January 24, 2016


News Clips For The Day


Trump et al and the anti-intellectual trend in American society – three articles


http://www.salon.com/2016/01/21/the_religious_right_exposed_donald_trumps_speech_at_liberty_university_proves_just_how_gullible_evangelical_voters_are/

The religious right exposed: Donald Trump’s speech at Liberty University proves just how gullible evangelical voters are -- The fact that Trump is popular with evangelicals confirms they'll follow anyone who fans their fears
SEAN ILLING
THURSDAY, JAN 21, 2016


On Monday, Donald Trump gave a speech at Liberty University, the Christian school founded by the deceased swindler, Jerry Falwell. It’s no surprise that Trump is pandering to the religious right: He’s a salesman and Christians are a key demographic in the Republican Party. The speech itself was laughable on its face, as you’d expect.

Trump doesn’t care about Christianity, and his only religion is self-promotion. The specactcle [sic] of Trump pawning himself off as a believer was something to behold, however. The real estate hustler began with a botchted attempt at quoting scripture: “Two Corinthians, 3:17. That’s the whole ballgame. ‘Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ And here is liberty.”

The students in attendance couldn’t help but laugh, as the normal reference to that chapter is “Second Corinthians,” not “Two Corinthians.” But Trump, having been given this line by handlers minutes before taking the stage, was likely just reading the script. Had he (or anyone on his staff) any familiarity with the Bible, he’d have recognized this immediately.

Trump continued his rambling speech undeterred, offering a few perfunctory nods to Christianity. “The Bible is the best,” he declared at one point, followed by this gem: “You’re going to see ‘Merry Christmas’ in department stores, believe me.” Like everything else Trump says, this is empty drivel. The notion that the president can dictate how department stores handle Christmas greetings is ludicrous, but that’s beside the point – no one supporting Trump seems to care about what he can actually accomplish as president. It was enough that Trump promised to “protect Christians,” whatever that means.

This was Trump selling himself to an already compromised religious right. In recent decades, the evangelical community has steadily debased itself for votes, choosing political power over religious integrity. Part of the reason for this is crackpots like Falwell and Pat Robertson, who aligned themselves with the Republican Party in order to bolster their brands and grow their bank accounts.

The hucksterism of Falwell Sr. and Robertson was on full display at Liberty this week. Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of the late Falwell and Liberty University’s current president, spent roughly 10 minutes fawning over Trump in his introductory remarks. “As our friendship has grown, so has my admiration for Mr. Trump,” Falwell said. After comparing Trump to his father and (I’m not kidding) Martin Luther King, Jr. and Christ., he added that Trump is a “breath of fresh air.” “In my opinion,” Falwell continued, “Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others, as Jesus taught in the great commandment.”

The comparison between Trump and Falwell Sr. is apt, as both men are vile opportunists preying on credulous idiots (although I imagine this wasn’t what Falwell Jr. had in mind). But likening Trump to Martin Luther King Jr. and Christ is preposterous and an insult to thinking Americans. Trump is a religious illiterate whose adult life in affront to the core message of the Gospel. Falwell’s glowing remarks reveal, to no one’s surprise, where his real interests lie.

But it’s not just Falwell Jr. supporting the GOP’s newest charlatan. Trump continues to lead among white evangelical voters, and that’s an indication of the discontent and rot at the core of the religious right in this country. In his remarks, Falwell Jr. said that “conservatives and evangelicals have chosen the political candidates who have told us what we wanted to hear on social, religious, and political issues, only to be betrayed by these same candidates after they were elected.” Perhaps that’s true, but what possible reason is there to back Trump, a secular demagogue merely paying lip service to Christianity?

As I wrote earlier this year, the religious right long ago abandoned the actual tenets of Christianity in favor of greed and political expediency. They’ve embraced Christian libertarianism (a contradiction in terms if there ever was one) and fixated themselves on the so-called “Culture Wars,” which is why Trump’s line about “Merry Christmas” is likely to play well among religious voters. That Trump, an ethno-nationalist more than a Christian, is popular with this constituency proves that they’ll follow anyone who fans their fears and indulges their persecution mania, no matter how implausible the candidate or how false the promises.


Sean Illing

Sean Illing is a USAF veteran who previously taught political science at Loyola and LSU. He is currently a staff writer for Salon. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Read his blog here.




“On Monday, Donald Trump gave a speech at Liberty University, the Christian school founded by the deceased swindler, Jerry Falwell. …. The real estate hustler began with a botchted [sic] attempt at quoting scripture: “Two Corinthians, 3:17. That’s the whole ballgame. ‘Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ And here is liberty.” The students in attendance couldn’t help but laugh, as the normal reference to that chapter is “Second Corinthians,” not “Two Corinthians.” …. The notion that the president can dictate how department stores handle Christmas greetings is ludicrous, but that’s beside the point – no one supporting Trump seems to care about what he can actually accomplish as president. It was enough that Trump promised to “protect Christians,” whatever that means.”


“In recent decades, the evangelical community has steadily debased itself for votes, choosing political power over religious integrity.” This, to me, is one of the 4 or 5 worst things about the Religious Right. They are clearly trying to set up a fundamentalist Christian cult at the top of our government. No, they won’t do that this year or even the next, but that is where they are heading. That is called Dominionism, and it’s just another power grab. Along with that are their blatant encouragement of a Groupthink and Nonthink brainwashing, and passing that off as “faith.” There is also the bald faced money grabbing, especially on those TV shows like the 700 Club, the criers such as Tammy Fay with all that thick mascara running down her face, and the faith healers who bring a perfectly able-bodied individual on stage and, after telling the audience about the man’s terrible affliction which he of course feigns, “heal” him. After that, of course, he walks away with no limp and great expressions of joy. As the writer of this article put it, “the deceased swindler, Jerry Falwell.” That tells it all.




http://www.amazon.com/Too-Dumb-Fail-Revolution-Conservative/dp/0316383937

Too Dumb to Fail: How the GOP Betrayed the Reagan Revolution to Win Elections (and How It Can Reclaim Its Conservative Roots) Hardcover – January 26, 2016
by Matt K. Lewis (Author)


From a leading voice among young conservatives, an impassioned argument that to stay relevant the Republican Party must look beyond short-term electoral gains and re-commit to historic conservative values.

In 1963 Richard Hofstadter published his landmark book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Today, Matt Lewis argues, America's inclination toward simplicity and stupidity is stronger than ever, and its greatest victim is the Republican Party. Lewis, a respected conservative columnist and frequent guest on MSNBC's Morning Joe, eviscerates the phenomenon of candidates with a "no experience required" mentality and tea party "patriots" who possess bluster but few core beliefs.

