THE TIMELINE

April 6, 1981: Bernie wins a shocking victory by only 10 votes to become mayor of Vermont’s largest city, Burlington.

Sanders was elected on a socialist platform and led a mayoral administration that he boasted was “more radical” than any other in the country. And he had a vision. Sanders believed his work in Burlington could spread socialism throughout America.

1985: Bernie’s uh…mixed record (putting it nicely) when it comes to standing up to the military industrial complex.

In 1985, for example, protesters massed at the General Electric plant in Burlington, Vermont, where Sanders was serving as mayor. They were protesting the fact that the plant was manufacturing Gatling guns to fight socialists in Central America. Jim Condon, now a Democratic state legislator in Vermont, was news director of a local radio station at the time and describes himself as an “old acquaintance” of the senator. “There were protesters who were unhappy that General Electric was manufacturing Gatling guns at the plant, and so they would lock themselves to the gates and engage in civil disobedience. And so the mayor, Bernie, finally got cops to go in and arrest the protesters,” Condon told The Daily Beast. “The GE plant was one of the largest providers of jobs in the city. So it was economically important that the plant stay open and people who worked there went to work.” When it comes time to make speeches, Sanders has slammed defense corporations for political gain. “We know that there is massive fraud going on in the defense industry. Virtually every major defense contractor has either been convicted of fraud or reached a settlement with the government,” Sanders said in Iowa City last year at a town hall. “We need a strong military, it is a dangerous world. But I think we can make judicious cuts.” But when those defense corporations come to his own backyard, he quietly welcomes them in. The Vermont senator persuaded Lockheed Martin to place a research center in Burlington, according to Newsweek, and managed to get 18 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets stationed at the city’s airport for the Vermont National Guard.

April 28, 1985: In April 1985, the Los Angeles Times published a lengthy interview with Sanders in which he outlined his plan to spark “radical change.”:

If the mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, has his way, Kunin’s successor will be America’s first Socialist governor. “Vermont is ripe for a third-party takeover, and I may be the one to pull it off,” said Bernard (Bernie) Sanders, 43, a Socialist, re-elected last month to his third term as mayor of Burlington.

And…

Leaning back in a plain wooden chair, his shirt open without a tie, his hair disheveled, his left leg in the air resting on a table with his lunch box and peace-sign coffee cup, Sanders rattled off his thoughts in rapid-fire, staccato fashion: “I think from one end of this country to the other people are ripe for political revolution. Fifty percent of the people do not bother voting in the presidential and statewide elections. The vast majority of those not voting are low-income people who have given up on America. The whole quality of life in America is based on greed. I believe in the redistribution of wealth in this nation. “We are demonstrating in Burlington the peoples’ contempt for conventional old-fashioned Democratic and Republican politics. The good news here is that the two-party system and corporate establishment are not invincible.”

July 1985: Bernie goes to Nicaragua as a guest of the Sandinista Government, where he attended an event that one wire report dubbed an “anti-U.S. rally.”

The leftist Sandinista government was celebrating the sixth anniversary of the revolution that saw it take power from an American-backed dictator, Anastasio Somoza. Sanders was in a crowd estimated at a half million people, many of whom were clad in the Sandinistas’ trademark red-and-black colors and chanting “Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die.” Onstage, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused the U.S. government of “state terrorism” for supporting the rebels who were seeking to overthrow him. The Sandinistas and the CIA-backed Contras would fight into the next decade, with allegations of human rights abuses on both sides. At the 1985 rally Sanders attended, Ortega vowed the Sandinistas would “defend the revolution with guns in hand.” Sanders was being hosted by the Sandinistas as part of a delegation of American “solidarity groups.” He told reporters their decision to show “support” for the Nicaraguan government was “patriotic.” “We want to show support for a small country trying to be independent, and we want to tell the truth to the American people when we return,” Sanders said.

July 1985: And just for clarification…

Sanders had earned his invitation to the celebration because he was a loud critic of President Ronald Reagan’s Central American policies. Burlington in the 1980s was a hotbed of opposition to the administration’s efforts to undermine the Sandinista government by financing Contra fighters, based in nearby Honduras. Reagan claimed the Sandinistas were communists and terrorists. At a news conference that he and European socialists held in Managua the day of the celebration, Sanders repeated his criticism: “The real issue is a very simple one. Does the government of the United States of America have the unilateral right to destroy the government of Nicaragua because the president of the United States and some members of Congress disagree with the Sandinistas?” During his visit, largely financed by the Sandinista government — Sanders paid his airfare — Sanders met with President Ortega and other officials. He sat down with the editor of an opposition newspaper, who complained of government censorship. And he walked through Managua’s slums, occasionally asking residents about the impact of the 1979 revolution on their lives.

And to make things real clear:

August 8, 1985: This happens.

No way that comes back to haunt.

December 1, 1987: Bernie says in a local interview that he despises Democrats, and that a JFK speech once made him sick. He also cracked on Jesse Jackson and Walter Mondale:

November 28, 1989: “Bernard” Sanders, now fellow at the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Kennedy School, writes a piece for the Harvard Crimson: Time for an American Glasnost.

If you’re familiar with Bernie’s speeches, this is not going to be surprising. It’s basically his typical one-note, it’s all about the Income Inequality argument, albeit far more angrier and idealized.

But let’s look at a couple of key passages:

This strongly suggest that, due to the power of incumbency, our system of representative democracy has broken down completely and that election to Congress is now tantamount to lifetime tenure — a House of Lords.

Says the guy who later ran for both Houses in that “House of Lords”. If you can’t beat ’em, join ‘em?

It is now widely perceived that the major political parties in our country, the Democrats and the Republicans, have no basic ideological differences and are, in reality, two wings of the same party — both dominated by Big Money.

And yet now, he’s running to be the nominee of one of those parties who has no basic ideological differences.

Like I said, this article is nothing new. It’s basically the same screed you’ll see on some pages of the Daily Kos.

But here’s the killer. Here’s the thing that (rightly or wrongly) will end Bernie’s shot at becoming President:

The news from the Soviet Union is breathtaking. Events which no one would have predicted 10 years ago are now occuring at lightning speed. Glasnost; perestroika; free speech; open parliamentary debate televised before millions of viewers; the beginning of organized political opposition to the Communist Party; mass strikes and demonstrations by workers and ethnic minorities; serious publications dealing honestly with the nation’s sordid history which had been covered up for deades by official lies. And more. Whatever the reason (and now is not the time to explore those reasons) enormous credit must be given to Mikhail Gorbachev and the current leadership of the Soviet Union for helping to bring about an extraordinary, non-violent revolution which is forcing citizens of the Soviet Union to rethink, in almost every way, the basic foundations of their na$ion.

Yes, that’s how he spelled it.

And now let me make a proposal, a proposal which will, undoubtedly, offend many readers — but which has to be made. In my view the time is now for a glasnost in the United States — a soul searching for our own basic truths, a major debate over our current values, an honest analysis of the real structure of our society and the creation of a mechanism to search out our dreams for the future. The history of the United States and the nature of our society are very different from that of the Soviet Union. But if the citizens of our country believe that this nation does not exist under the blanket of the Big Lie, and that many of the most important issues facing our people are not openly and seriously discussed, they are sorely mistaken. We are told every day by the politicians, and the media how “free” we are. Unfortunately, we are not given the freedom to explore that assertion. We need a glasnost!

Tell me that even the most ham-handed, half-witted Republican Operative won’t take that passage and spin it to mean that Bernie is calling for a Communist Revolution.

Mind you, gentle reader…he’s not. I can’t stand Bernie and I know he’s not, but that’s not how middle-brow, low-brow America will see this.

To me, this piece was silly. But don’t be fooled. It will be spun…and spun out of control.

But go from that…just under a year later…to THIS…

November 1990: NRA supports Bernie’s first campaign for the House of Representatives:

A few days before Election Day in 1990, the National Rifle Association sent a letter to its 12,000 members in Vermont, with an urgent message about the race for the state’s single House seat. Vote for the socialist, the gun rights group said. It’s important. “Bernie Sanders is a more honorable choice for Vermont sportsmen than ­Peter Smith,” wrote Wayne LaPierre, who was — and still is — a top official at the national NRA, backing Sanders over the Republican incumbent.

January 3, 1991: Bernie sanders sworn in as a member of the House of Represenatives:

February 6, 1997: Sanders co-sponsors the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Consent Act (with BP Apologist Joe Barton). He co-sponsored it and actively pushed it through Congress. This would be the infamous Sierra Blanca you may have heard about, where Nuclear Waste from Vermont was dumped in Texas near a Latino Community:

September 11, 1998: Sanders to Texas: “Drop dead”.

According to a Texas Observer article from the time — provocatively headlined, “Sanders to Sierra Blanca: ‘Drop Dead!’” — when activist Gary Oliver and others confronted Sanders to ask if he would at least visit Sierra Blanca, the representative offered a terse response. “Absolutely not,” Sanders said. “I’m gonna be running for re-election in the state of Vermont.”

September 20, 1998: The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Consent Act is signed into law by Bill Clinton. Probably why the Clinton camp doesn’t talk about it much:

October 2, 2000: H.R. 3088: To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to provide additional protections to victims of rape. Alternate Title: Victims of Rape Health Protection Act.

Basically, the Bill helps Rape Victims find out of their attacker has a disease.

Bernie was one of 19 people to vote against it.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2000/roll505.xml

January 3, 2005: This happens. (Bigger things still to come…)

April 21, 2006: Hillary Clinton felt the bern…for a little while.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton shared her wealth in March, doling out $190,000 to Democrats in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere, according to a campaign report filed late Thursday. Clinton’s political action committee, HILLPAC, raised $272,477 and spent $327,484 in March, according to the group’s filing to the Federal Election Commission. A potential 2008 candidate for the White House, Clinton donated $5,000 each to the Democratic organizations in New Hampshire and Iowa — two states that play key early roles in presidential primaries. She gave the same amount to state parties in Michigan and Arizona. Clinton spokeswoman Ann Lewis said the Iowa and New Hampshire donations were part of a larger effort to help Democratic candidates for governor in 2006. The Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, the House Democrats’ campaign committee and the national committee each received $15,000. Two congressmen trying to make it to the Senate also got boosts from Clinton. Rep. Bernie Sanders, who is running for the seat held by retiring Vermont lawmaker Jim Jeffords, received $10,000, as did Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, who is campaigning for the seat being vacated by Majority Leader Bill Frist. Newly minted Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey also got $10,000.

