Sanders at Liberty U

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Stephen Fox]

The Lib U students interviewed on NPR represented themselves well I thought.

In Alabama Trump and Ben Carson are the choice of Baptist influential radio personalities Rick And Bubba

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Sandy]

Oh, I would do the Canada drive some other time. Vermont would be a separate adventure.

[KeithE]

I’ve been out of touch since Tuesday night - various travels too busy to even look at BL. I'll also be very busy with putting my house up for sale and some Interfaith Mission Service presentations, providing care for son’s family (see Prayer Request post), and planned golf tournaments/outings into next week.

Ed, I’m fairly certain that I’ll not be able to make a trip up north because of sell of house and son’s family care - but thanks for the offer. Maybe next year’s fall foliage season.

Yes Bernie is a viable candidate and his message is connecting (not through the media, but through town hall /etc. meetings and word of mouth). You know that he is often dismissed because he is an avowed “socialist”. All politicians are “socialistic” to the degree that they recommend doing things collectively through the government (all levels). Bernie envisions more government roles than most and recommends the US learn from the success stories of the Scandinavian countries that are the and They my be taxed at near 50% but they get free childcare, education through PHD degrees, guaranteed jobs (with living wages) or usually short stints at unemployment pay, free/universal health care (with better outcomes), disability (when needed), and free retirement earnings. is strong there as well. Face it, it is just a better way to organize our collective lives and it can work!

I’m almost finished with 2 books:
by Jonathan Tasini but quotes Sanders extensively.
by Ben Carson.

The Sander’s book brings facts to the table - usually rather startling facts in 20 concise chapters loaded with data (too much inequality/health care costs/military interventionism/lobbying/corporate power, and too little infrastructure/family leave/manufacturing jobs/climate action, ...)

Carson, OTOH, gives textual platitudes (e.g. too much “entitlement" in this country, “you too can be successful like me”, "we need to deregulate”, immigrants/unions are the problem). Very much like the Hoover Digest articles which give almost no numeric backing for their platitudes.

Both Sanders and Carson say tax code should be reworked into a simpler form and both say the financial bailout was wrong.

Please consider Bernie; our country needs his well researched/reasoned ideas and ample sources of funding (financial transaction tax, collection of offshore taxes past due, more estate taxes, carbon tax). Austerity is not working anywhere.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Keith, why is it that "Denmark suffers from high rates of alcoholism. In its use of antidepressants it ranks fourth in the world. (Its fellow Nordics the Icelanders are in front by a wide margin.)"

http://nypost.com/2015/01/11/sorry-libe ... t-utopias/

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Keith, why is it that "Denmark suffers from high rates of alcoholism. In its use of antidepressants it ranks fourth in the world. (Its fellow Nordics the Icelanders are in front by a wide margin."

http://nypost.com/2015/01/11/sorry-libe ... t-utopias/

Here is another; http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-new ... candinavia

[Sandy]

The Democrats might want to give this some serious consideration. RCP (Real Clear Politics) put up some polling data at the end of August with most polls showing Sanders winning a head to head with Trump, in a couple of polls by as much as 21%. Not bad for a guy whose name was not recognized by 40% of those polled by CNN in August. Of course, Trump's negative numbers are so high, and it is so early now, that a lot of people will say they'll vote for the other guy, regardless of who it is, against Trump.

As it has been since the candidates announced, the Democratic nomination is basically Hillary Clinton's, to win or lose. The GOP seems to have fallen into a trap they can't get out of as the email issue comes down to basically nothing, and heading for the same place that the Benghazi investigation will go, both of which will allow her to "look Presidential," as the media likes to say. The botch that the Republicans have already made of Benghazi will just make these committee hearings look as political as they are, and hand her a lot of momentum to gain back the polling numbers she's lost. Perhaps the momentum and support that Bernie has drawn so far will move her in his political direction a bit, and away from her traditional centrist approach.

If he can't get the nomination, I hope he stays in the Senate, and aims for a leadership role there. He would do more good that way, than in a Clinton cabinet.