Lewis traces the conservative movement's roots, from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley, and from Goldwater's loss to Reagan's landslide victory. He highlights visionary thinkers who understood nuance and deep ideology and changed the course of the nation. As we approach the 2016 presidential election, Lewis has an urgent message for fellow conservatives: embrace wisdom, humility, qualifications, and inclusion--or face extinction.




“In 1963 Richard Hofstadter published his landmark book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Today, Matt Lewis argues, America's inclination toward simplicity and stupidity is stronger than ever, and its greatest victim is the Republican Party. …. As we approach the 2016 presidential election, Lewis has an urgent message for fellow conservatives: embrace wisdom, humility, qualifications, and inclusion--or face extinction.”


Like the diabetic who insists on eating the wrong things until his foot turns black and has to be amputated, the Republicans who were “fat and happy” bigots and money worshippers, may soon have to consider the fallacy and conceit of their economic and social positions. They are beginning to see that more people nowadays simply hate them than in the 1950s when they were much more a part of the community, at least in small Southern towns like my own. They were a truly respected segment of society then, and more of us common folk agreed in principle that making lots of money is at least some sign that they have done a good job. Looking back on it now, however, I think it is too often a sign that they have cheated and starved their employees, firing them for joining a union, etc. and broken the laws of business from tax evasion to all kinds of dishonest dealings. Some of the very wealthy are, as the article above says about Falwell, merely swindlers. Business is full of dirty deals of all kinds, so I simply have never respected people for their wealth alone.

How they got that money, and how they treat “the common folk” matter hugely to me. If they are philanthropists, or if they really did make a scientific/technological development that advanced our society, for those things they have my greatest respect. In Lewis’ words above, they should “embrace wisdom, humility, qualifications, and inclusion.” Mitt Romney’s slip of the tongue saying, essentially, that he isn’t concerned about pleasing the poor because they never will vote for him anyway was really telling. I believe it may have turned many people against him. It certainly did me. I had thought he was a really handsome man and of a good temperament to be President, but he never seemed “nice looking” or “pleasant” to me again. He seemed to be the epitome of everything I don’t like about Republicans or “the privileged” in general.

The following two books on this general subject of the dumbing down of conservativism are probably very interesting also, I think.


http://www.amazon.com/Why-Right-Went-Wrong-ConservatismFrom/dp/1476763798/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0M1X6NJK8RH3KQE38YJB

Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond Hardcover – January 19, 2016
by E.J. Dionne Jr. (Author)

“Dionne's expertise is evident in this finely crafted and convincing work.” —The Los Angeles Times

From one of our most engaging political reporters and the author of Why Americans Hate Politics; the story of conservatism from the Goldwater 1960s to the present day Tea Party that has resulted in broken promises and an ideological purity that drives moderate Republicans away.

Why the Right Went Wrong offers a historical view of the right since the 1960s. Its core contention is that American conservatism and the Republican Party took a wrong turn when they adopted Barry Goldwater’s worldview during and after the 1964 campaign. The radicalism of today’s conservatism is not the product of the Tea Party, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne writes. The Tea Partiers are the true heirs to Goldwater ideology. The purity movement did more than drive moderates out of the Republican Party—it beat back alternative definitions of conservatism.

Since 1968, no conservative administration—not Nixon not Reagan not two Bushes—could live up to the rhetoric rooted in the Goldwater movement that began to reshape American politics fifty years ago. The collapse of the Nixon presidency led to the rise of Ronald Reagan, the defeat of George H.W. Bush, to Newt Gingrich’s revolution. Bush initially undertook a partial modernization, preaching “compassionate conservatism” and a “Fourth Way” to Clinton’s “Third Way.” Conservatives quickly defined him as an advocate of “big government” and not conservative enough on spending, immigration, education, and Medicare. A return to the true faith was the only prescription on order. The result was the Tea Party, which Dionne says, was as much a reaction to Bush as to Obama.

The state of the Republican party, controlled by the strictest base, is diminished, Dionne writes. It has become white and older in a country that is no longer that. It needs to come back to life for its own health and that of the country’s, and in Why the Right Went Wrong, he explains how.



“… the Republican Party took a wrong turn when they adopted Barry Goldwater’s worldview during and after the 1964 campaign. The radicalism of today’s conservatism is not the product of the Tea Party, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne writes. The Tea Partiers are the true heirs to Goldwater ideology. The purity movement did more than drive moderates out of the Republican Party—it beat back alternative definitions of conservatism.” …. the Republican Party took a wrong turn when they adopted Barry Goldwater’s worldview during and after the 1964 campaign. The radicalism of today’s conservatism is not the product of the Tea Party, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne writes. The Tea Partiers are the true heirs to Goldwater ideology. The purity movement did more than drive moderates out of the Republican Party—it beat back alternative definitions of conservatism.”


As a result of the departure from, and expulsion of, those Republicans who were not doctrinaire enough (RINOS), the party is dangerously close to a purely Neo-Nazi position, which is delightful to the most base and soulless members of the blue collar white groups. I grew up with blue collar people, and I don’t mean those of good heart who are poor and subsisting on a construction job. I mean the anarchic groups like the Militias, the Bundys, the KKK and the outspoken rightist radicals of all types. Those really bad dudes are encouraged by the Tea Party, etc., especially by their spouting of hateful rhetoric every time they get in front of a TV camera, just to get fascist votes. Any votes will do. Politics has become very crass in some parts of our society. Not only are such politicians dishonest, they don't care about the people.

It’s a really discouraging situation. I am hopeful that Sanders will win the election, however, and will put through some powerful gun control laws and more – raise the minimum wage and create equal pay for equal work in our businesses, which will improve the economic condition of the whole country and cause the rightist anarchists to become less constantly angry.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-looks-back-upon-his-presidency-and-beyond/

Obama looks back upon his presidency, and beyond
CBS NEWS
January 24, 2016


Eight years ago, candidate Barack Obama was campaigning for President, and our Lee Cowan was covering him. PRESIDENT Barack Obama has just under a year to go before leaving office, and he was in a reflective mood when Lee spoke with him in Detroit last Wednesday:

"It is such an extraordinary privilege to have this job," said President Barack Obama, who added, "Look, there are times where you get tired. There are times where you're frustrated."

"That you wonder why you did this?" asked Cowan.

"Absolutely. And yet, there has not been a day that I have not walked into the Oval Office and understood that at no point in my life will I ever have the chance to do as much good and make as much of a difference in the lives of people as I do right now.