Hm. Bernie’s is not the only regrettable name on that list.

And in case you don’t trust Fixed News…

June 6, 2006: Sanders votes to protect the Minutemen.

Here’s the actual vote record:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll224.xml

September 21, 2006: Bernie votes for the Community Protection Act of 2006. It was authored by James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Republican. Its purpose? To restore the Secretary of Homeland Security’s authority to detain dangerous aliens, to ensure the removal of deportable criminal aliens, and combat alien gang crime.

When Hillary says Bernie voted for Indefinite Detention, this is the bill she’s talking about. It passed the House but died in the Senate. (Guess where Bernie would be in four months?)

January 3, 2007: Bernie Sanders is sworn in as a U.S. Senator:

June 24, 2007: Bernie’s appearance on Lou Dobbs’s broadcast.

July 7, 2007: Bernie Sanders votes against Immigration Reform in 2007.

“What this legislation is not about is addressing the real needs of American workers,” Mr. Sanders said in a speech on the floor of the Senate in 2007. “It is not about raising wages or improving benefits. What it is about is bringing into this country over a period of years millions of low-wage temporary workers with the result that wages and benefits in this country, which are already going down, will go down even further.” He made a similar comment at another point that year, saying that the bill would “end up lowering wages for American workers right now.” It was, he said at yet another point, a “bad piece of legislation” for laborers.

ThinkProgress put it like this:

“I frankly do not believe that we should be bringing in significant numbers of unskilled to workers to compete with [unemployed] kids,” Sanders said. “I want to see these kids get jobs.” Studies have shown that immigrants actually create jobs for American workers. Researchers recently found that each new immigrant has produced about 1.2 new jobs in the U.S., most of which have gone to native-born workers. And according to the Atlantic, an influx in immigration can cause non-tradable professions — jobs like hospitality and construction that cannot be outsourced — to see a wage increase because the demand for goods and services grows with the expanding population. But Sanders fails to see it that way, pointing on Thursday to the 36 percent unemployment rate for Hispanic young people. “You bring a lot of unskilled workers into this country, what do you think happens to that 36 percent?” Sanders’ poor track record on immigration goes back further than just his presidential campaign. In 2007, he voted against a bipartisan immigration reform bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA). At the progressive Netroots Nation conference earlier this month, Sanders said the reform bill would have allowed for low wage workers to enter the country who would “be competing against kids in this country who desperately need jobs.” But Sanders did vote for the 2013 immigration reform bill, which also included guest worker programs and contained most of the same measures as the 2007 bill that he opposed.

So in 2013, considering a run for President, he voted for the Bill?

Still, at the end of the day…Bernie Sanders voted against Immigration Reform in 2007.

The record of the final vote is here:

October 1, 2o08: Sanders votes against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. (This is one of the things that came up in the March 7th Debate with Hillary, and led to her accusation about him voting against the Auto Bailout.)

January 15, 2009: Via Politico:

In 2008, Sanders voted for the standalone auto bailout, which did not pass. But he later opposed using TARP funds to bail out the auto industry because those funds were also earmarked for bailing out financial institutions — that measure passed.

Vox explained it this way. (Both are accurate from what I can tell):

Senator Clinton voted against a resolution of disapproval to release the second $350 B of TARP funds while Senator Sanders voted for this resolution. The vote failed and the resolution died, thus allowing the full TARP funding to be used by President Obama and his team when they took over. This is the vote she highlighted last night.

The Vox Story:

The Politico Story:

The roll call of the vote is here:

January 20, 2009: This happens:

Inauguration No. 2

April 2, 2009: Now a Senator, Sanders votes to allow Guns on Amtrak:

May 12, 2009: Yes, Virginia. Bernie voted to allow guns in National Parks. (I know, President Obama signed it, but it was part of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, and Tom Coburn knew that when he added this admendment.):

May 22, 2009: The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009 passes with that dang Coburn Amendment (See May 12, 2009). Thanks Bernie!

July 22, 2011: While on Thom Hartmann’s show, Bernie says this:

SANDERS: Brian, believe me, I wish I had the answer to your question. Let me just suggest this. I think there are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president; who believe that, with regard to Social Security and a number of other issues, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president; who cannot believe how weak he has been, for whatever reason, in negotiating with Republicans and there’s deep disappointment. So my suggestion is, I think one of the reasons the president has been able to move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him and I think it would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting what is a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama is doing. […] So I would say to Ryan [sic] discouragement is not an option. I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.

I can’t believe I didn’t add this earlier. Video below.

The Think Progress story:

September 7, 2012: Future Sanders surrogate Rosario Dawson apparently liked what she heard from Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention.

Dawson offered a more favorable reaction to Eastwood while speaking to E! News at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday (September 6). “That was pretty trippy, actually. I didn’t think that it was so off, like I actually thought it was really good improv,” she explained. Dawson went on to say: “As an actor, I was like, ‘That was well done!’ I can see for other people that being kind of strange, doing the question and answer kind of stuff, and I was surprised a bit by his position on some of the stuff, but I thought it was really great and really brave for someone to stand up and say this is my position on something, take it or leave it.”

The actress also stressed that she respects Eastwood a great deal, even if she disagrees with him politically. “I appreciated a lot of his positions, I think he was very respectful in a lot of ways and I wish that that was more the case when people are talking about someone they want to vote for and someone they don’t,” the star said. “I’m not always going to agree with the things that he’s saying, but I like the fact that he’s out there and making himself vulnerable to whatever it is because he cares.”

Remember, this is what Rosario thought was “respectful”:

“So Mr. President, how do you handle promises you’ve made?” he said to the chair. He then proceeded to rankle Obama for his administration’s proposal to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York, a plan from which he later backed down, and plan to end the war in Afghanistan, for which Romney has endorsed the same withdrawal timeline. “I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, “Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?” Eastwood said. The crowd cheered hard, creating the awkward spectacle of a Republican convention roaring for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the battlefield. Eastwood also jabbed Vice President Joe Biden, calling him the “intellect of the Democratic party.” “He’s just a grin with a body behind it,” Eastwood said. He attacked Obama for, of all things, riding in Air Force One. “You could still use a plane,” he said, “Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.” “I can’t do that to myself,” Eastwood said several times to the empty chair next to him, pretending, apparently, that the president was telling Eastwood to go f*** himself.

December 14, 2012: The day of Sandy Hook, Senator Sanders continues to defend liability protection for Gunmakers on the Thom Hartmann Show.

January 20, 2013: This happens…again.

Inauguration No. 2

April 5, 2013: Repeated theme: “I’m not Obama’s biggest fan…”:

This one is minor in comparison, but worth noting.

October 18, 2013: Okay, first read this:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made the case for a broader progressive push in an interview with MSNBC host Ed Schultz on Friday, saying his recent sojourn into southern states showed him there was still a Democratic base in a region usually known for supporting Republicans. “I’ve been meeting with unionists, independents, progressive Democrats,” Sanders explained via satellite from Columbia, South Carolina. “And they are tired of being abandoned by the national Democratic party. They want some help, and they believe that with some help they can start winning in these conservative states.” One cause for concern, Sanders explained to Schultz, was seeing many white, working-class voters in “low-income states” like Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina voting against their own best interest.

Overall, he’s not too far off the mark here…until that last graph. This goes back to his eternal theme of raising only the concerns of the White Working Class, which is it’s own form of racial resentment toward Blacks and people of color.

Why is it only the white working class he’s on about? Robert Reich later said the same thing. (See January 21, 2016)

Well, people of color noticed, and they’re voting for Hillary accordingly.

November 19, 2014: H.A. Goodman calls himself a “Liberal Democrat”. In truth, he’s neither:

Rand Paul is my candidate in 2016, even though the Tea Party would consider me Joseph Stalin’s love child. I’m for immigration reform and believe that illegal immigrants benefit this country. I’ve written many articles criticizing Tea Party paranoia. I’m against demagoguery from people like Paul Ryan who unfairly target inner city citizens and I’m for the federal legalization of gay marriage and marijuana. I think Ted Cruz is a buffoon and that we should listen to Stephen Hawking over Senator “Green Eggs and Ham” on climate change. Finally, I’ve also written two novels about the evils of religious fundamentalism and political demagoguery. On all these possible points of contention with Rand Paul, the reality is that he isn’t Ted Cruz or Lou Dobbs on these matters. Sen. Paul is a self-described “moderate”on immigration, much to the dismay of Tea Party Republicans. Paul’s recent Bill Maher interview shows he’s open to cleaner energy alternatives. Most importantly, Paul doesn’t abide by the right-wing rhetoric blaming poor people for their predicament, or claiming God wants people to do this or that. Congress at the end of the day has the power of the purse, so if President Rand Paul scares you on economic matters, simply remember that only Congress can repeal or alter government programs and decide on budgets. I’ve never voted for a Republican in my life, but in 2016, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul will be my choice for president. On issues that affect the long-term survival of this country; grandiose concerns like perpetual war that could send generations of Americans fighting and dying in the Middle East, domestic spying that could eventually lead to a police state, and numerous other topics, Rand Paul has shown that he bucks both the Republican and Democratic penchant for succumbing to public opinion, an overreaction to the terror threat, and a gross indifference to an egregious assault on our rights as citizens. Yes, I’ll have to concede some of my beliefs and roll the dice as to whether or not he’ll flip-flop on issues, but Hillary Clinton and President Obama have changed their views on everything from gay marriage to marijuana legalization and Iraq, so I’m taking an educated gamble with Sen. Paul. Hillary Clinton alone has gone back and forth on enough issues to make the former Secretary of State a human version of Pong, so I’m not too worried about voting for Paul. Below are ten reasons this Democrat is voting for Rand Paul in 2016 and if my liberal membership card is revoked, I’ll live with that; I’m not an ideologue like Sean Hannity, I’m an American.

Of course, later he would flip to Bernie, and conduct his rampant Baghdad-Bob like writing for him…some of which is highlighted in this piece.

