring that under his plan total national health care spending will be about $2.6 trillion. (5)>>Iowa Caucuses. On Feb. 1, a few hundred thousand Iowa residents will gather in a couple thousand caucus sites and finally, finally kick-start the presidential nomination process. It's been 44 years since the first presidential caucuses that mattered, and 40 years since both parties held them. And yet, for the 315.8 million Americans who do not live in Iowa —The Iowa presidential caucuses are local party precinct meetings where registered Republicans and Democrats gather, discuss the candidates and vote for by party preference to elect delegates to the 99 county conventions and choose their candidate for their party’s nomination.The purpose of the caucus vote is to select delegates to attend a county convention. Each caucus sends a certain number of delegates, based on the population it represents. The delegates at the county convention in turn select delegates to go to the congressional district state convention, and those delegates choose the delegates that go to the national convention.