"And that's precious. And so I'm going to try to squeeze every last little bit of good work that I can while I still have the chance."

The president's visit to the Motor City this past week ("If you're looking for the world's best cars and the workers who make those cars, you need to be in Detroit, Michigan!") came exactly a year to the day that his successor -- whomever he or she may be -- will move INTO the White House, and the Obamas will move OUT.

The President seems especially conscious of that calendar -- he joked after touring the North American International Auto Show that the reason he came was to browse for a new car ("I tell you what, this is a spiffy car!"). After all, he'll soon have to say goodbye to the one he's using, which is a far cry, by the way, from any car -- let alone the one he used to have.

barack-obama-lee-cowan-detroit-620.jpg
President Barack Obama with correspondent Lee Cowan at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. CBS NEWS

Cowan asked, "Do you remember the first car you had? What did you have?"

"The first car I drove was my grandfather's Grenada," Mr. Obama laughed. "Which was not a shining moment for Detroit! It was not a great car."

"Not a great date car, either."

"It was not cool," Mr. Obama laughed. "I had to compensate in my coolness, given the fact that I was picking girls up in the Grenada."

Although he was all smiles, this trip had a serious message. President Obama has been struggling to communicate his successes heading into his last year in office -- and the U.S. auto industry is one example.

Both GM and Chrysler had record sales last year -- a resurgence Mr. Obama says was the result of the government bailout during the first year of his administration. It wasn't a popular idea; critics thought the new president was over-reaching, even cocky.

But in hindsight, he says, that's just what the economic crisis demanded.

"I might have benefited from being young and a little brash and not being as scared as I probably should have been," he laughed. "You know, there was probably some benefit to me thinking, 'Oh, we can fix this. We'll figure it out.'"

By some measures Mr. Obama DID figure it out.

He's overseen shrinking unemployment, a growing job market, a reduction in the number of Americans without health insurance, and diplomatic breakthroughs on both climate policy and relations with Cuba.

But his foes say those gains have been overshadowed by the rise of ISIS, the trouble in Syria, and terrorism at home.

And what stands out even to his supporters has been his inability to be the unifying force that he had promised.

"The one thing that gnaws on me is the degree of continued polarization," he said. "It's gotten worse over the last several years. And I think that in those early months my expectation was that we could pull the parties together a little more effectively."

"Do you wish, in hindsight, that maybe campaigning on that notion of changing the tone in Washington, do you wish you hadn't campaigned as hard on that promise?"

"Well, here's the thing: That's what the American people believe. And that's what I still believe."

His final State of the Union seemed an effort to remind America that despite the exasperating negativity, the last seven years have not been as dismal, or dysfunctional, or as racially-divided as his critics maintain.

"You know, when I hear people say, for example, in the aftermath of Ferguson and some of the other cases, that race relations have deteriorated -- they're terrible -- I have to say, 'Well, maybe it's just 'cause I'm getting older, but they're not worse than they were after the Rodney King incident in L.A.," Mr. Obama said. "And they're certainly not worse than they were back in the '50s or the '60s. But we forget."

When he started his campaign for president, he was known less for his term in the Senate and more for a single speech he gave years earlier at the Democratic National Convention:

"There is not a liberal America, and a conservative America. There is a United States of America."

Few doubted his ability to stoke a crowd. In Iowa the crowds started small, but the end of 2008 his rallies had grown to sometimes tens of thousands -- a celebrity status his rivals often used again him.

His staff were mostly 20-somethings, many of whom remain by his side today -- a ride that, for them too, is about to come to an end.

"Now they're in their early 30s and they're startin' to have families, you know, got babies, and Uncle Barack's holding them and playing with them on the floor of the White House," the president said. "So I tell 'em, 'You know what? When we're on Marine One and we're flying and the Washington Monument's over there and the Capitol's in the background, look up from your smartphone for a second and think about this."

"Does that still get to you?"

"Oh absolutely. Yeah, it doesn't get old."

"If you could run for a third term, would you?"

"No. I wouldn't," Mr. Obama said. "Number one, Michelle wouldn't let me! You know, this is a big sacrifice, and a great privilege, but it takes a toll on family life.

"This is a process in which the office should be continually renewed by new energy and new ideas and new insights. And although I think I am as good of a president as I have ever been right now, I also think that there comes a point where you don't have fresh legs. And you know, that's where you start making mistakes. Or that's when you start thinking that you are what's important, as opposed to the mission being more important."

"How much time do you wonder or spend thinking about what you have done might be undone if a Republican ends up in the White House?" Cowan asked.

"Well, you think about that," he replied. "But what you discover when you're president is that the institutions and programs and things that you have put in place and built, if you've done a good job and you've done them sensibly, you know, in some cases may need tinkering with, can be improved. But if they're good things, they're harder to undo than you think."

He admits there were policies under the Bush administration he disagreed with as a candidate, but once he viewed them inside from the Oval Office himself, he changed his mind.

"There are a bunch of things that we do to fight terrorism that, before I was president, I might have questioned, that when I look at it really carefully I say, 'On balance this is something that we need to do to keep us safe,'" he said.

There is a lot he'll miss about the job -- Air Force One, for example, isn't too shabby. But what he won't miss is what he calls the bubble of the office.

Cowan asked, "'When you're out at stuff like this, I mean, can you really enjoy it? Or is it always, because everything that you're at always becomes --"

"A scene," Mr. Obama continued. "Look, the bubble is the hardest thing about the presidency. And I don't think anybody with sense ever gets used to it. It's the thing that makes me happiest about my tenure coming to an end."

Where the Obamas will live and what they may do post-White House are all matters of great speculation.

But for now, the Senator who campaigned on being "fired up and ready to go" is now ready to see if history will be kind or not.

"When I turn over the keys to the next occupant, one thing I'm confident about, and maybe why I don't feel obliged to yearn for a third term, is I'm very confident I'll be able to say that things are a lot better now than they were when I came into office," Mr. Obama said. "And, you know, that's a pretty good eight years' worth of work."



