I often wonder how Bernie Sanders’ fellow senators are reacting when he’s on the floor, warning us for the umpteenth time that super-wealthy reactionaries, with much help from the Supreme Court, are snuffing out what was left of our democracy. Maybe they’re too busy conferring with lobbyists to hear the guy. Or they take long bathroom breaks when he gets up to speak. Or simply turn down their hearing aids.
Tag: Sen. Bernie Sanders
Oil prices on the rise
From Sen. Bernie Sanders in August, after leaking documents related to oil speculation to the Wall Street Journal:
While making this confidential information public may have upset Wall Street oil speculators, the American people have a right to know exactly what caused gasoline prices to skyrocket to more than $4 a gallon back in the summer of 2008… Further, there is little doubt that the same speculators who caused gasoline and heating oil prices to unnecessarily spike in 2008 are playing the same games again in 2011. This is simply unacceptable and must not be allowed to continue.
It seems the Obama administration wasn’t listening. From ThinkProgress, yesterday:
Oil is once again trading above $100 per barrel, bringing with it estimates that U.S. gas will cost more than $4 per gallon by May, if not sooner. The Obama administration is already bracing for higher gas prices and the political cost that they could exact.
But it isn’t increasing demand for oil that is driving the recent price increase. In fact, demand is the lowest it’s been since April, 2007, according to the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). Instead, OPIS points to speculators as the party responsible for driving up prices…
Obama should listen to Bernie and take action, if only because his re-election bid might be derailed if his Wall Street buddies push gasoline prices too high.
A plan to deep-six Citizens United
Sen. Bernie Sanders is one of the only elected official in D.C. who’s really working to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s deplorable Citizens United decision. More here.
Not ‘basically insane’ — just flat-out corrupt
Everyone knows what would be the first and most important step toward campaign finance reform. The question is whether there are enough honest people in Congress to make reform a reality:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday night slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision and supported legislation to overturn it.
Has America begun to ‘get’ Bernie Sanders?
To understand how right-wing the major political parties in America are, it helps to read the foreign press. This from The Guardian:
… [Bernie Sanders’] beliefs… would fit comfortably in the middle left of Britain’s Labour party or Germany’s SPD. But it is impossible to over-state just how much of a political death sentence being called a “socialist” – never mind actually proudly proclaiming it – usually is in America…