November 19, 2014: (Sigh) This:

Well, here’s what you got. What you got is an African-American president, and the African-American community is very, very proud that this country has overcome racism and voted for him for president. And that’s kind of natural. You’ve got a situation where the Republican Party has been strongly anti-immigration, and you’ve got a Hispanic community which is looking to the Democrats for help. But that’s not important. You should not be basing your politics based on your color. What you should be basing your politics on is, how is your family doing? … In the last election, in state after state, you had an abysmally low vote for the Democrats among white, working-class people. And I think the reason for that is that the Democrats have not made it clear that they are prepared to stand with the working-class people of this country, take on the big money interests. I think the key issue that we have to focus on, and I know people are uncomfortable about talking about it, is the role of the billionaire class in American society.

June 10, 2015: Votes against the Export-Import Bank, and brags about it on his website:

Do I you what the Export-Import Bank is? It’s okay, neither do I. But here’s what Hillary Clinton said about Republican opposition to it:

“It’s wrong that candidates for president, who really should know better, are jumping on this bandwagon,” she said in New Hampshire. “It’s wrong, it’s embarrassing. … The idea that we would remove this relatively small but vital source of funding for our businesses to compete is absolutely backwards.”

June 30, 2015: Hasn’t released his tax returns.

Sanders, who has been rising in the polls in his bid for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Rodham Clinton, voluntarily released the first few pages of his 2014 federal and Vermont tax returns Tuesday at the request of The Washington Post.

But that’s it, and…truth be told, not even his whole tax return, the released 3-page document is missing Schedule C and Schedule A.

July 1, 2015: Not running against the President, huh?

At another point in the interview, he offered a sweeping criticism of Obama’s presidency, despite the fact that he believes history will be kinder to him than many of his Republican critics have. After Obama won the presidential election in 2008 with a campaign that Sanders called “one of the great campaigns in American history,” Sanders believes Obama abandoned the movement that brought him to the White House. “The day after he was inaugurated,” said Sanders, Obama said “thank you very much for getting me elected and I’ll take it from here.” This is the reason, Sanders believes, that his most strident Republican critics have been able to gain a foothold. President Obama, he said, did not take advantage of the scores of new voters he brought into the political process to enact real change.

July 5, 2015: Said he’d let Churches that discriminate against Gays keep their Tax Exempt Status:

July 5, 2015: Bernie doubles down on his support for the Protecting Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. For the record, in both 2003 and 2005, when he was in the House, Sanders voted in favor of a measure to prohibit lawsuits against firearm makers. The second measure eventually became law.:

July 7, 2015: Yeah. Then this happened:

I come from a state where there is virtually no gun control. But the people of my state understand, pretty clearly, that guns in Vermont are not the same thing as guns in Chicago or Los Angeles. In our state, guns are used for hunting. In Chicago they are used for kids killing other kids or gang members shooting at police officers, shooting down innocent people. We need a sensible debate about gun control, which overcomes the cultural divide that exists in this country, and I think I can play an important role in this.

July 13, 2015: Latino activist says Bernie is more Pro-Latino than actual Latino Congressman:

(This is going to get real ironic come February.)

July 16, 2015: The old Interview, where Bernie despises Democrats, from 1987 resurfaces on Buzzfeed:

July 16, 2015: This:

Sanders: In many respects, the president was not strong enough on many issues. For example, he’s wrong on the trade issue, dead wrong. Also, the president made a mistake, that after his brilliant campaign of 2008, he essentially said to his most motivated supporters, thanks very much for electing me, but I’ll go from here on my own. I’ll sit down and negotiate with Boehner and Mitch McConnell and I really don’t need you anymore. Terrible mistake. Because the only way forward, to bring forth a progressive agenda, is to have the American people mobilized.

This is the second time he said the President abandoned us. The first time was July 1st.

July 18, 2015: The Black Lives Matter Incident at Netroots Nation:

July 30, 2015: Says Wall Street wants Immigration Reform to depress wages. Opposes plan to raise Immigration caps:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/run-2016/2015/07/30/sanders-wall-street-wants-immigration-reform-to-depress-wages

August 6, 2015: Turns out that graphic of all of Hillary’s Top Donors being all Bankers and Fatcats, let’s just say it was selectively edited:

August 6, 2015: The Black Lives Matter incident in Seattle:

August 16, 2015: Says he will address racial divisions…while campaigning in mostly white Iowa:

August 16, 2015: After Staffer apologizes in letter form on behalf of the Sanders Campaign for the Black Lives Matter mess, Sanders Campaign says they did not apologize:

August 28, 2015: Warns the Democratic Party that they may not win without him:

October 5, 2015: Bernie apparently lied about being a longtime champion of Marriage Equality:

October 11, 2015: The Peaceniks of the world who think Drones are terrible should remember, Bernie supports them and would continue to use them as President.

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Pressscheduled for broadcast on Sunday, host Chuck Todd asked the independent senator from Vermont if drones or special forces would play a role in his counter-terror plans. “All of that and more,” Sanders said. Asked to clarify, he added: “Look, a drone is a weapon. When it works badly, it is terrible and it is counterproductive. When you blow up a facility or a building which kills women and children, you know what? … It’s terrible.” The Obama administration’s use of drones to target terrorist suspects has proved controversial, particularly with the political left. Sanders, a self-professed democratic socialist, has proven popular in such circles in the 2016 campaign so far. Todd asked Sanders: “But you’re comfortable with the idea of using drones if you think you’ve isolated an important terrorist?” Sanders replied: “Yes”.

October 21, 2015: Four stories of Bernie throwing shade (again) at the Obama Administration.

October 21, 2015: Bernie: I Wouldn’t Continue Obama Legacy. A repeat of the same story above, but still…damn:

October 21, 2015: Bernie Sanders Suggests He Won’t Campaign on Obama’s Record:

October 21, 2015: Sanders won’t take up the Obama mantle:

November 3, 2015: Via Buzzfeed.

Sanders is set to announce executive actions he would take as president on immigration, and has made a string of major hires of immigration activists focused on Nevada and the southwest. But as he tries to position himself to the left of Hillary Clinton on major issues, Democrats and activists aren’t sure immigration qualifies.

November 5, 2015: Commemorating the day Bernie actually became a Democrat…in one state:

November 5, 2015: Sanders campaign inks joint fundraising pact with DNC.

I point this out so when you later see how much money Bernie is raising for downballot Dems ($1000 total)…

November 23, 2015: Sanders’s health care proposals would dismiss the gains made under the Affordable Care Act and take the national debate over health care back to square one.

Sanders has said repeatedly that he wants to build on the health-care system created under the Affordable Care Act and to expand it to provide health insurance regardless of income or age. It’s clear that the provision in his bill to “repeal” ACA state exchanges was not just for the sake of repealing the law, in the way critics who oppose passage of ACA use the term “repeal.” But the language of his legislation — all three times he introduced it — clearly stated that existing federal programs would be replaced with a new program that he sought to create. It wouldn’t simply increase current levels of coverage but would create a whole new health insurance system with new quality-control methods, a new standards board, and more.

Wait, Bernie wants to REPEAL the Exchanges?

December 12, 2015: Sanders slams the Paris climate accord, which has been called “President Obama’s biggest accomplishment.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is slamming the climate pact that nearly 200 countries are likely to agree on Saturday in Paris, saying it’s far too weak for the task at hand. Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, said the agreement is a good first step in fighting climate change, but not much more.

Sounds like his GITMO nonsense.

December 15, 2015: Bernie rebuffs one of his own constituents on the F-35.

“In very clever ways, the military-industrial complex puts plants all over the country, so that if people try to cut back on our weapons system what they’re saying is you’re going to be losing jobs in that area,” Sanders said at a Q&A in New Hampshire back in 2014. “[W]e’ve got to have the courage to understand that we cannot afford a lot of wasteful, unnecessary weapons systems, and I hope we can do that.” History has shown that Sanders has not had the courage to do that. Immediately after he made those comments, an audience member pointed out that the F-35 fighter jet project had a lifetime cost of $1.2 trillion: “When you talk about cutting wasteful military spending, does that include the F-35 program?” the questioner asked. The F-35 stealth fighter is untold billions over budget, years behind schedule, and plagued with embarrassing problems. There have been problems with its software, its sensors, and its gun (which won’t be able to fire until 2019). A few months ago a military spokesman said that the fighter jet “wasn’t optimized for dogfighting.” In fact, in a test battle with the 40-year-old F-16, the brand new F-35 jet lost. “The F-35 will, in my opinion, be 10 years behind legacy fighters,” one Air Force official affiliated with the F-35 program told The Daily Beast about a year ago. Sanders countered that the plane was “essentially built.” He acknowledged in his 2014 Q&A that while the F-35 was “incredibly wasteful,” it is now the “plane of record… and it is not going to be discarded.” During his 2012 reelection campaign, Sanders ran against a Republican who opposed the F-35 as a waste of resources. Sanders was all for it. In a 2012 statement, Sanders made the point that the F-35 would have to be located somewhere, whether in Florida or South Carolina or Vermont. “I would rather it be here,” he said. Some of his constituents would rather it not. Residents around the Burlington airport sued to block the placement of F-35s there, but were rebuffed by the courts. The F-35s are scheduled to be based in the town starting in 2020.

Sanders’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

December 18, 2015: Campaign Staffers broke into Hillary Clinton’s VAN/NGP Database, and downloaded 30+ files in violation of Campaign’s contract with the DNC:

December 18, 2015: Sanders Campaign sued the DNC:

December 18, 2015: Congress comes up with a Year End Compromise to fund the Government and extend the Zadroga Act, the bill that helps 9/11 First Responders.

Bernie votes against it.

Congress on Friday sent President Barack Obama a bipartisan a trillion dollar spending bill to fund the government through next September, which includes an agreement to reauthorize the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. A 65–33 Senate vote on the measure was the last act that shipped the measure, combining $1.14 trillion in new spending in 2016 and $680 billion in tax cuts over the coming decade, to Obama. The legislation earlier swept through the House on a pair of decisive votes on Thursday and Friday, marking a peaceful end to a yearlong struggle over the budget, taxes, and Republican efforts to derail Obama’s regulatory agenda. New York’s elected officials applauded the inclusion of the Zadroga Act, which extended federal health monitoring and treatment to Sept. 11 first responders through 2090. The legislation also would pay an additional $4.6 billion into a compensation fund for victims and extend if for five years.