“His final State of the Union seemed an effort to remind America that despite the exasperating negativity, the last seven years have not been as dismal, or dysfunctional, or as racially-divided as his critics maintain. "You know, when I hear people say, for example, in the aftermath of Ferguson and some of the other cases, that race relations have deteriorated -- they're terrible -- I have to say, 'Well, maybe it's just 'cause I'm getting older, but they're not worse than they were after the Rodney King incident in L.A.," Mr. Obama said. "And they're certainly not worse than they were back in the '50s or the '60s. But we forget." …. "This is a process in which the office should be continually renewed by new energy and new ideas and new insights. And although I think I am as good of a president as I have ever been right now, I also think that there comes a point where you don't have fresh legs. And you know, that's where you start making mistakes. Or that's when you start thinking that you are what's important, as opposed to the mission being more important." …. that the institutions and programs and things that you have put in place and built, if you've done a good job and you've done them sensibly, you know, in some cases may need tinkering with, can be improved. But if they're good things, they're harder to undo than you think." …. "There are a bunch of things that we do to fight terrorism that, before I was president, I might have questioned, that when I look at it really carefully I say, 'On balance this is something that we need to do to keep us safe,'" he said.”


I’m sure Obama will always remember, with at least some regret, the horrible night when he sent in an assassination team to “take out” Osama bin Laden. It was well planned and quickly done, but brutal. I haven’t thought for a minute, though, that it wasn’t true justice for all the even worse crimes that Osama had committed, not the least being 9/11.

The question about the apparent worsening of race relations since his term in office was well answered, I thought. Clearly the level of ill will is better now than in the 1950s and earlier. We must always remember that the very presence of a black man in the Presidency would inevitably enrage those whose meat and bread is revenge on blacks for their “crime” of being freed from slavery (their natural “place,” after all) and even given some education (too much makes them “forget their place”), given jobs and the right to vote. Race relations have been absolutely abysmal for as long as I can remember. I hope for an end to it on the Judgment Day, if there is one, but will continue to make relationships on my own in the meantime with black people. I like their generally straightforward way of dealing with me, and their lack of pretentious attitudes, which I fairly often find in whites, even when they aren’t wealthy.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/eight-egyptians-facing-jail-time-breaking-king-tut-beard/

8 may face jail time for breaking King Tut's beard
CBS/AP
January 24, 2016

Photograph -- German conservator Christian Eckmann works on the restoration of the golden mask of King Tutankhamun at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, October 20, 2015. MOHAMED ABD EL GHAN /REUTERS
Photograph -- kingtut2.jpg, Egyptian and German conservators work on restoring the golden mask of King Tutankhamun at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, October 20, 2015. REUTERS/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY


CAIRO - Eight Egyptians involved in a botched repair of the famed golden burial mask of King Tut, which was corrected late last year, have been referred to trial for "gross negligence."

Prosecutors said in a Sunday statement that the 3,300-year old mask, whose beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued on with epoxy in 2014, was scratched and damaged as a result.

The mask was put back on display last month after a German-Egyptian team of specialists removed the epoxy and reattached the beard using beeswax, which is often used as an adhesive for antiquities.

Restoration specialist Christian Eckmann said a year ago that the cause of a scratch discovered on the mask had had not been determined, but that it could have been recent.

A museum employee knocked the beard off during work on the relic's lighting in August 2014, after which it was hastily reattached with epoxy. When the error was revealed in January, the Antiquities Ministry quickly called a press conference where Eckmann said he and an Egyptian team could fix the epoxy-job and avoid permanent damage.

The 3,300-year-old pharaonic mask was discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb along with other artifacts by British archeologists in 1922, sparking worldwide interest in archaeology and ancient Egypt.

The mask and beard were initially separate when King Tut's tomb was discovered by Egyptologist Howard Carter in earlier last century. Experts said the latest break destroyed the earlier conservation work.

It is arguably the best-known piece in the museum, one of Cairo's main tourist sites, which was built in 1902 and houses ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.



“Prosecutors said in a Sunday statement that the 3,300-year old mask, whose beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued on with epoxy in 2014, was scratched and damaged as a result. The mask was put back on display last month after a German-Egyptian team of specialists removed the epoxy and reattached the beard using beeswax, which is often used as an adhesive for antiquities.”


Archaeology is one of the most fascinating subjects on earth to me, but it is a really delicate operation under the best of conditions. Old things are usually fragile. Professionals should have been able to handle the mask without damaging it. No wonder they may be tried over the matter and fined or jailed. I think they should at least pay a heavy fine for their carelessness.

At least this wasn’t purposely done to damage the mask, though. ISIS has, according to a news article of the last year, among other hideous crimes, defaced some god images some 3000 years old, which were highly treasured even though current religions no longer worship them. They were part of the national treasures of Iraq. That was done either out of “religious” excess or out of simple hatred.



http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/24/464195563/california-regulators-order-company-to-permanently-close-leaking-gas-well

California Regulators Order Company To Permanently Close Leaking Gas Well
CAMILA DOMONOSKE
Twitter
January 24, 2016

Photograph -- A Porter Ranch resident wears a gas mask during a protest Saturday outside a meeting of the Air Quality Management Board over the Aliso Canyon gas leak. The leak started in October and has forced thousands of residents to flee from the Los Angeles suburb of Porter Ranch. Regulators have ordered the gas company to shut down the leaking well; some residents want the entire facility shuttered. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
Related stories: THE TWO-WAY
California Declares State Of Emergency Over Months-Long Gas Leak
Los Angeles Suburb Still Suffering From Gas Leak Jan. 20, 2016
LA Councilman Compares Porter Ranch Gas Leak To BP Oil Spill But On Land Jan. 11, 2016


When Southern California Gas Company finally manages to seal a natural gas storage well that's been leaking for months, the company will have to shut the well down permanently, California regulators say.

And in the meantime, the company will have to minimize air pollution from the ongoing leak and fund an independent study on potential health impacts on the surrounding community.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District voted on the new restrictions Saturday. The order comes in response to a well in the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility that has been leaking since October, and isn't expected to be sealed off for another month.

This photo taken Nov. 3, 2015, shows SoCalGas crews and technical experts attempting to safely stop the flow of natural gas leaking from a storage well at the utility's Aliso Canyon facility in Los Angeles. Efforts to plug the well appear to have destabilized it, the Los Angeles Times reports.
THE TWO-WAY Gas Company Understated Benzene Exposure From California Leak

The massive leak, in the outer reaches of Los Angeles, mostly consists of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, but also contains some the carcinogen benzene and other chemicals. The AP has said SoCalGas was not consistently alerting the public of unusually high levels of benzene. The company says none of the levels were dangerous.

The compounds added to natural gas to make it easier to detect also have short-term side effects, including nausea and headaches, health officials say. Residents of the nearby Porter Ranch community have been relocated to new homes while the company works to cap the well.

Southern California Gas Company says the leak poses no long-term risks to human health. One of the requirements of the new abatement order is that the company fund an independent study evaluating the impact of the leak on residents' health — including the consequence of exposure to the odorants added to the gas.

