What Sen. Bernie Sanders Didn't Get To Say on Bill Maher's REAL TIME

Here's a brief piece of advice to Bill Maher, host of HBO's REAL TIME: Next time you deign to have a  guest of Sen. Bernie Sanders' gravitas and caliber on your show, please don't 'bring in the clowns' with the likes of Abby Huntsman, and Wall Street Journal flack, Steve Moore. Many left blogs that noted the show described it as a "mess" on account of mixing up an informed Senator with two yahoos, or maybe one yahoo and one bimbo. As it was, Sen. Sanders was repeatedly shouted down or cut off in mid-sentence by one of other of the two guest morons, and what help Bill did deliver - in terms of explaining more about the "Chained CPI" was too little, too late. It got so bad and so hard to watch, that wifey had to bail out after three minutes - using unprintable names to describe both Huntsman and Moore, which I will not repeat here.

But what I will do is produce here a key segment of a speech Sen. Sanders gave, and which elements might have served to educate millions (especially of the Gen. Y group Huntsman belongs to) had he been able to get a word in edgewise, as opposed to having to resort to animated hand motions (which wifey and I interpreted as efforts to maybe shut capitalist troll Moore up!)

Anyway, here's what Bernie would have said in completeness, had he had the chance:

I am terribly disappointed and will do everything in my power to block President Obama’s proposal to cut benefits for Social Security recipients through a chained consumer price index. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, I also am especially concerned about the impact this change would have on disabled veterans and their survivors.


The Senate just last month went on record in opposition to the president’s approach. In poll after poll, the American people are overwhelmingly against cutting Social Security. And organizations representing a broad spectrum of millions of Americans from the AFL-CIO to the American Legion to AARP to NOW have urged the president not to make this terrible mistake.

This is not a minor tweak, as its proponents contend. Under Obama’s proposal, according to the Social Security Administration, 65-year-old retirees would lose more than $650 a year by their 75th birthday, and more than $1,000 a year would be cut from their benefits once they reach 85. The proposed change would also affect more than 3.2 million disabled veterans receiving disability compensation benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans who started receiving V.A. disability benefits at age 30 would have their benefits reduced by $1,425 a year at age 45, $2,341 at age 55 and $3,231 at age 65. Benefits for more than 350,000 surviving spouses and children would also be cut.

I remember when Obama said he was concerned about retirees struggling to get by and was unequivocal in his opposition to cutting cost-of-living adjustments. On September 6, 2008, then Sen. Obama spoke to the AARP 50th anniversary convention. ‘John McCain’s campaign has gone even further suggesting that the best answer for the growing pressure on Social Security might be to cut cost-of-living adjustments or raise the retirement age. Let me be clear. I will not do either.’

I also hope the president follows up on another suggestion that he made during that campaign and gets behind my legislation to raise the cap on income subject to the payroll tax, extending the life of Social Security for generations to come without the need to cut benefits or raise taxes on the middle class.

Yes, we must move forward on deficit reduction, but it must not be done on the backs of some of the most vulnerable people in this country.

-----
Bravo to Sen. Sanders! If we had more Socialists in Congress we might actually be able to make this a nation of, by and for the PEOPLE - as opposed to corporations and the Neoliberal Imperative.

Bernie Sanders Schools Millennial Moron Abby Huntsman on Bill Maher

Here is a cautionary note for any up and coming "Millennials" (aka Generation Ys) seeking to make a bigger and brighter name for themselves over the tube: Educate yourselves first! Abby Huntsman's pathetic appearance last night on Bill Maher's Real Time, reminded me why we have books like Mark Bauerlein's  The Dumbest Generation  widely circulating.

Huntsman, much like the woefully ignorant 'Kennedy' (aka Lisa Kennedy) last year on Maher's show ( in regard to global warming - who spouted "Sunspots!" as the reason)  had to be schooled by Sen. Bernie Sanders on the details of the Chained CPI (i.e. Obama's proposed cut via changing the cost of living to inflation index for seniors on Social Security). She also had no clue, not one, that the federal budget game isn't stacking her Gen Y bunch against my Boomers, but rather BOTH our groups against the Military Industrial Complex, which is sucking us all dry.

But instead of being informed, demonstrating some scintilla of education, she whined about "My generation - what're they gonna do?" like a sniveling nitwit. Bernie tried his best to educate this star of  'Huffpost Live' - in the brief spans of time allotted to him - between her interruptions, as well as those of the congenital moron Stephen Moore. But it seemed at times she was more invested in getting her two cents in than in listening to what the elder statesman Sen. Sanders had to say - given he has about 40 years more experience in the political -economic world. 

I know not all Millennials are clones of either Kennedy or Ms. Huntsman, but so far the feature performances are not inspiring.

Regarding 'The Dumbest Generation', readers may recall from a blog three years ago that it revealed how a whole generation of youth (mainly Generation Y'ers) were being dumbed down by their aversion to reading anything of substance, and their addiction to digital crap, and socializing via Twitter, Facebook, etc. Wasting time when they ought to have been developing their minds by accessing the (written) works for politics, science, history, economics etc.  As soon as I listened to Huntsman for five minutes, after her first interruption of Sen. Sanders, I pegged her in this category of hyper-social networking twits.

The problem with the hyper-networked bunch is that they erect confected and artificial solipsist worlds in which all the things that bother and bore them are blocked out. In the case of Huntsman, it could well be that she simply didn't care enough to really learn why the Chained CPI is a terrible idea or why her generation isn't losing to us older farts, but rather both of our generations are losing out to the rich fuckers and the war mongering assholes. But her narative, that we (older folks on Social Security) are "taking from" her gen's mouths, and grabbing their jobs - while corporations sit on $1.7 trillion in capital - discloses she's in the same brain league as Kennedy.