And later…

Republicans in the Senate were evenly split with 27 of them voting in favor and 26 against the bill. Presidential contender Marco Rubio was absent. Only six Democrats and Independent Bernie Sanders, another presidential hopeful, voted against the measure.

It should be noted, he voted for earlier versions of the bill, but when it came to the final vote. He voted against it.

December 19, 2015: Bernie gets back access to the DNC Voter File:

December 27, 2015: Is pursuing Trump Supporters:

January 8, 2016: Takes a moment to trash Bill Clinton:

January 11, 2016: Catholic Parishoners want the U.S. Attorney to look into some iffy land deals on the part of Bernie’s wife:

January 11, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 1:

January 13, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 2:

January 13, 2016: Clinton hits Bernie on Guns, and draws some blood.(It’s kind of a stupid article but it covers the meat of what happened):

January 15, 2016: Lawsuit against the DNC still alive:

January 15, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 3:

January 17, 2016: Yahoo seeks comment from the Sanders campaign about his trip with the Sandanistas in 1985. It doesn’t get one.

In addition to inquiring about Sanders’ past support for nationalizing various industries, Yahoo News asked about Sanders’ presence at the Sandinista rally. This included a request for the campaign to confirm whether a report in the alternative weekly Seven Days that claimed the trip to Nicaragua was paid for by the Sandinista government was correct. The campaign declined to comment.

Even Hillary’s camp didn’t comment. Why bury Sanders when he’s doing such a good job of doing it himself?

January 18, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 4. 1 out of 4 ain’t bad…I guess:

January 19, 2016: Willing to fight Congress for Free Education for all, Willing to fight Congress for Socialized Medicine, Reparations for African-Americans? Can’t get it through Congress all of the sudden:

January 20, 2016: Oh wait, did I mention the part where he also trashed the Human Rights Campaign when they endorsed Hillary?:

January 20, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 5:

Protip. He didn’t.

January 21, 2016: Under the mistaken impression that the President gets to select which cases go before the Supreme Court:

January 21, 2016: Bob Reich, Sanders Surrogate says the Democrats have “Abandoned the White Middle Class” specifically:

January 21, 2016: Sanders manufactures himself some Hispanic support in Nevada. (It’s deep in the weeds, Inside Baseball stuff), but…given how Nevada turned out:

January 24, 2016: Iowa papers endorse Hillary. He trashes them as “The Establishment”:

January 25, 2016: When Bernie did not receive an endorsement from Planned Parenthood, campaign attacked them:

January 26, 2016: Sanders blocks Obama’s pick to run the FDA:

January 27, 2016: Yes, BernieBro goes after Michelle:

January 28, 2016: Bernie Campaign Staffers posed as Nevada Union Officials in order to talk to Union Members without permission:

January 28, 2016: Accuses Hillary of taking money from SuperPACs, while taking more money from SuperPacs than Hillary:

January 28, 2016: Claimed he received an endorsement from the Sierra Club. They actually endorsed Hillary Clinton:

January 28, 2016: Didn’t exactly tell the truth about the cost of his Single Payer Health Plan, or worse, didn’t understand how much it would actually cost:

January 29, 2016: Sanders Staffer apologizes for the BernieBros trolling. BernieBros trolling does not stop:

January 30, 2016: Bernie blurbs for book on how Obama ‘let progressives down’:

January 31, 2016: Sanders doesn’t care about Hillary’s damn emails…until he does:

January 31, 2016: Accused Clinton of…get this…turning out her supporters to vote in the caucuses:

January 27, 2016: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) prepares to introduce H.R. 4399, a bill to repeal the PLCAA in the House. We’ll get to why it features for Bernie in a second:

Wait for it…

January 27, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 6:

Wait for it…

January 28, 2016: Bernie quickly jumps to co-sponsor the Senate version of the bill, even though…well…see July 5, 2015 and January 13, 2016 for full context:

February 1, 2016: Iowa Caucuses.

February 1, 2016: Martin O’Malley suspends his campaign for President.

February 2, 2016: Bernie Campaign accuses the Democratic Party of losing votes. Iowa Democrats are not amused:

February 4, 2016: Put symbols of organizations on his Literature implying he’d received their endorsement when he hadn’t:

Then…

And this Factcheck piece also tells the story:

February 4, 2016: Questions Hillary’s integrity. Pretty rich coming in light of the previous entry:

February 4, 2016: New Republic starts to notice. Hey, this guy is tearing about the party and doesn’t give a fuck about party-building:

February 4, 2016: For example, his blurb on the Book about Progressive Discontent, the Sanders campaign STANDS BY IT!:

Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign on Saturday stood by a book endorsement the Vermont senator wrote that suggested President Barack Obama had let progressives down, claiming that what the senator wrote is “absolutely true.” Sanders penned the book endorsement for “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama let Progressives Down” by Bill Press. “Bill Press makes the case … Read this book,” Sanders writes in a blurb featured atop the book’s front cover. “Bill Press makes the case why, long after taking the oath of office, the next president of the United States must keep rallying the people who elected him or her on behalf of progressive causes. That is the only way real change will happen,” read Sanders’ full quote. “Read this book.” On Saturday, Michael Briggs, Sanders’ spokesman, stood by the comment. “What Senator Sanders said in that book blurb is absolutely true,” Briggs said. “The next president must do everything possible to reinvigorate American democracy and get working people to stand up for their interests. This country, under the outstanding leadership of President Obama and Vice President Biden, has come a very long way since President Bush left office.” Briggs added, “The next president can try to achieve bold proposals because of the foundation they put in place. Obviously, telling someone to read a book doesn’t mean you agree with everything that’s in the book.”

So you Blurbed the book, pointed out the book, stand by its ideas…only sometimes…not??

February 4, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 7. Bernie Sanders and the five Black people supporting him (Killer Mike not highlighted for some reason):

February 5, 2016: Sanders Supporters are BANNED from Tinder. Yes, you read that right BANNED FROM A DATING SITE FOR CAMPAIGNING FOR BERNIE TOO MUCH!:

February 5, 2016: From Politico. Need I say more?:

February 8, 2016: The pattern continues. Sanders camp lawyers acknowledge ‘unintentional improper use’ of the American Legion’s logo.

February 8, 2016: Bernie hates candidates who take any money from Wall Street.

Except…you know…him.

Sanders has been an Independent while in Congress, but has caucused with the Democrats since he was elected to the Senate in 2006, helping them maintain their majority for eight years. Michael Briggs, a Sanders spokesman, said Sanders has “raised more money for the Senate Democrats than almost any other member of the Senate Democratic caucus” because he sees helping the party regain the majority as critical. “He has in the past written letters and helped Senate Democrats elect Democrats. He thinks that’s very important to the country,” Briggs said. Democratic debate: CNN’s Reality Check team inspects the claims He got a hand from the party in 1996, when Rob Engel, then the political director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, pushed a Democratic contender out of the race for the House seat Sanders held as an independent. In 2006, when Sanders ran for the Senate, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pumped $37,300 into his race and included him in fundraising efforts for the party’s Senate candidates. The party also spent $60,000 on ads for Sanders, and contributed $100,000 to the Vermont Democratic Party — which was behind Sanders even as he ran as an independent. Among the DSCC’s top contributors that year: Goldman Sachs at $685,000, Citigroup at $326,000, Morgan Stanley at $260,000 and JPMorgan Chase & Co. at $207,000.

Yeah, I know what you’re going to say, but…remember…he still took the money.

February 9, 2016: The New Hampshire Primary.

I searched for a results screen, but this the best I could do.

February 10, 2016: Says his Revolution will increase turnout, thus improving his shot at overall electability. No evidence it’s happening, in fact, it’s down from 2008:

February 10, 2016: Bernie-Backing Union Super PAC Holds “Talking To Black Women” Session.

February 11, 2016: Complains about rules surrounding Super-delegates, apparently having slept through the 2008 Election when Hillary had more Superdelegates than Obama and still lost:

February 11, 2016: Actually has a sit-down lunch with Al Sharpton that his campaign made a lot of hay out of, and STILL didn’t answer his questions about race:

February 11, 2016: After Supporters go after Hillary for the “Superpredator” myth, turns out Bernie said “Superpredators” existed as well:

February 11, 2016: John Lewis endorses Hillary Clinton for President, is trolled by Bernie Supporters as a result:

February 11, 2016: Sanders: I’d ‘Absolutely’ Improve Race Relations More Than Obama:

February 11, 2016: Said President Obama lacks leadership:

February 11, 2016: The Federal Election Commission sends Bernie a letter highlighting numerous Accounting problems in his Financial Disclosures including apparently, maybe (we’re not sure yet) donations from Foreign Nationals:

4. Schedule A-P (see attached) discloses a contribution(s) from an individual(s) who has a mailing address outside of the United States of America. Please be advised that 52 U.S.C. § 30121(a) (formerly 2 U.S.C. § 441e(a)) and 11 CFR § 110.20 prohibit foreign nationals from making contributions in connection with any election for political office or in connection with any primary election, convention, or caucus held to select candidates for any political office. If the apparently prohibited contribution(s) in question was incompletely or incorrectly disclosed, you should amend your original report with clarifying information. If your committee follows the safe harbor guidelines outlined under 11CFR § 110.20(a)(7) for all contributions received from a foreign address to ensure that the sources of these contributions are not foreign nationals, please provide a detailed description of your procedures. These procedures must be used in all cases where a contributor or donor uses a foreign passport or passport number for identification purposes, provides a foreign address, makes a contribution or donation by means of a check or other written instrument drawn on a foreign bank or by wire transfer from a foreign bank, or resides abroad. A committee is deemed to have conducted a reasonable inquiry into the contributor or donor’s nationality if you seek and obtain copies of current and valid U.S. passport papers for U.S. citizens. No person may rely on this safe harbor if he or she has actual knowledge that the source of the funds solicited, accepted, or received is a foreign national. If you have received a contribution from a foreign national, you must refund the impermissible contribution to the donor in accordance with 11CFR § 103.3(b). Please inform the Commission of your corrective action immediately in writing and provide a photocopy of your check for the refund. In addition, any refunds should be disclosed on Schedule B supporting Line 28(a) of the report during which the transaction was made. Although the Commission may take further legal action concerning the acceptance of a prohibited contribution(s), prompt action on your part to refund or provide clarifying information concerning these contributions will be taken into consideration.