The order also requires the company to:

Permanently shut down and seal the well — not just fix the leak
Fund continuous air monitoring of the area
Develop and implement a leak detection and reporting program covering all the wells at the facility
Monitor the leaking well with an infrared camera for 30 days after the leak has ended (the gas is invisible to the naked eye)
Minimize gas leaking from the well as they work on the long-term solution.
Provide data to regulators to help calculate the total amount of methane leaked
Submit a plan for notifying residents and the government of future emissions
Report all odor complaints to regulators
Obtain approval from regulators before using "odor suppressants or neutralizers" to reduce the smell caused by the leak.

Crews work on a relief well at the Aliso Canyon facility above the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles in early December. A leak has allowed tons of methane to escape into the surrounding neighborhood; stopping it is taking months because of pressure from the leak.

Some residents were unhappy that regulators didn't go further and order SoCalGas to shut down the entire Aliso Canyon facility, the Los Angeles Times reports

As we've reported, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency over the leaking well earlier this month.

The company attempted to plug the well several times, but the pressure of the leak overwhelmed the would-be blockages. The failed efforts appear to have weakened the well and increased the risk of a blowout, the LA Times has reported.

SoCalGas is now drilling a relief well to reduce the pressure before plugging the leak.

On All Things Considered last week, Ingrid Lobet of the investigative news organization inewsource reported on the injection practices that may have contributed to the well's failure:

"An examination of state oil and gas records shows, and a state official confirms that the gas well that failed was being injected in a way that, while legal, can be risky," she said. "It's like this: Many wells have both a seven-inch casing and a narrow inner metal tubing. Think of it as a metal straw within another metal straw.

"Natural gas was being forced down this well through both straws."



“When Southern California Gas Company finally manages to seal a natural gas storage well that's been leaking for months, the company will have to shut the well down permanently, California regulators say. And in the meantime, the company will have to minimize air pollution from the ongoing leak and fund an independent study on potential health impacts on the surrounding community. …. The compounds added to natural gas to make it easier to detect also have short-term side effects, including nausea and headaches, health officials say. Residents of the nearby Porter Ranch community have been relocated to new homes while the company works to cap the well. …. Crews work on a relief well at the Aliso Canyon facility above the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles in early December. A leak has allowed tons of methane to escape into the surrounding neighborhood; stopping it is taking months because of pressure from the leak. …. "An examination of state oil and gas records shows, and a state official confirms that the gas well that failed was being injected in a way that, while legal, can be risky," she said.”



I found an economics course that I took in 1992 to be interesting, if not exactly fascinating. My favorite of all the terms economists are so very fond of is “unintended consequences.” That’s a very mild term for what actually happens in those “unintended” cases – methane pours out for months fouling the air for breathing, possibly causing fires, and polluting the atmosphere with one of the worst of the greenhouse gasses. One step forward and two steps back! I love pure science, but I really don’t like such results as this. I firmly believe that businesses should be strongly regulated to lessen careless events like this, that result in human deaths and environmental damage. Some liberals are calling for businesses to pay the TRUE COST of these incidents, which includes trips to the doctor and a very pricey reconstruction of the area affected.



http://www.npr.org/2016/01/22/463920296/danes-say-zoo-dissections-fit-with-countrys-very-honest-parenting

Danes Say Zoo Dissections Fit With Country's 'Very Honest' Parenting
SIDSEL OVERGAARD
Published January 22, 2016

Photo -- Photographers take pictures of the lion carcass before it's publicly dissected at Odense Zoo in Denmark. It was the zoo's second public dissection of a lion in four months. Sidsel Overgaard/NPR
THE TWO-WAY -- Copenhagen Zoo's Scientific Director Defends Killing Giraffe


It's a cold day in Copenhagen, and the brightly colored snowsuits worn by Danish children make it easy to pick them out of a crowd here at the Odense Zoo, on the Danish island of Fyn. There are dozens of kids — all ages — many of them standing as close as possible to the euthanized lion laid out on a table.

"We're here to see the lion cut open," says 6-year-old Liv.

After talking for a while about the lion's coat and claws, the zoo's educator, a biology student from the local university, begins to cut. At this point a handful of children walk out. But for the most part, the audience stays put, covering their noses as the smell becomes overwhelming, but apparently riveted by what they're seeing.

At one point the biology student pulls out an air compressor. Everyone watches as the sponge-like lungs — nothing like the simplistic balloons of children's books — fill with air. The crowd applauds.

Jan Pedersen brought his 7-year-old daughter, Anne-Dicte, to the dissection.

"It's a natural part of living," he said. "We're eating meat almost every day and, I know, we don't eat lion, but to see how animals look inside, that's a part of growing up and getting wiser."

Copenhagen Zoo's giraffe Marius was put down Sunday by zoo authorities who said it was their duty to avoid inbreeding.

Given the international media storm that followed the killing and dissection of a giraffe at the Copenhagen Zoo two years ago, Danes are well aware that the rest of the world does not always share this perspective. Critics argue that these displays are desensitizing at best and traumatizing at worst.

But this is the culture of Denmark, says Jessica Alexander, American co-author of The Danish Way of Parenting: A Guide to Raising the Happiest Children in the World.

"Danes are very, very honest with their children about life," says Alexander.

"Maybe kids are going to come out of this and become animal activists and vegans," she says. "We don't know what kind of effect it's going to have on them. But they're going to be free to make up their own mind about it."

Alexander says Danish parents know whether their children can handle something like the dissection of a lion at the city zoo.

Jens Jessen, who is there with his 9-year-old son, Rasmus, is a case in point.

"I said to [Rasmus], 'If you think it's too much, then tell it to me and then we'll just go away,' " says Jessen. "But he was totally absorbed by it."



“There are dozens of kids — all ages — many of them standing as close as possible to the euthanized lion laid out on a table. "We're here to see the lion cut open," says 6-year-old Liv. After talking for a while about the lion's coat and claws, the zoo's educator, a biology student from the local university, begins to cut. At this point a handful of children walk out. But for the most part, the audience stays put, covering their noses as the smell becomes overwhelming, but apparently riveted by what they're seeing. …. "It's a natural part of living," he said. "We're eating meat almost every day and, I know, we don't eat lion, but to see how animals look inside, that's a part of growing up and getting wiser." Copenhagen Zoo's giraffe Marius was put down Sunday by zoo authorities who said it was their duty to avoid inbreeding. …. Danes are well aware that the rest of the world does not always share this perspective. Critics argue that these displays are desensitizing at best and traumatizing at worst. …. says Jessica Alexander, American co-author of The Danish Way of Parenting: A Guide to Raising the Happiest Children in the World. "Danes are very, very honest with their children about life," says Alexander. …. "We don't know what kind of effect it's going to have on them. But they're going to be free to make up their own mind about it." Alexander says Danish parents know whether their children can handle something like the dissection of a lion at the city zoo.”


