May 31, 2017 - Bernie Sanders rips into Trump in Berlin

[Donkees]

Excerpt:


The German capital felt the "Bern" as the Democrat excoriated the current US president in a speech to university students. The iconoclastic senator repeatedly termed Donald Trump's policies "horrific."

Taking the podium, Sanders said he was going to talk about "What the hell is going on in the United States?"
Sanders said the relationship between the US and Europe had been essential in preventing conflict and ensuring the standard of living on both sides of the Atlantic. He said that "President Trump notwithstanding," this was the view of the "overwhelming majority" of the American people.

He said it would be a "horrific mistake" for the US to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, again criticizing Trump.
"No matter what Trump believes or does, there is movement throughout America to take on the fossil fuel industry," Sanders said. "Do not think the people of the United States are turning their backs on this crisis."

He started by excoriating Trump's proposed budget in the US, which Sanders said showed how "out of touch" the president was. Sanders called the budget the "most horrific" in modern US history. He said 23 million Americans would be out of health care, if Trump got his way, and thousands would "die needlessly." By contrast, Sanders said, the richest one percent of Americans would get $3 trillion (2.7 billion euro) in tax breaks.

The senator said he was "deeply disturbed" about Trump's "disrespect for democracy and traditional American values" such as freedom of the press. He decried Trump's attacks on journalistic institutions and his labeling of reputable American media outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post as "fake news" as a "major assault on democracy in the United States."

http://www.dw.com/en/bernie-sanders-rips-into-trump-in-berlin/a-39071730

[CentralMass]

1. K&R

Nicely done by the Senator from Vermont.

[Samantha]

2. He speaks for me (eom)

[Donkees]

3. Facebook Video Link of Bernie's Berlin Speech

https://www.facebook.com/ZEITmagazin/videos/10154433929601927/

[tallahasseedem]

4. Yawn.

[mfcorey1]

5. Regardless of how much you dislike the current administration,you do not go

to foreign country and blast them. I remember when a shoe was thrown at George Bush, I was furious that happened to a President I disliked in a foreign country. Chill Bernie. There are enough places in the USA would benefit from your message. Just my opinion.

[Gravitycollapse]

6. What?

[Igel]

7. It was longstanding tradition.

Domestic politics stops at the border.

Criticism of what a president's doing abroad on s diplomatic trip waits until he returns, except maybe for general policy discussions about something like treaty or accord provisions.

That weakened slightly under Clinton, more under Bush II. (D) were outraged by violations of the tradition under Obama, and should have been. But every cycle has to outdo the previous one.

It's not just that. We freak at foreign interference when Netanyahu might prefer Trump. We glow at international support when Hollande says to vote for Clinton. They're symmetrical.

At this point BS is showing support for foreign opposition to the US. I'd have been livid if McCain had gone to denounce Obama with a group of students. "But that's different, I'm correct" is a belief in ones own superiority, not a justification.

[Gravitycollapse]

8. Never heard of this tradition and frankly I don't care. Bernie did the right thing.

A critique is a critique, regardless of one's geospatial position. That is especially true when the critique being made is based on the President's position on climate change; an issue that impacts the entire planet.

[Igel]

12. Most these days think "tradition" is what was started last week.

And by this week it's outdated if it's convenient.

The tradition was bipartisan and common from decades before I was born until Clinton. Even under Reagan, while Germans may wave papier mache Reagan heads, newspapers and (D) politicians in the US kept their traps shut until after he returned, and seldom went abroad to curry favor.

It's not easy to notice unless you're sufficiently detached. What we remember are offenses against us, not offenses we commit unless they're victories. We set our minimum standard for behavior on what "they" did to "our" president, and bill that as common to all of them.

It's also not easy to notice a nothing. If there was a two-week laxing of criticism in the press and by politicians, nobody would attribute much importance to it. What's said at home out in person, not in the media, continues unabated. It's hard to notice the temporary absence of something that's intermittent unless those stopping their criticism remark on it, especially when that cessation is background. Consider it part of political elite "high culture" in a society. It's what made Congress function for decades. Sanders never liked this. He likes revolution, because he thinks revolutions are always good. (Hint: Most revolutions end badly, badly for the revolutionaries, to be sure, but especially for the marginal.)

[Gravitycollapse]

16. Sounds like an old world ideology.

It's 2017. The "don't air your dirty laundry" routine is tired and outdated. Whether you like it or not, globalization transports politics beyond national borders. This is a relatively new phenomena, having gained steam in the past few decades. The consequences for national identity and the scope of political critique are vast and difficult to understand. But one of the easily identified shifts is that the blurring of national boundaries renders the tradition you speak of obsolete.

Don't weep over tradition simply because it was important at some point in time. Things change.

[JI7]

15. opposition to trump is not opposition to the US.

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Trump is destroying what had been a bipartisan Foreign policy toward Europe for 70 years

And Trump specifically called out our ally Germany as "bad". Under the circumstances Bernie's comments inside Germany are entirely appropriate.

[leftstreet]

10. This dumb orange fucker represents Americans to the world!

Fuck protocol

At least someone with US notoriety/celebrity status is going to Europe and NOT shoving world leaders out of the way

[QC]

13. Most of us here were delighted over the shoe-thrower.

In fact, there was a real scramble to find the best video links to share with those who didn't have cable at home.

Of course, that was back when this was a liberal site.

[JI7]

14. the current admin is putins puppet with goal of destroying the US

[panader0]

11. Wait---3 trillion US equals 2.7 billion euros?

The euro is about 1.12345 dollars I believe.
Go Bernie!

[burrowowl]

17. Yes the Euro is higher

but also remember what we call a billion others call it a milliard or 1,000 million and so their billion is a trillion.