February 12, 2016: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) says the Congressional Black Caucus did not endorse Hillary Clinton, even though he’s the only one who’s not:

Keith can also read this one if it helps (trust me, it won’t):

February 12, 2016: A dairy in the Daily Kos…THE DAILY FREAKIN’ KOS…is calling on Bernie to release his Tax Returns.

In October 2015, Bernie decided to disclose his unreported mortgage loans. He listed himself as the borrower. Three mortgages were listed in amendments to the 2013 and 2014 disclosures. It’s possible that the second mortgage on his DC residence was combined with the first but that isn’t certain. If the properties in Vermont and DC are primary residences, their value doesn’t have to be disclosed and without that information, his true net worth is unknown, in case anyone wonders about that. If the third property is rented, he needs to disclose its value and the amount of rental income. For the sake of transparency, Bernie should release his tax returns, too, which would answer other questions about his finances. In 2012, there was endless controversy for Mitt Romney because of his refusal to release his tax returns. Bernie’s not in the same income category but he’s far from poor. And despite his resistance, Mitt Romney had already released his most recent completed tax return by this time, four years ago,. Certainly, Bernie can do better than Mitt.

February 12, 2016: Campaign may have lied about a photo from his campaign saying he led a Civil Rights Demonstration. This is under some dispute:

February 12, 2016: Black people ask questions about Black people at a Black Community Forum. Bernie decides to not answer them:

February 15, 2016: Finally understands what’s going on in Flint, Michigan:

February 15, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 8. Threatening to write in Bernie in the General:

February 16, 2016: President Obama considers a Primary Endorsement:

February 16, 2016: Local activists say dirty tricks are par for the course when it comes to Bernie’s campaigns:

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/foes-past-and-present-say-sanders-uses-same-tactics-he-criticizes

February 16, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 9:

February 16, 2016: Hillary makes her speech on race:

February 16, 2016: Blacks in Vermont reveal how Bernie routinely ignored them:

February 17, 2016: Two Bernie Staffers used a false address to vote in New Hampshire. This is not Bernie directly but still…damn:

February 17, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 10:

February 17, 2016: Economic projections are based on 4.5% growth each year for the next ten years. Yeah. Right:

February 17, 2016: Killer Mike says a Uterus doesn’t make Hillary qualified to be President. Sanders dismisses the remark as gotcha politics:

February 18, 2016: The Editorial where Charles Koch (yeah, THAT Charles Koch) agrees with Bernie:

February 18, 2016: Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) rips Bernie (rightfully in my opinion) for his Immigration Record:

February 19, 2016: Hillary is only supporting Obama to suck up to Black folks:

February 19, 2016: Bernie has done diddly for other Democrats, aka helping elect the Congress he says will help pass all of his magical ideas once he’s elected:

Hillary Clinton has raised $26 million for the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties so far this campaign. And Sanders? $1,000. That’s no typo. Clinton is doing more to boost the party’s 2016 prospects than Sanders by the proportion of 26,000 to 1. (Or greater: That $1,000 “raised” by Sanders was technically provided by the DNC to open a joint fundraising account.)

February 19, 2016: Sanders Supporter tries to place obit of Hillary in the Nevada Papers. Gets visit from the Secret Service:

February 19, 2016: Sanders may have used bad Spanish Grammar in an unofficial ad (they say now) to reach Latino Voters in Nevada:

February 20, 2016: Sanders lists Will Ferrell as an Endorser…only he’s for Hillary:

February 20, 2016: Nevada Caucuses.

February 20, 2016: Famed Civil Rights Activist Dolores Huerta says she was shouted down with ‘English-only’ chants from a Sanders crowd. (Now, the coin is up in the air on this one. Sanders Supporters and Snopes.com are saying this did not happen. So far Huerta is sticking to her story, and there are reports of a second Witness to the incident):

February 20, 2016: Here’s your second and third witness of what happened from Evan McMorris-Santoro of Buzzfeed:

February 20, 2016: Sent out an email to supporters that they “Won the Latino vote by 8 points”:

February 20, 2016: Hillary actually won heavily Latino Districts by 20:

February 20, 2016: Bernie is hemorraghing cash, burning through nearly $35 million as he worked to try to match Hillary Clinton:

February 20, 2016: City Clerk turns over voting records as AG probes possible irregularities by Sanders staffers. I wish this hadn’t started as the result of a RW Video, but…here we are:

February 21, 2016: The man who decries SuperPacs, gets another one supporting him. This one has a website to track Superdelegates, and pressure them to support Bernie. Given the Senator’s rhetoric, he should refuse their help, right? RIGHT?:

February 21, 2016: Wow. Look. A photo of Bernie released of him getting arrested. Now, clearly it’s him, and clearly he stood with the CRM in those days, but it that’s the case 1) How did his hair grow out from the time he “led” the meeting and had a crew cut, and 2) Where’s he been for the last fifty years?:

February 21, 2016: After saying (repeatedly) that only his revolution could bring enough people to the polls to really get things done, after (naturally) electing him President (see above), he blames his loss in Nevada on low turnout:

February 21, 2016: As of the writing of this entry, the Press Release saying Bernie won the Latino Vote by eight is STILL UP ON HIS WEBSITE:

February 21, 2016: Bernie goes to a Black Church with Ben Jealous. It could have gone better:

February 21, 2016: Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) says Bernie’s College plan would kill Historically Black Colleges:

Guess it’s not a coincidence, then, that this happened the same day:

February 22, 2016: Bernie accuses Hillary of copying his message, and…and once again…that she‘s’ improperly influenced by Wall Street donations to her candidacy:

February 22, 2016: Gun Maker Says It Has Immunity From Sandy Hook Families’ Lawsuit. Thanks Bernie!

February 22, 2016: This is going to make some people agree with him, but Bernie once argued for abolishing the C.I.A. Replacing it with…what exactly? The Republican Health Care Plan?:

February 22, 2016: The fact that I’m only discovering now that this exists, and there are over 12,000 signatures on it:

http://wontvotehillary.com

February 23, 2016: Bernie voted against GITMO Closure because it lacked a concrete plan. Well, it’s still open. How’s that working out for ya? Riiiight, “We look like hypocrites and fools to the entire world.”:

February 23, 2016: Revealing what we all (deep down) already knew, Karl Rove’s SuperPAC and other Conservative Groups run ads to boost Bernie and hurt Hillary:

February 23, 2016: Bernie Sanders’ campaign will clarify an incorrect fundraising email they sent Tuesday morning that claimed Hillary Clinton’s campaign was charging “some donors” $27,000 to attend a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Monday night.

February 24, 2016: Mentions…yet again…that he marched with King:

No mention of where he’s been for the last 50 years.

February 24, 2016: Bernie links Hillary to rising Poverty rates:

He said the 1996 welfare reform law that Mrs. Clinton supported as first lady helped cause the number of Americans living in extreme poverty to more than double from 636,000 then to 1.6 million today. Mr. Sanders opposed the bill as a congressman from Vermont while Mrs. Clinton “worked hard to round up the votes for its passage,” he said at a press conference to draw attention to poverty issues. “It’s a piece of legislation that I opposed because I thought it was going to hurt the weakest and most vulnerable among us, and what the record shows is that it did hurt the weakest and most vulnerable among us,” he said. “Secretary Clinton supported that legislation.”

Funny you should mention that, Bernie, because…

February 24, 2016: Still waiting on them Tax Returns, Bernie.

Less than two weeks ago, diarist Mark Lippman called for Bernie Sanders to release his tax returns. Of course, without a flood of recs, his well-researched diary faded away. I suggest everyone read it. As an added action, I’ve created an online petition for others interested in seeing Bernie and Jane Sanders Tax Returns to share with others.

February 25, 2016: Some analysis suggests Bernie’s Health Care Plan would hurt the poorest among us:

February 25, 2016: Sanders Campaign Says He Voted For Crime Bill Due To Weapons Ban That Wasn’t There.

First from Mother Jones:

The Sanders campaign has also been hammering Clinton over the 1994 crime bill that increased penalties for repeat offenders and added funding to build more prisons. “What he does not do is throw people under the bus when it’s politically expedient,” Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said on MSNBC earlier this month. “Whether it was in 1994 when then First Lady Clinton called African American youths ‘super predators’ to push a terrible crime bill or whether it was using coded language in 1996 to pass welfare reform, or whether it was throwing gay people under the bus with DOMA. That’s not what Bernie Sanders does. He stands tall with people even when the fight is not popular.”

Except that he voted for the Crime Bill he’s been hammering Hillary for. His reasons?

He sided with the majority of Democrats when he was a member of the House and voted for the crime bill that Bill Clinton signed into law.

But wait! There’s more:

The Bernie Sanders campaign explained the Vermont senator’s support for the 1994 crime bill on Thursday with a release saying he voted for the bill in part because it contained a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. “The House version of the bill included a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons,” the release said. “Sanders had supported the ban since 1988.” The House version of the bill, which passed the House that April and which Sanders has been criticized for voting for when he was a representative from Vermont, did not include an assault weapons ban.

He did ultimately vote for the Ban, but saying it was there in the House Version is a clear falsehood.