Of course, this is exactly the strategy of the Neoliberal scumballs and parasites who are all about "divide and conquer". Regrettably, Abby Huntsman, by her obtuse reaction to Sen. Sanders, shows she's bought this hook, line and sinker. She actually believes in her heart of hearts that we old farts would rather her generation fall behind than that we miss out on our 'goodies' (Never mind Obama plans to cut them!)

Meanwhile, Abby's take on letting the Keystone XL pipeline go through was equally uninformed (adding 'Well, we all have to take risks, like when we walk across the street!' which had Maher falling out of his chair in a pseudo-mock demo) . Abby then  interjected  "bestiality" in a discussion of same sex marriage. One is left to wonder if she really got all those brains from dad, Jon Huntsman.

Sadly, if Facebook “friending”, texting, tweeting and video gaming is what defines a group's limited universe, then their overall education (which must exist beyond any classroom) will be a casualty. As author Bauerlein notes (p. 138):

"For education to happen, people must encounter worthwhile things outside their sphere of interest and brainpower. Knowledge grows, skills improve, tastes refine and conscience ripens only if the experiences bear a degree of unfamiliarity"


What that means, as he further observes, is one must move through and beyond the initial knee-jerk reaction: “I don’t get it! That’s not for me, not my cup of tea!”  Even if it's a blog on the chained CPI, or 'order and disorder' and evolution, or even complex numbers. At least make a minimal effort to learn.

Bauerlein again (ibid.):

“Nobody savors the process, but mature adults realize the benefits. Adolescents don’t and digital connections save them the labor of self-improvement…..the screen and cell bombard adolescents with youth trifles and the sporadic brush with challenging subjects that recall their shortcomings are quickly offset by a few minutes back in virtual comfort zones"

And – as the author warns, the “opportunity costs are high”. Imagine instead of wasting hours and days on pseudo-socializing (which I define in terms of digital contacts-communication, rather than face-to-face or the famous “bull sessions” such as we used to partake of in the 60s) the young adult pursued actual knowledge aims – learning the conjugation of Russian verbs, or Latin, or how to integrate around a pole using residue calculus, or …just learning about what’s transpiring now at the interface of politics and ecoomics, say in terms of financial implications of the sequester, or the history of the deficit and the debt ceiling.  Oh....and how U.S. taxes are at the lowest percentage of GDP in over a generation!


‘AWWWWWW……BOOOOOOOOORRRRRING!’

Well, yes, to the undeveloped and raw mind. But getting beyond that reaction is what molds and defines the adult. It is, if you will, the sine qua non rite of passage to adulthood in a civilization which generally foregoes such rites.

One hopes Abby Huntsman will learn and actually apply that next time she gets a prime time gig. Assuming she does get one! But given how often superficial looks get a pass in our  consumer, 24/7 Bimbo-Himbo corporate media culture, I wouldn't be surprised if her star rises even further after her just concluded 'brainiac' performance!

Guest Blog: Grand Bargain Could Be Grand Sellout - By Sen. Bernie Sanders

The media appear fixated about when and if a so-called “grand bargain” on our economy will be reached. Wrong question! The question we should be asking is: What should be in a “grand bargain” that works for the average American?


At a time when the middle class is disappearing, 46 million Americans are living in poverty and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, we need a “grand bargain” that protects struggling working families, not billionaires.

With corporate profits at record-breaking levels while the effective corporate tax is at its lowest level since 1972, and 1 out of 4 profitable corporations pays nothing in federal income taxes, we need a grand bargain that ends corporate loopholes and demands that corporate America starts helping us with deficit reduction. We must not balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. We must not cut Social Security, disabled veterans’ benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, education and other programs that provide opportunity and dignity to millions of struggling American families.


Before we pass a grand bargain, we have got to take a hard and sober look at what’s happening economically in our country today. In doing so, we must acknowledge that the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth and that inequality is worse today than at any time since the late 1920s. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of America — 150 million Americans. The top 1 percent owns 38 percent of all financial wealth, while the bottom 60 percent owns just 2.3 percent. Incredibly, the Federal Reserve reported last year that median net worth for middle-class families dropped by nearly 40 percent from 2007-2010. That’s the equivalent of wiping out 18 years of savings for the average middle-class family.


The distribution of income is even worse. If you can believe it, the last study on the subject showed that all of the new income gained from 2009-2011 went to the top 1 percent. ALL of the new income!

In America today, the average middle-class family has seen its income go down by nearly $5,000 since 1999, adjusting for inflation. Real unemployment is not 7.7 percent, it is 14.3 percent, counting those workers who have given up looking for work or who are working part time when they want to be working full time. While youth unemployment is exceptionally high, millions of young people are struggling with student loans they can’t afford to pay back. While we talk about the need to strengthen the middle class, we have to understand that more than half of the new jobs that have been created since 2010 are low-wage jobs paying people between $7.80 and $13.80 an hour.


That’s the economic reality facing a large majority of our people, and that’s what has to be taken into consideration when we discuss deficit reduction and a “grand bargain.”

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, here are my priorities:

1) We need a budget that puts millions of Americans back to work in decent-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and transforming our energy sector away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy and energy efficiency.

2) We need a budget that keeps the promises we have made to our seniors, veterans and the most vulnerable by protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

3) We need a budget that makes sure that the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

4) We must end corporate loopholes that allow Wall Street banks, large corporations and the wealthy to avoid more than $100 billion a year in federal taxes by stashing their profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.

A federal budget is not just a set of numbers. It is a value statement of what we, as a nation, stand for. We must fight for a grand bargain that stands for justice, opportunity and the needs of our middle class. We must reject any approach that continues the economic assault on working families.