Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Unions, and Liberal Groups – Oh, What a Tangled Web

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Wednesday July 22, 2015 · 6:15 PM PDT

2015/07/22 · 18:15

There was a time when I respected and supported Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Unions. I joined groups that professed to be for Democrats only, supportive of Democrats, liberals, or progressives, as well as groups that marketed themselves as non-partisan groups that fight for liberal causes. For many years, I supported liberal groups because in doing so, I had an opportunity to address specific issues head-on, and to spend time and work with like-minded people. The idea of a Sanders/Warren or Warren/Sanders, or Sanders/anybody, or Warren/anybody ticket was attractive. I supported them because they agreed with and supported ideals that the Democratic Party and I had long fought for and supported.

I never worked a union job but appreciated the role that unions played in providing the salaries, benefits, and holidays that I enjoyed in my non-union jobs. I verbalized my appreciation to union leaders and members when I had the chance, stood with them and for them when the opportunity arose and even created that opportunity when it didn’t arise without my help, and I offered my full support when they were under attack.

The groups were first to disappoint me. As groups like MoveOn and CREDO became more about being biggest and best, and first to shoot out email and petitions before anyone else, I lost interest. It seemed they were more about themselves, building mailing lists, and getting media attention than they were about issues, which they were often ready to drop as soon as something else was the big news item.

sandyknauer

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Sunday February 15, 2015 · 8:23 AM PST

2015/02/15 · 08:23

Being McConnell.

Imagine if you had spent six years doing everything you possibly could to make President Obama's job and life miserable, and then, when you realized your life's ambition of being Majority Leader, you had to face the music with President Obama in 'No more fucks to give' mode. Oh, how that would suck - possibly worse than having McConnell for a Senator. Maybe.

I am not at all embarrassed to admit that I get shamefully gleeful when I read articles like Mitch McConnell Begs President Obama To Reconsider His Planned Keystone XL Veto, and imagine how miserable the ornery old obstructionist fool must be at times like this.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell campaigned on forcing the president to bend to the will of Republicans, but it is the Kentucky senator who is now on bended knee asking Obama to reconsider his promise to veto the Keystone XL bill.

This should come as no surprise to him, or to anyone who paid the least bit of attention to his campaign. Like everything else he has said or done in the last couple of decades, this campaign was nothing but self-serving lies. He said and did whatever he thought he would impress low-information voters who had not paid attention and would not know enough to call him out or to hold him responsible later. And he used dirty money to run dirty ads - nonstop - to spread his lies. Read More

How Do You Soften the Image of a Stone-cold Liar Like Senator McConnell?

sandyknauer

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Tuesday September 30, 2014 · 1:00 PM PDT

2014/09/30 · 13:00

Alan Rappeport published an article titled McConnell Softens Image in the Homestretch.

My question, after thirty years of living with Mitch McConnell as my senator, was: how do you soften a stone-cold, heartless, liar who should have been a one-term senator? Of course, I was curious enough to read the article.

Usually, I consider it my civic duty to dissect Senator McConnell’s words for his supporters since they willingly relinquished critical thinking skills years ago. This time, I am going to dissect Alan Rappeport’s words about Senator McConnell.

The rhetorical gunfight in Kentucky’s Senate race seems to have been holstered, for the moment.

Nice. Sadly, Alison Grimes set herself up to be the butt of this joke with her ridiculous ad in which she uses a gun to shoot the enthusiasm out of this supporter. It’s very hard to keep the momentum going when I have to apologize for my candidate’s position, or for what I consider a dangerous decision. I hate guns, the NRA, and most people who support them. However, even though this would have been a game changer for me in the primary, she is still the much better choice. So much so that I don’t even have to consider this voting for the lesser of two evils.

With midterm elections a little more than a month away, Senator Mitch McConnell is going positive.

Not quite true, Mr. Rappeport. Senator McConnell is putting out ads that might appear positive to you. The truth is, they are packed with lies. You would know this if you had checked his record. And there is nothing positive about lies.

A new one-minute ad features how a grandfatherly Mr. McConnell, the Republican facing the Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, helped to retrieve a young girl who had been abducted by her father and taken to Mali.

Picking nits here but this is one kinda-sorta-positive ad. That doesn't qualify going positive in my book.

Grandfatherly is a strange way to see him. Have you ever tried to Google information about his actual grandchildren? If so, you probably ended up on my blog, and left disappointed. Grounds for Divorce and On Behalf of My Grandchildren, Senator McConnell, I Share My Pain With You are two of the most popular entries on my McConnell blog and, sadly for those Googling to find out about his family, neither has anything to do with his divorce or grandchildren. If there is anything out there about his daughters or their children, I haven’t seen it. If they have ever stood on the stage to support him, I missed it. If they acknowledge him, it will be a surprise to me.

sandyknauer

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Sunday September 28, 2014 · 12:34 PM PDT

2014/09/28 · 12:34

2
Legacy: something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past

Thirty years is a long enough pattern to become legacy. When looking at your thirty years in office and focusing, as most people will, on the years since 2007, when you became the Minority Leader in the Senate, your legacy should not make you (or your children and grandchildren who will have to live with it) proud. You will be remembered mostly for your vow to make President Obama a one-term President, with no concern for how badly your attempts to do that harmed the residents of Kentucky, the nation, and the world. You will also be remembered for your pork, which you bragged about for years until your party decided it was a terrible, horrible, must-be-stopped-and-criticized-forever activity. Your filibuster record, including the fact that you are the only Senator to filibuster his own bill, will most surely brighten up a few history classes.

sandyknauer

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Saturday September 27, 2014 · 10:12 AM PDT

2014/09/27 · 10:12

Sorry, Paul Hogarth of Daily Kos, but I will not sign your petition telling Kroger that I am counting on them to keep customers and employees safe. That would be counter-productive and dishonest.