February 25, 2016: The Federal Elections Commission sends Bernie a second letter reminding his Campaign again about the not taking the money from Foreign Nationals:

3. Schedule A-P (see attached) discloses a contribution(s) from an individual(s) who has a mailing address outside of the United States of America. Please be advised that 52 U.S.C. § 30121(a) (formerly 2 U.S.C. § 441e(a)) and 11 CFR § 110.20prohibit foreign nationals from making contributions in connection with any election for political office or in connection with any primary election, convention, or caucus held to select candidates for any political office. If the apparently prohibited contribution(s) in question was incompletely or incorrectly disclosed, you should amend your original report with clarifying information. If your committee follows the safe harbor guidelines outlined under 11CFR § 110.20(a)(7) for all contributions received from a foreign address to ensure that the sources of these contributions are not foreign nationals, please provide a detailed description of your procedures. These procedures must be used in all cases where a contributor or donor uses a foreign passport or passport number for identification purposes, provides a foreign address, makes a contribution or donation by means of a check or other written instrument drawn on a foreign bank or by wire transfer from a foreign bank, or resides abroad. A committee is deemed to have conducted a reasonable inquiry into the contributor or donor’s nationality if you seek and obtain copies of current and valid U.S. passport papers for U.S. citizens. No person may rely on this safe harbor if he or she has actual knowledge that the source of the funds solicited, accepted, or received is a foreign national. If you have received a contribution from a foreign national, you must refund the impermissible contribution to the donor in accordance with 11CFR § 103.3(b). Please inform the Commission of your corrective action immediately in writing and provide a photocopy of your check for the refund. In addition, any refunds should be disclosed on Schedule B supporting Line 28(a) of the report during which the transaction was made. Although the Commission may take further legal action concerning the acceptance of a prohibited contribution(s), prompt action on your part to refund or provide clarifying information concerning these contributions will be taken into consideration.

February 29, 2016: Well, reaching out to the Superdelegates is certainly going…well.

Backers of Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders have launched a campaign to win over some of his rival Hillary Clinton’s most prized supporters — the superdelegates that can make the difference in a tight race for the party’s nomination. But some emails, phone messages, and petitions sent by the Sanders boosters have backfired, upsetting superdelegates with their aggressive tone and leading many to dig in their heels for Clinton, according to interviews conducted by Reuters. The drive to flip Clinton’s super delegates has not been sanctioned by Sanders’ campaign, his spokesman Michael Briggs said.

March 1, 2016: Keep #@$%ing that Chicken, Bernie:

Bernie Sanders is pinning his hopes for staying in the Democratic presidential race on working-class white voters, the same constituency that helped Hillary Clinton extend her 2008 campaign. Sanders is trailing far behind Clinton in nine of the 11 states that are holding primaries or caucuses on Tuesday. Now he is looking further down the road to a set of states where minority voters who helped Clinton swamp him in South Carolina on Saturday will have a more diluted influence.

March 1, 2016: Politico (re)reports the truth. Bernie is not a Democrat. And more to the point, he never wanted to be one:

The biggest argument was over running as a Democrat. Over and over, Bernie Sanders said he didn’t want to. He’d spent his whole life purposefully outside the Democratic Party. He treasured his status as the longest-serving independent in Congress. Running as a Democrat wasn’t who he was. He didn’t want to do it that way. His longtime consultant Tad Devine and the rest of the group came down hard: this is never going to have a chance of working unless you get over it. Suck it up, they told him.

March 2, 2016: Bernie Supporters turn on Elizabeth Warren for not giftwrapping Massachusetts to him:

March 3, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 11:

March 7, 2016: “Excuse me, I’m talking”:

March 7, 2016: Apparently Bernie was for the Auto Bailout, before he voted against it:

March 7, 2016: “White people don’t know life in a ghetto”?? Neither do most Black people, Bernie:

March 7, 2016: Remember how Bernie’s suddenly “for” pulling Immunity for Gunmakers now that he’s running for President? Well, not so much. He spoke out against the Sandy Hook Victims suit against the AR-15 Manufacturer:

Want the whole quote? Here it is!

COOPER: Secretary Clinton — actually, Senator Sanders, let me continue to follow-up, because Secretary Clinton mentioned the liability. Right now, families of Sandy Hook victims announced that they are going to sue Remington, who made the AR-15 which was used in the Newtown massacre. (APPLAUSE) Now, they believe — those families believe that — that Remington, the distributors, the sellers — should be held legally responsible for how that gun — how their product is used. Now, the lawsuit may not go anywhere because of the bill you voted for — legislation that prevents gun makers from being sued. Tonight, what do you say to those families? SANDERS: Well, this is what I say, if I understand it — and correct me if I’m wrong. If you go to a gun store and you legally purchase a gun, and then, three days later, if you go out and start killing people, is the point of this lawsuit to hold the gun shop owner or the manufacturer of that gun liable? If that is the point, I have to tell you I disagree. I disagree because you hold people — in terms of this liability thing, where you hold manufacturers’ liability is if they understand that they’re selling guns into an area that — it’s getting into the hands of criminals, of course they should be held liable. But if they are selling a product to a person who buys it legally, what you’re really talking about is ending gun manufacturing in America. I don’t agree with that.

So I’m guessing all that stuff about co-sponsoring Adam Schiff’s PLCAA Repeal is Bull@#$%?

March 8, 2016: This was an event that a supporter posted on the Bernie Campaign Webpage until someone at the Campaign itself got hip to it and…wisely…pulled it down:

March 8, 2016: Sanders files suit against Ohio secretary of state in push to allow 17-year-olds to vote. (Granted, its more complicated than that, but it’s not a headline you want to see blared across the Twittersphere.):

March 8, 2016: True, this did happen:

But this happened the same day…

She only won it by 70, and expanded her Delegate lead, but please let’s keep talking Michigan, shall we?

March 9, 2009: Wow.

March 9, 2009: Via Politico: The auto industry attack isn’t going any anytime soon:

“Her point is you can’t just be with the auto industry when it’s convenient,” campaign manager Robby Mook said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday, following Sanders’ stunning upset in Michigan. “When the auto industry really needed Sen. Sanders, he wasn’t there. That is a fact that we believe voters need to know. We’ll continue to talk about it.”

March 9, 2009: A Koch Brothers funded group takes the time to praise the Bernie:

The group at the center of the Koch brothers’ vast political network is praising Bernie Sanders for opposing the Export-Import Bank and for his attacks on corporate welfare. Freedom Partners put out the web video highlighting its common ground with the Vermont senator ahead of Wednesday night’s Democratic debate. The video features a clip of Sanders responding to a question from the previous debate about why he opposed the Export-Import bank, a favorite punching bag of the Koch brothers. Sanders’ stance has put him at odds with many of his fellow Senate Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren.

March 9, 2016: Here we go again. Robert Kennedy Jr. has to put out a statement saying he did not endorse Bernie.

Robert Kennedy’s Tweet from March 9th.

March 10, 2016: Okay, this is a mixed bag. I’m one of those Democrats who’s not against the TPP or Trade in general, but at the same time, I recognize and respect that there are many Democrats who are. I also know that the Washington Post Editorial Board lives safe and warm in it’s own White Buburbanite/Geogretown Cocktail Party/Conventional Wisdom/Pro-Business bubble. That being said, their evisceration of Sanders’s trade stance (and more importantly, the bull@#$% numbers he uses to back it up) needs to be highlighted. So…

Via the Washington Post: Mr. Sanders peddles fiction on free trade:

Mr. Sanders’s populist rhetoric doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. His insistence, for example, that the North American Free Trade Agreement led to 800,000 job losses ignores analyses from unbiased sources such as the Congressional Research Service. “In reality, NAFTA did not cause the huge job losses feared by the critics,” a 2015 CRS analysis found. Blaming freer trade for the loss of manufacturing jobs fails to tell the much bigger story of economic transformation that has swept the world over the past several decades. Technological change, automation, productivity improvements and other factors have eliminated old-school manufacturing jobs all over the world. Mr. Sanders cannot bring back the U.S. economy of the 1960s, and it would be harmful to try.

March 12, 2016:Sigh. #SandersLittleHelpers:

March 13, 2016: From Huffington Post: Jane Sanders Says Bernie Has Always ‘Been On The Right Side’ Of Immigration

Really? (See July 2007 to see if you agree.):

Jane Sanders, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said Sunday that opponents are distorting the facts when they say her husband came late to the issue of immigration. “That’s not true,” she said in a phone interview from Phoenix. “Everything that Congress has been involved in, he’s been on the right side of the issue. And immigrants are dealing with the same kinds of economic difficulties that everybody has been dealing with.”

Again, replaying her husband’s speech from 2007.

“What this legislation is not about is addressing the real needs of American workers,” Mr. Sanders said in a speech on the floor of the Senate in 2007. “It is not about raising wages or improving benefits. What it is about is bringing into this country over a period of years millions of low-wage temporary workers with the result that wages and benefits in this country, which are already going down, will go down even further.”

Never mind that, according to Think Progress…

Studies have shown that immigrants actually create jobs for American workers. Researchers recently found that each new immigrant has produced about 1.2 new jobs in the U.S., most of which have gone to native-born workers. And according to the Atlantic, an influx in immigration can cause non-tradable professions — jobs like hospitality and construction that cannot be outsourced — to see a wage increase because the demand for goods and services grows with the expanding population. But Sanders fails to see it that way, pointing on Thursday to the 36 percent unemployment rate for Hispanic young people. “You bring a lot of unskilled workers into this country, what do you think happens to that 36 percent?”

So. Bernie’s always been on the right side of the Immigration debate?

March 13, 2016: Right.

“I think she understands that the momentum in this campaign and the energy is with us, and that we have a good chance to win a number of states on Tuesday,” Sanders said Sunday in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

March 13, 2016: #SandersLittleHelpers:

March 14, 2016: Get the feeling that author Robert Kuttner is secretly praying for this to happen?

Here is a scenario that should keep Democrats awake at night. Bernie Sanders keeps doing well in the big Northern and Midwestern states. On Tuesday, he wins Ohio, maybe Illinois and Missouri, which sets him up to be competitive in the big, late primaries, notably New York and California. Those wins may not be quite enough to deny Hillary Clinton the nomination, but the momentum is clearly with Sanders. The contest goes all the way to the convention. If Sanders is denied nomination, there will be a lot of deflated and disappointed Democrats. Clinton supporters may hope they will turn out in force in November, if only to stop Donald Trump. But there has to be more to it than that. A lot of the independents who went for Sanders could stay home, or even switch to Trump.

No, that doesn’t sound like a threat at all.

Remember, Bernie’s all about bringing people together, right?