I personally think that 6 year old kids aren’t intellectually ready for this kind of scientific information, and that it does as the article above said, “desensitize” them to the methodical destruction of nature’s beauty. Farmers, of course, do often slaughter their own animals and cut up the meat, but that is for eating and it’s a necessary thing that a kid who will probably become a farmer when his father passes the land to him really needs to know. And, Okay. Kill the giraffe so it won’t impregnate its’ sister, and the lion for whatever reason it was euthanized, but don’t in effect desecrate them simply to thrill a crowd. That’s really pretty gross. (Otherwise I like the Danes fine.)



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/despite-polls-bernie-sanders-says-he-can-win-south-carolina/

Despite polls, Bernie Sanders says he can win S.C.
By REBECCA KAPLAN FACE THE NATION
January 24, 2016

Play VIDEO -- CBS News Battleground Tracker Polls: Trump retakes Iowa, Sanders surges
Play VIDEO -- Full interview: Bernie Sanders, January 24
Play VIDEO
Play Video -- Sanders on campaign criticism: “I am not offering too much”


The latest CBS News Battleground Tracker shows Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, effectively tied with rival Hillary Clinton in Iowa and ahead in New Hampshire, he's not content to rest on his laurels: Sanders also believes he can win in South Carolina, even though the polls show him well behind there.

The poll shows Sanders and Clinton in a virtual tie in Iowa, with Sanders getting 47 percent to Clinton's 46 percent. In New Hampshire, he's well ahead, netting 57 percent to Clinton's 36 percent. The tables turn in South Carolina, however, where Clinton leads him, 60 percent to 38 percent.

The South Carolina poll "is showing us making huge, huge gains," Sanders said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "I feel confident that if we can win here in Iowa, if we can win in New Hampshire and those are going to be tough races, I think we stand an excellent chance to win in South Carolina and in Nevada."

"We have a lot of momentum on the ground. I think we're picking up more and more African-American support. Frankly, I think we can win there," he added.

Iowans will head to the caucuses in a little more than a week. Clinton and Sanders have been campaigning nonstop to woo voters in the remaining days, as has Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton. He has suggested that Sanders' support comes from the fact that he's "madder" than Clinton, which feels "authentic."

"I am angry," Sanders said. "The American people are angry." He cited the fact that people are working longer hours for lower wages, students accruing tens of thousands of dollars of debt for a college education, and seniors are getting by minimal amounts of Social Security.

But he is also pushing back against some liberal writers who have suggested his campaign is offering too much with promises of tuition-free public colleges and universities and a single-payer healthcare system.

"I think that's really an unfair criticism," Sanders said. "To say that we should make public colleges and universities tuition-free and do what many other countries around the world already are doing and pay for that on a tax on Wall Street speculation, that's not a radical idea. To say that we should do away with loopholes that allow corporations to put their money in the Cayman Islands, pay nothing in federal income taxes and invest that money in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, that is not a utopian, pie-in-the-sky idea."

He argued that America has become "dominated so much by Wall Street and big-money interest" that people have forgotten what is possible.

"Yes, I do believe that the wealthiest people and the largest corporations should finally start paying their fair share of taxes. That's what the American people want, that's not utopia," he said.

Moderator John Dickerson dug into Sanders' positions on guns and healthcare, both of which have come under attack by Clinton. He asked about another liberal Democrat from Vermont who ran for president, Howard Dean, who once said that gun control issues should be left to the states and not part of the Democratic agenda.

"I don't believe that at all," Sanders said, suggesting he might have lost his first statewide election in 1988 because he opposed a ban on military-style assault weapons.

He said he supports President Obama's executive actions unveiled earlier this month aimed at strengthening background checks.

"Our goal as a nation, and I think there's overwhelming support for this, John, is to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them, people who have criminal backgrounds, people who are mentally ill. The federal government does have a very important role to play," he said.

He also defended his "Medicare-for-all" healthcare plan and addressed one criticism of national healthcare plans in other countries, which is that the waiting time to see a doctor can be very long.

"We have 29 million people without any health insurance, and John, they wait a very long time to get healthcare. Sometimes they don't get it at all," Sanders said.

He also said the U.S. is spending three times as much as the British and 50 percent more than the French on healthcare, and both countries guarantee it to all their citizens.

"In my view, a 'Medicare-for-all' single payer system can guarantee quality healthcare to all of our people and at the same time, save middle-class families thousands of dollars a year," he said.



“But he is also pushing back against some liberal writers who have suggested his campaign is offering too much with promises of tuition-free public colleges and universities and a single-payer healthcare system. "I think that's really an unfair criticism," Sanders said. "To say that we should make public colleges and universities tuition-free and do what many other countries around the world already are doing and pay for that on a tax on Wall Street speculation, that's not a radical idea. …. "Yes, I do believe that the wealthiest people and the largest corporations should finally start paying their fair share of taxes. That's what the American people want, that's not utopia," he said. …. He asked about another liberal Democrat from Vermont who ran for president, Howard Dean, who once said that gun control issues should be left to the states and not part of the Democratic agenda. "I don't believe that at all," Sanders said, suggesting he might have lost his first statewide election in 1988 because he opposed a ban on military-style assault weapons. He said he supports President Obama's executive actions unveiled earlier this month aimed at strengthening background checks. …. He also said the U.S. is spending three times as much as the British and 50 percent more than the French on healthcare, and both countries guarantee it to all their citizens. "In my view, a 'Medicare-for-all' single payer system can guarantee quality healthcare to all of our people and at the same time, save middle-class families thousands of dollars a year," he said.”


See the January 22 article on MCR on types of national plans, http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/22/463976098/debate-sharpens-over-single-payer-health-care-but-what-is-it-exactly for a lot more helpful information about what a single payer system is. Medicare is an example, though many private MCR sponsored insurance programs are also available. If you don’t want one of those, however, the government itself will pay specified amounts toward specified bills. Unfortunately, if your illness is not “approved” by Medicare, it won’t pay anything toward it. It has to be “medically necessary.” MCR won’t cover a “nose job” unless you have a deviated septum or other harmful medical condition.