I called my local Kroger stores, and then the PR guy that one store was kind enough to refer me to. The answer I received was that allowing open carry is their policy and they are sticking to it. As you pointed out, I can’t go in without shoes or a shirt, or on a skateboard. I can't bring my doctor-ordered companion dog into the store. I can’t smoke in their stores even though I would have to corner someone with a severe respiratory illness in tight quarters and chain smoke for years to kill him, but they will allow a crazy person (because no sane person brings a war machine into the grocery), with the ability to kill many people instantly, to roam the aisles.

sandyknauer

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Sunday April 06, 2014 · 9:46 AM PDT

2014/04/06 · 09:46

After seeing this from Team McConnell:

I support Mitch because:

(choose all that apply)

_ second amendment rights
_ repealing Obamacare
_ pro-life
_ smaller government
_ debt reduction
_ lower taxes
_ pro-Israel
_ right-to-work
_ small business
_ pro-coal
__ drilling and fracking

Poll

50 votes Show Results

I oppose Mitch because

50 votes Vote Now!

I oppose Mitch because

he is a sociopath

0 votes

he is a loser

1 vote

he is a liar

1 vote

he is pathetic

0 votes

he is an obstructionist

4 votes

he needs to retire

0 votes

he is not good for KY

0 votes

all of the above

17 votes

none of these are bad enough to describe him

14 votes

I have a brain

7 votes

I love my country

5 votes

Democrats: Careful Where Your Heads Are Counted and Your Dollars Are Spent

sandyknauer

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Tuesday January 15, 2013 · 12:18 PM PST

2013/01/15 · 12:18

The final puzzle piece fell into place last night. I’ve criticized the Republican Party for not realizing what was happening when the people who call themselves Tea Party completely took over. The extreme ugliness did not happen with the small group who started that movement; that all came when PACs, people with self-serving interests, and large numbers of clueless, gullible followers infiltrated the grassroots movement. In the end, the infiltrators who called themselves Tea Party were, in fact, the same old Turdblossom puppets who were already controlling the party.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve argued with people who said progressives should look at how successful the “Tea Party” was and emulate the things they did well. My definition of success is to achieve greatness through honesty and hard work – not to manipulate through deception and with money. I don’t believe cheaters ever win what matters. Therefore, I do not consider what the final version of the Tea Party accomplished to be a success at all. I consider it a huge failure on the part of the Republican Party to recognize the damage that allowing and encouraging outward bigotry and inanity for personal gain (races in 2010) would cause – to their Party and to this country.

sandyknauer

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Thursday September 20, 2012 · 9:01 AM PDT

2012/09/20 · 09:01

I hear you think not voting will make a statement. These are the statements I will hear:

sandyknauer

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Tuesday July 10, 2012 · 9:22 AM PDT

2012/07/10 · 09:22

Not by sending out letters to denounce Home Depot’s founder, Bernie Marcus for advocating violence by stating that retailers who don’t support the GOP should be shot. Nope. I’m sure that was your first guess, as it should have been, but it is not even close.

sandyknauer

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Thursday June 21, 2012 · 10:52 AM PDT

2012/06/21 · 10:52

I’ve been involved with MoveOn since Clinton was President. Over the years, I watched it grow from an email chain to an organization.

At first I read email notices and either wrote letters or signed a petitions stating that I thought it was time to move on to something more important than harping about a stain on a blue dress or whining “wag the dog” every time Republicans wanted to distract the public from something they were trying to hide. Eventually, a website appeared and I signed up. At times, I made financial contributions to MoveOn instead of to my party or to individual politicians because I wanted my money to go directly to an issue.

sandyknauer

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Tuesday June 19, 2012 · 2:44 PM PDT

2012/06/19 · 14:44

Age thirteen, acceptance of his fate, and alcoholism arrived together. He was unlucky, unlovable, and Satan owned him. Even if he moved into the church and puked the bible Van Impe style, in tongues, he was not savable. Nothing could fix him, but alcohol eased the pain of hearing how his God-fearing parents had done nothing to deserve a disgraceful, demon-infested son.

With hell a certainty and unpleasable parents, what could it hurt to add drugs, sex, lies, disobedience, theft, profanity, non-Christian music, and evil thoughts to the enormous sin of attracting demons? A kid his age could hardly use mind-numbing substances without the other sins, and he needed them to survive in a world where all possible answers to his many questions were unbearable.

sandyknauer

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Thursday May 03, 2012 · 12:07 PM PDT

2012/05/03 · 12:07

Dear Ann:

The tee shirt didn't bother me as much as, or for the same reason, it seemed to annoy others. I have nothing against nice things or people who own them. I even own a few nice things myself.

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