March 14, 2016: Bernie (re)admits the truth. He’s not a Democrat. He’s only a Democrat for the Media attention:

During a town hall-style event in Columbus, Ohio, the independent Vermont senator said, “In terms of media coverage, you have to run within the Democratic Party.” He then took a dig at MNSBC, telling Todd, the network “would not have me on his program” if he ran as an independent. Money also played a role in his decision to run as a Democrat, Sanders added. “To run as an independent, you need — you could be a billionaire,” he said. “If you’re a billionaire, you can do that. I’m not a billionaire. So the structure of American politics today is such that I thought the right ethic was to run within the Democratic Party.” POLITICO has previously reported that Sanders initially resisted running as a Democrat, but was convinced by his advisers that it was necessary.

March 15, 2016: Granted, this is not on the Campaign (they asked him to stop), but this is not a good look when you’re the self-appointed paragon of virtue:

The creator of a super-PAC allegedly supporting Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been charged with securities fraud, The Center for Public Integrity reported Tuesday. Cary Lee Peterson, who created the political action committee that collected nearly $50,000 from actor Daniel Craig, was arrested Sunday by the FBI. He has been charged with two counts of false certification and one count of securities fraud, according to the Department of Justice. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $5 million. According to a government complaint against him, Peterson “defrauded investors by issuing false filings and press releases touting its purportedly lucrative — but wholly fictitious — business deals,” Yahoo News reported. Peterson is expected to appear in federal court on Wednesday. Brad Deutsch, the general counsel of Sanders’s presidential campaign, told the Center for Public Integrity that he was “not at all surprised” about Peterson’s arrest. The Vermont senator’s campaign last year said in cease-and-desist letters that Peterson’s group was illegal and “causing harmful confusion for supports of Senator Sanders’ campaign,” according to the Center for Public Integrity. Peterson originally launched the super-PAC in February 2015, calling it “Ready for Bernie Sanders 2016” but renamed it “Americans Socially United” because of federal rules that don’t allow political committees to use a candidate’s name without authorization.

March 15, 2016: So the Millionaire Class Bernie’s always railing against. Is he …one of them??

While the senator is indeed far less wealthy than many of his Senate colleagues — as well as his fellow presidential contenders — he is not exactly a man of modest means. True, on the financial disclosure forms Sanders released after announcing his entrance into the presidential race, he lists no assets of his own, other than a $5,000 annual pension payment from his stint as mayor of Burlington, Vt. All of the investments itemized on the disclosure form belong to his wife, Jane, who worked as an educator and college administrator.

March 18, 2016: Bernie takes a look at Merrick Garland and decides that he could have done better.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said while he “strongly” supports President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Justice Merrick Garland, Sanders told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday night that he would make his own selection. Sanders said Garland, who has served on the D.C. Court of Appeals for 19 years, is “probably not the most progressive” choice “but I will strongly support the president’s selection.”

And yet. (This is important, by the way):

If Sanders prevails in November, he said he would ask Obama to withdraw Garland’s nomination. “I’m 100 percent prepared to support Judge Garland. I think he’s clearly very knowledgable and can serve ably on the Supreme Court, but between you and me, I think there are some more progressive judges out there.”

Ego much, Bernie?

March 18, 2016: No, this doesn’t seem staged at all.

After Jane Sanders engaged Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio in an unplanned debate over immigration, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took on the sheriff during a rally in Flagstaff, Arizona on Thursday. Sanders described Arpaio as “un-American” and told rally attendees that the sheriff had “ambushed” his wife on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. Jane Sanders visited Tent City, an outdoor jail in Maricopa County, on Wednesday, where Arpaio approached her after his own press conference. When Jane Sanders criticized the conditions in the outdoor jail, Arpaio told her that the conditions are similar to those soldiers experience when fighting overseas, according to the Arizona Republic. He also declined to answer her questions about racial profiling, according to the Arizona Republic. During his Thursday rally, Bernie Sanders railed against Arpaio and his interaction with his wife. “She asked him about racial profiling, and he didn’t have an answer,” Sanders said, according to the New York Times. “She asked him about conditions in Tent City and other abuses that he has perpetuated, and he didn’t have an answer. You know what, he cannot have an answer, because what he is doing is un-American and uncivilized.” “If elected president, we are going to pass comprehensive immigration reform and a path toward citizenship, whether Mr. Arpaio likes it or not,” Sanders continued at the rally.

No explanation in this speech of his vote in July 0f 2007…against Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

March 23, 2016:Bernie gets his ass handed to him in Arizona, so of course something must be wrong with the numbers.

March 23, 2016: Looks like someone wants to challenge H.A. Goodman’s post for most delusional Bernie Supporter, ever:

March 24, 2016: Bernie files suit against the Democratic National Committee…again.

Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign has officially served the Democratic National Committee (DNC) with its lawsuit over access to party voter files, it said Thursday in a court filing. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had given the campaign a Thursday deadline to serve the DNC with the suit or risk having it dropped from federal court. In the new filing, the campaign said the two sides “continue to engage in cooperative discussions in their efforts to resolve the pending litigation” and will keep the court updated on those discussions. A source close to the Sanders campaign framed the latest development as a way to keep the door open for a lawsuit as the two parties wait for the results of an independent audit. But the source believes the issue ultimately will be “resolved amicably.” “We’re dealing with the DNC on an issue where we felt that they did not deal straight with us from the beginning, so the reason to keep this in place was to make sure Sen. Sanders is treated fairly in this process,” the source told The Hill. “This filing is very procedural. We went through with it because the report is not yet complete.”

People who want the Party’s nomination, tend not to…you know…sue it.

March 24, 2016: Barney Frank, who’s forgotten more about the Economy than Bernie’s ever known, didn’t take kindly to Bernie’s interview on PBS the day before:

In the first place, both Senator Sanders and Mr. Kashkari continue to evade the biggest question. That is, how big is too big? The crisis which touched off when Lehman Brothers couldn’t make its payment, Lehman Brothers was about $650 billion in assets. We have banks four and five times that size And the question is, does everybody have to be smaller than Lehman Brothers is today? But that would have consequences. Getting there would be a problem. By the way, it should be very clear, Glass-Steagall doesn’t do it. There is a disconnect between Senator Sanders insisting that the banks be broken down to the point where they won’t by their own size threaten, if they have too much debt, to undermine it. And Glass-Steagall — Glass-Steagall would reduce — it wouldn’t do anything to Goldman Sachs and to Morgan Stanley, which are almost Glass-Steagall-ized themselves. But looked at Citicorp, or J.P. Morgan Chase, or Bank of America, Wells Fargo, even if they were subject to Glass-Steagall, they would still be well beyond the size that Lehman Brothers was. There is just a disconnect between saying we’re going to do Glass-Steagall and getting the banks down to a size where, if there was a complete failure, you would get damaged by it.

March 24, 2016: Woman who played Civil Rights Icon, Rosario Dawson, disses woman who was ACTUAL Civil Rights Icon, Dolores Huerta, and…well…best to let her explain:

Hillary Clinton’s track record goes directly against what you and every other activist before and after you has fought for: the rights of the people based on the Declaration of Independence and the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are principles that Hillary did not uphold when taking away American citizens’ freedom by voting for the Patriot Act, twice; by not treating all men as equal when going against same-sex marriage until 2013; and when she sold out her own citizens by taking money from lobbyists and promoting the rise of the private prison complex. This has led to modern-day slavery for the impoverished, and especially for Latino and African American communities. She has put corporations and special interest groups before the people of this great country by voting to bail out banks and not her constituents. She does not uphold the sanctity of life when endorsing wars, condoning fracking or the death penalty.

This is right before she goes on to say (yes) that Bernie MARCHED WITH KING!!!

Also, this was just pure fiction:

The words “indefinite detention” did not appear anywhere in the bill Bernie voted for. The bill only applied to people awaiting deportation (“under orders of removal”), often for having criminal records.

Sorry, but the “words” may not be in there, but the intent was clear:

To restore the Secretary of Homeland Security’s authority to detain dangerous aliens, to ensure the removal of deportable criminal aliens, and combat alien gang crime.

Go ahead and scroll up to September 21st, 2006 for the link.

March 24, 2016: Bernie’s the only pure one out here.

“Do you think President Obama is the establishment? Or is fighting against the establishment?” Cenk Uygur, host of the daily liberal talk show The Young Turks, asked Sanders during a long interview with the Democratic presidential candidate. Sanders effectively said the answer to Uygur’s question was yes. “I think probably both,” Sanders said. “Do I think he has real views and real concerns, deeply felt? I think he does, you know, unlike some people who will go with the wind all the time.” Sanders pointed to Obama’s continued push for a closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay as a place where the president is expressing values “he believes in in his heart and soul.” Sanders praised Obama for a commitment to criminal justice advocacy.

March 25, 2016: Bernie lays out his “Demands” for his endorsement of Clinton:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) insisted he’ll stay in the presidential race, but outlined conditions under which he would endorse Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton “if I can’t make it.” Sanders, who badly trails Clinton in delegates for the Democratic nomination, said Wednesday that his chief priorities include making sure the party embraces his anti-establishment platform and expands its base. “If I can’t make it — and we’re going to try as hard as we can until the last vote is cast — we want to completely revitalize the Democratic Party and make it a party of the people rather than one of large campaign contributors,” Sanders said in an interview on the progressive Web show “The Young Turks.”

Again. He’s not a Democrat. He ran as a Democrat for the Media attention. He does not like Democrats.

But let’s think about that. I’ve lost, but I demand you adopt the platform I lost with.

That’s so Bernie.

Anyway. Continue…

Sanders also listed policy demands he would make of Clinton, including a single-payer health care system, a $15 an hour minimum wage, tougher regulation of the finance industry, closing corporate tax loopholes and “a vigorous effort to address climate change.” “I am very worried. I mean, I talk to these scientists. This planet is in serious danger. You can’t cuddle up to the fossil fuel industry — you’ve got to take them on,” Sanders said, alluding to Clinton’s ties to oil and gas companies. He also expressed concern about Clinton’s consistency on policy issues. “What we need is to create a movement which holds elected officials accountable and not let them flip” on issues, Sanders said.

Like you did with the PLCAA and the Sandy Hook Families, Bernie?

March 26, 2016: Bernie tells this to supporters in Madison, WI.

March 26, 2016: Dr. Sam Wang from Princeton puts it like this:

It is possible to put a probability on the outcome that Sanders has outlined above: less than 5%. It’s also possible to calculate how long he can keep saying there’s a path: until June 7th.