My United Healthcare AARP plan, a Medicare PPO, gives me plenty of choices of providers and covers illnesses and conditions that are extra, such as my annual eye examination and my physical therapy sessions for back pain. There are a number of United Healthcare plans to choose from, so I probably should get more information from them on what other conditions might be covered in another of their plans. Maybe I can improve my coverage. My type of plan is called a “Medicare Advantage Plan” rather than the “Medicare Supplement or Medigap” plans. What I really don’t like about those Medigap plans is that, just like MCD, if MCR doesn’t “approve” the treatment the Supplement plan pays nothing. If it is “approved,” then the plan will pay more on each approved illness or treatment, including copay and coinsurance.

I don’t know whether Sanders’ Medicare-For-All will be restricted to “medically necessary” issues or not. The different coverages from plan to plan are complex and pretty confusing, but getting MCR at 65 was a great help to me financially, and I’m much more secure now about my health. Health is the one thing that is almost certainly going to degrade gradually (or not so gradually) over time. By the time people are 65 they will have quite a few additional problems, some fatal or totally debilitating, so that the patient needs to be in nursing home. A recent questionnaire asked me “Can you feed yourself?” That gave me a very uncomfortable feeling.


SANDERS’ BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION

Comment from the Wikipedia biography below: “Sanders praised Chomsky as "a very vocal and important voice in the wilderness of intellectual life in America."

That is Sanders’ unhappy description of the general lack of interest among Americans in “book learning,” and that’s both whites and blacks. Studying for any reason other than to make more money is either “foolish” or downright effeminate. (Some black kids have taken to calling it “acting white,” and too many white conservative men are just disinclined to read anything beyond the daily newspaper for the purpose of “the joy of learning.”)

Half a dozen beers down at the pool hall is more their scene, especially in small towns. Too many of us are not only unable to read at a high level (one article said the Fifth Grade in grammar school); we may unfortunately be unable to catch up with other wealthy democracies such as France, Germany, Japan, and others in our educational achievement levels. A test of academic skills is conducted every year or so that compares nation to nation, and the US is so far not only not on top, but is actually near the bottom. Malaysia scores higher. Every time that test report comes out in our newspapers here everyone laments the fact and blames teachers, but our school systems still remain in a generally inferior ranking. Too much talk and not enough action! Let’s face it, more teachers and fewer kids in a classroom and a higher educational standard do cost extra money, and of course Republicans just don’t care enough about literacy to help the public schools by financing that. There is usually a push from Republicans, however, to issue vouchers to help people pay for private school. That’s wrongheaded, in that it only helps a few kids when thousands need tutoring and mentoring, plus providing teacher’s helpers who actually help kids read rather than merely helping the kids take their coats off when they come in. That’s what a teacher friend of mine said about teacher’s aides. That really is disgusting to me.

Maybe if Sanders gets in and puts through his plan of free tuition at state supported schools for all citizens, as many European countries have been doing for years, more of our population will be able to go to college. Many kids live in such poor households that they simply have no HOPE of college, and therefore don’t try to learn in their K-12 years. Kids tend to be motivated by short term goals, and joining the right street gang gives a better payoff in their eyes. Studying is for suckers!

Having only a high school education is in general very limiting, not to mention the fact that it is simply not enough to produce good voters, or even good citizens in too many cases. Those kids can get a construction job, yes, but they won’t be able to pass education down the line to their kids when they need help with their studies. That’s one of the main things that builds good students – their family background. Besides, many of those kids who are “functionally illiterate” when they get out of school do end up in prison. There are reasons for that, you see, other than merely the color of their skin. Quite a few wealthy kids don’t have a particularly high IQ either, but their parents have money, so they are first given a tutor and pushed to study, then sent to a prep school and then to a prestigious school such as Yale. They don’t need scholarships, so their less than genius range IQ will get them through, especially if their parents give megabucks to the college. The “halls of ivy” are in all cases highly money oriented big businesses, sad as that is.

The following Wikipedia rundown of Sanders’ life is pretty long, even though I didn’t put it all in here, but there is not one wasted word in it, and it shows his great dedication to basic decency and fairness, and his considerable competitiveness. He was “a dark horse” to me when he jumped in the Presidential race this time, but I’ve found lots of his quotations on the Web since then, and they were exactly what, in my book, REAL Democrats should be saying. The more I learn about his views and political vision, the more I am SURE that he is the right Democrat to be elected. In addition, Sanders did, some months back, pledge that he would not become a third party candidate and a “spoiler.” He’s a good guy, dedicated to helping the poor and a very capable thinker. Go, Bernie!!



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders

Bernie Sanders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician and the junior United States senator from Vermont. A Democrat as of 2015,[5] he had been the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. Sanders has been the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee since January 2015.[6] He is a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Sanders was born and raised in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student, Sanders was a member of the Young People's Socialist League and an active civil rights protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.[7][8] In 1963, he participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.[7]

After settling in Vermont in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third-party campaigns for governor and U.S. senator in the early to mid-1970s. As an independent, he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont's most populous city, in 1981. He was reelected three times. In 1990, he was elected to represent Vermont's at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1991, Sanders co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He served as a congressman for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, he was reelected by a large margin, capturing almost 71% of the popular vote.

Sanders has long been critical of U.S. foreign policy and was an early and outspoken opponent of the Iraq War. He rose to national prominence following his 2010 filibuster[9][10] against the proposed extension of the Bush tax cuts. Sanders favors policies similar to those of social democratic parties in Europe, particularly those instituted by the Nordic countries.[14] He is a leading progressive voice on issues such as income inequality,[15] universal healthcare, parental leave, climate change,[16] LGBT rights, and campaign finance reform.[17] He is also outspoken on civil rights and civil liberties, and has been particularly critical of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system[18] and mass surveillance policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act[19] and the NSA surveillance programs.[20]

Early life, education, and family

Sanders was born in Brooklyn, to Dorothy (née Glassberg) and Eli Sanders.[21][22] His father immigrated from Poland in 1921 at age 17, and supported his family as a paint salesman.[23] As his older brother Larry remembers their childhood, the family never lacked for food or clothing, but major purchases, "like curtains or a rug," were difficult to afford.[23] His father's family was killed in the Holocaust,[7][21][24] while his mother was born in New York City, to Jewish immigrant parents, on October 2, 1912.[25][26][27] His father was born in Słopnice on 19 September 1904[28] and emigrated to the United States in 1921.[29] Sanders has said that he became interested in politics at an early age: "A guy named Adolf Hitler won an election in 1932. He won an election, and 50 million people died as a result of that election in World War II, including 6 million Jews. So what I learned as a little kid is that politics is, in fact, very important".[30][31][32]

Sanders attended elementary school at P.S. 197, where he won a state championship on the basketball team. He attended Hebrew school in the afternoons, and celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1954. Sanders attended James Madison High School, where he was captain of the track team.[33] While at Madison, Sanders lost his first election, finishing last out of three candidates for the student body presidency. Sanders's mother died in June 1959 at the age of 46, shortly after Sanders graduated from high school.[24] Sanders's father later died on August 4, 1962, at the age of 57, a month short of his 58th birthday.[28]

According to his brother Larry, both brothers were post-WWII, young Jewish radicals, but were part of the crowd, not yet leaders.[34]

Sanders studied at Brooklyn College for a year in 1959–60[35] before transferring to the University of Chicago.

In 1964, Sanders graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He married Deborah Shiling and they bought a summer home in Vermont; they had no children and divorced in 1966. Over the next few years, he took various jobs in New York and Vermont and spent several months on an Israeli kibbutz.[36][37] His son, Levi Sanders, was born in 1969 to Susan Campbell Mott. In 1988, Sanders married Jane O’Meara Driscoll (née Mary Jane O'Meara), a former president of Burlington College, in Burlington, Vermont.[38] With her he has three stepchildren, whom he considers his own.[36][39]

Sanders's elder brother, Larry Sanders, lives in England.[40] He was a Green Party county councillor representing the East Oxford division on Oxfordshire County Council, until he retired from the Council in 2013.[41][42] Larry Sanders ran as a Green Party candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon in the 2015 British general election and came in fifth.[43][44] Bernie told CNN, "I owe my brother an enormous amount. It was my brother who actually introduced me to a lot of my ideas."[44]

Sanders has said he is "proud to be Jewish" but "not particularly religious."[31] His wife is Roman Catholic, and he has frequently expressed admiration for Pope Francis, saying that "the leader of the Catholic Church is raising profound issues. It is important that we listen to what he has said." Sanders shares Francis's beliefs on economic equality and has described him as "incredibly smart and brave."[25][45]

Early political activism

While at the University of Chicago, Sanders joined the Young People's Socialist League,[36] the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of America, and was active in the Civil Rights Movement as a student organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.[7][8] In January 1962, Sanders led a rally at the University of Chicago administration building to protest university president George Wells Beadle's segregated campus housing policy. "We feel it is an intolerable situation when Negro and white students of the university cannot live together in university-owned apartments," Sanders said at the protest. Sanders and 32 other students then entered the building and camped outside the president's office, performing the first civil rights sit-in in Chicago history.[46][47] After weeks of sit-ins, Beadle and the university formed a commission to investigate discrimination.[48] Sanders also participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.[49] That summer, he was found guilty of resisting arrest during a demonstration against segregation in Chicago's public schools and was fined $25.[50]

In addition to his civil rights activism during the 1960s and 1970s, Sanders was active in several peace and antiwar movements. He was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Student Peace Union while attending the University of Chicago. Sanders applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War; his application was eventually turned down, by which point he was too old to be drafted. Although he opposed the war, Sanders never placed any blame on those who fought and has been a strong supporter of veterans' benefits.[51][52]

Liberty Union campaigns

Sanders began his political career in 1971 as a member of the Liberty Union Party, which originated in the anti-war movement and the People's Party. He ran as the Liberty Union candidate for governor of Vermont in 1972 and 1976 and as a candidate for U.S. senator in 1972 and 1974.[53] In the 1974 race, Sanders finished third (5,901 votes; 4.1%) behind the victor, 33-year-old Chittenden County State's Attorney Patrick Leahy (D, VI; 70,629 votes; 49.4%), and two-term incumbent U.S. Representative Dick Mallary (R; 66,223 votes; 46.3%).[54][55] In 1979, Sanders resigned from the party and worked as a writer and the director of the nonprofit American People's Historical Society (APHS).[56] While with the APHS, he made a 30-minute documentary about American Socialist leader and presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs.[36][57]

Mayor of Burlington

In 1981, at the suggestion of his close friend Richard Sugarman, a professor of religion at the University of Vermont, Sanders ran for mayor of Burlington and defeated six-term Democratic incumbent Gordon Paquette by ten votes in a four-way contest on March 3.[58][59] Sanders was reelected three times, defeating both Democratic and Republican candidates. He received 53% of the vote in 1983 and 55% in 1985.[60] In his final run for mayor in 1987, Sanders defeated Paul Lafayette, a Democrat endorsed by both major parties.[61]

During his years as mayor, Sanders called himself a Socialist and was so described in the press.[62][63] During his first term, his supporters, including the first Citizens Party City Councilor Terry Bouricius, formed the Progressive Coalition, the forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party.[64] The Progressives never held more than six seats on the 13-member city council, but they had enough votes to keep the council from overriding Sanders's vetoes. Under Sanders, Burlington became the first city in the country to fund community-trust housing.[65]

During the 1980s, Sanders was a staunch critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.[66] In 1985, Burlington City Hall hosted a foreign policy speech by Noam Chomsky. In his introduction, Sanders praised Chomsky as "a very vocal and important voice in the wilderness of intellectual life in America" and said he was "delighted to welcome a person who I think we're all very proud of".[67][68]

Sanders's administration balanced the city budget and drew a minor league baseball team, the Vermont Reds, then the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, to Burlington.[21] Under Sanders's leadership, Burlington sued the local television cable franchise, winning reduced rates for customers.[21]

As mayor, Sanders led extensive downtown revitalization projects. One of his signature achievements was the improvement of Burlington's Lake Champlain waterfront.[21] In 1981, Sanders campaigned against the unpopular plans by Tony Pomerleau, a Burlington developer, to convert the then-industrial[69] waterfront property owned by the Central Vermont Railway into expensive condominiums, hotels, and offices.[70] Sanders ran under the slogan "Burlington is not for sale" and successfully supported a plan that redeveloped the waterfront area into a mixed-use district featuring housing, parks, and public space.[70] Today, the waterfront area includes many parks and miles of public beach and bike paths, a boathouse, and a science center.[70] Burlington is considered one of the most livable cities in the nation.[71][72]

In 1987, U.S. News ranked Sanders as one of America's best mayors.[73]

After serving four terms, Sanders chose not to seek reelection in 1989. He briefly taught political science at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government that year and at Hamilton College in 1991.[74]

Sanders officially launched his candidacy for President of the United States at Waterfront Park in Burlington in 2015.[69]