And, more importantly…

For national opinion to come into line with what Sanders needs, there would have to be a change from Clinton +9.5% to Sanders +12%. That’s a 22-point swing. To put that into perspective, that is about how much the Clinton-Sanders margin has moved over the last seven months, since the start of August. Going forward, opinion would have to start moving about three times faster. And for this to happen, Sanders would have to start to cut into Clinton’s support, which has stayed in the 50–55% range this whole season. Basically, her support would have to drop to 40%. That simply isn’t going to happen.

Please proceed, Senator.

March 27, 2016: Don’t stand so…don’t stand so…don’t stand so close to me:

March 27, 2016: This…was…actually…tweeted:

Okay, so. The Superdelegate thing is a scam…wait we’re going after them…wait, we’re going to threaten them.

March 27, 2016: Like I just said above.

After Superdelegate Congressman Rick Larsen wishes everyone Happy Easter on his Facebook feed, this is what happens to him:

Thank you Congressman, your work here is done. I just sent over a nice easter basket to Mike Lapointe (his Democratic opponent), and encourage the rest of you to do the same. I will be actively supporting MIke Lapointe now that you have thrown your support behind “her”. You just stepped in a huge pile of doo doo, bro. I predict you will be history very soon. Happy Easter. Too bad you don’t represent the people you serve! Mike Lapointe is the bomb and stands together with the people from Washington. He actually has courage…. You should take some notes. You as well, for I am an American patriot. You are not. Your support for Hillary Clinton flies in the face of what our country stands for. You sir are a traitor to our values, beliefs, morals and ethics. Happy Easter Rick Larsen. On this great day I will be donating a hearty $50 to the Bernie Sanders campaign. Since I am sure that’s who Jesus would vote for, just like the people of Washington did. Not Hillary.

Like I said if you can’t win the Superdelegates, threaten ‘em…

March 27, 2016: Bernie Sanders Claims Momentum After Three State Victories.

“Momentum is with us. A lot of these super-delegates may rethink their position with Hillary Clinton,” said Vermont Senator Sanders on CNN’S State of the Union news program.

Uh-huh.

March 28, 2016: The persistent delusions of H.A. Goodman — Part 12:

Right. Now that she’s got more votes, more delegates, and all but a lock to win the nomination…yeah, let’s give it to Bernie.

March 28, 2016: Says the woman who could financially could survive whatever Trumpian Apocalypse she’s might bring on.

Hollywood legend and prominent Bernie Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon would sooner vote for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton if her candidate were to eventually lose the Democratic primary. “I really want to be on the right side of history and this is a shot we’re not going to have in my lifetime to have a candidate that’s so morally consistent, makes decisions, whose judgment proves to be true but does it at a time when it’s not popular, when it’s not comfortable,” Sarandon told host MSNBC Chris Hayes on Monday. The left-wing activists and actress has been a longtime supporter of Sanders and has harshly criticized Clinton in the past. “I think Bernie would probably encourage people to [support Hillary if he loses] because he doesn’t have any ego in this thing,” she said. “But I think a lot of people are, ‘Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to [vote for Hillary].’”

And…

March 28, 2016: Rachel Maddow, once the de-facto Communications Director for the Sanders Campaign on MSNBC, actually catches Bernie’s Campaign Manager, the ever raidiant Jeff Weaver, in a bit of a lie…

Rachel Maddow reviews reporting done in advance of Super Tuesday on how the Sanders campaign was increasing spending and staffing for those primary contests, facts that now undercut the campaign’s explanation that they weren’t really trying in those states they lost to Hillary Clinton.

Dang. When even Rachel Maddow is calling bull@#$% on your campaign, Bernie.

March 28, 2016: So, anyway…we’re in a distant second in terms of both votes and delegates, so we’ll just try to steal the Superdelegates, because…Democracy??

As the Bernie Sanders campaign accepts the reality that securing enough votes at this point to win the Democratic nomination outright is impossible, it has moved on to a new phase in its long-shot bid for the White House: hijack Hillary Clinton’s so-called superdelegates.

I suppose this is where the threats come in, right?

Sanders advisors are targeting these party leaders and elected officials who have outsized influence in deciding who gets to be the Democratic nominee, and whom Hillary Clinton moved swiftly and aggressively to lock down early in the race. Each one of their votes at the convention in July is weighted as heavily as those of thousands of voters. Clinton has 469 of them in her corner. Sanders has just 29. Sanders advisors argue that if they can come close to catching Clinton in votes by the time the time the primaries conclude in June — even if they fail to overtake her — they will be able to persuade these lawmakers and other Democratic dignitaries to reconsider their loyalties to Clinton.

Never mind she has more votes — wait, wasn’t having more votes your original reasoning for going after the Supers?

March 29, 2016: Susan Sarandon denies she said what she said:

But still cheap shots Hillary when she gets a chance.

Debra Messsing appropriately calls her out:

March 29, 2016: “We just don’t go after those votes… at the worst time in their life.”

Uh, Jane Sanders…say that again??!?

I’ll put it how my good Twitter buddy, Alan put it:

March 30, 2016: Short term memory:

Remember this was the vote that saved the American Economy as everything was sliding over the cliff.

March 30, 2016: Barney Frank on Bernie Sanders. Not impressed.

Barney Frank: I am disappointed by the voters who say, “OK I’m just going to show you how angry I am!” And I’m particularly unimpressed with people who sat out the Congressional elections of 2010 and 2014 and then are angry at Democrats because we haven’t been able to produce public policies they like. They contributed to the public policy problems and now they are blaming other people for their own failure to vote, and then it’s like, “Oh look at this terrible system,” but it was their voting behavior that brought it about. Q: So it seems like you’re saying Bernie’s voters have a slightly unrealistic sense about the political process. And that this is driven — Barney Frank: I didn’t say slightly. Q: OK. Barney Frank: Bernie Sanders has been in Congress for 25 years with little to show for it in terms of his accomplishments and that’s because of the role he stakes out. It is harder to get things done in the American political system than a lot of people realize, and what happens is they blame the people in office for the system. And that’s the same with the Tea Party. It’s “I voted for these Republicans, we have a Republican Congress, we voted for them, they took over Congress, they didn’t accomplish anything.” You gotta win at least two elections in a row.

And…

Q: I think that part of the argument that people like Sanders would make is that, the financial system is corrupt fundamentally and that we don’t want to merely make it slightly more stable — Barney Frank: Well if that’s the case it’s even dumber than I thought. The financial system is people lending money to other people so they can do things. I do think that he overstates it when he says, “they’re all corrupt.” It’s simply not true. And by the way, when it comes to specifics, the only specific I have heard is Glass-Steagall, which makes very little change in the finance system. I think he gets a pass from the media. Other than Glass-Steagall, what did he propose in 2009 and 2010 when he was a senator when we were dealing with this? The answer is nothing. Why haven’t you looked at his record?

March 31, 2016: Not only is Bernie not raising money for downballot Dems, he’s iffy on doing it in the future.

Host Rachel Maddow said rival Hillary Clinton has been fundraising for her campaign as well as the Democratic Party. Will the Sanders campaign begin this type of fundraising as well, Maddow asked. “We’ll see,” Sanders said. “Right now, our focus is on winning the nomination.”

See November 5, 2015…

Full text:

SANDERS: Well, right now, Rachel, as you are more than aware, our job is to — what I’m trying to do is to win the Democratic nomination. And I’ll tell you something, I never in a million years, Rachel, would have believed that we could have, uh, received over six million individual campaign contributions averaging 27 bucks apiece, a very different way of raising money than Secretary Clinton has pursued. So right now, we are enormously appreciative. You’re right, without that type of support, we would not be where we are right now. We would not be able to continue this campaign to the Democratic convention. So I am just blown away and very appreciative of all of the kind of support that we have gotten from grassroots America. MADDOW: Well, obviously your priority is the nomination, but I mean you raised Secretary Clinton there. She has been fundraising both for the nomination and for the Democratic Party. At some point, do you think — do you foresee a time during this campaign when you’ll start doing that? SANDERS: Well, we’ll see. And, I mean right now, again, our focus is on winning the nomination. Secretary Clinton has access, uh, to kinds of money, uh, that we don’t, that we’re not even interested in. So let’s take it one step at a time. And the step that we’re in right now is to win the Democratic nomination.”

March 31, 2016: There…there are no words:

March 31, 2016: Michael Tomansky pushes back against Susan Sarandon’s nonsense, and a Bernie Supporter…of course, finds out his address via Zillow and puts it on the interwebs.

So I see from Twitter that some genius has gone on Zillow and found my house. I think this must’ve happened in response to something I said on the Stephanie Miller radio show on Wednesday, discussing my last column, about how some people can afford to cast votes around their hopes and dreams while others vote to protect rights and gains that the other side wants to take away from them. I don’t recall my exact words, but they were something to the effect that that idiot Susan Sarandon’s life isn’t going to change one way or the other no matter who’s president, and for that matter, neither is mine, not that I’m rich, but I make a good living, so my life won’t change, yadda yadda, which I suppose is what put the wheel in spin. So now people who want to know such things know what I paid for my house, and yeah, it’s kind of a lot, this being suburban Washington D.C., and I guess the point is supposed to be that I’m an out-of-touch elitist or something, just the kind of sellout you’d expect to support Hillary over Bernie. So I have a nice house. So what? I earned it. I didn’t inherit much. Dad made a lot of money, but he lost a lot, too, always trying to outsmart the market. And he made a hell of a lot less than he could have. His funeral was like George Bailey’s funeral — I lost count of the number of grown men who came up to me crying, telling me about the mountains of legal work Dad had done for them over the years for free.

March 31, 2016: Bernie Sanders. DNC Hypocrite:

So far, the Hillary Victory Fund has raised $26.9 million with more than $22 million of it going to the DNC and the state party committees. Clinton has a formidable delegate lead but that doesn’t mean that Sanders still doesn’t have a chance. The Bernie Victory Fund is practically dormant. But the fundraising haul of $43.5 million in February and his goal to surpass that record-breaking effort for his presidential campaign in March means Sanders is in the race until the bitter end. And if he threads the needle, he very well could become the 2016 presidential nominee. Now, h