Podcast video: Ed Shultz and Larry Cohen (former Pres. of Communication Workers of America)

[merrily]

discuss Bernie Sanders, New Democrats, etc.

At about 22 minutes, give or take a minute, is a BOOM! statement: the last Democratic candidate who had walked a picket line, as Bernie has many times throughout his life, was Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., in 1968.

Great discussion of working people, union and non-union.

I was not familiar with Mr. Cohen, so I googled and was impressed. He was not voted out as President, but retired and has since been working for populist/liberal/progressive policies. He has been stumping for Bernie Sanders. Ed Schultz will be doing that as well.

to leftcoastmountains, who posted this wonderful video of Ed's podcast in the Bernie Sanders Group. http://www.democraticunderground.com/128049941

Enjoy.

[JDPriestly]

1. K&R. So happy that Ed is campaigning for Bernie.

Whoo-hoo. Bernie is going to win. i can feel it. I can feel the Bern.

Never been a candidate like him in my lifetime.

And if you look at the history of our country, we are about due for a huge populist swing. Bernie is just conservative enough to make it work. He doesn't have crazy ideas.

Think of it. One of Bernie's most exciting ideas is to make college (post-secondary school) tuition free at public universities and colleges.

A lot of people are asking how we can do that.

Look at our history. When the Indiana territory was opened up, settlers could buy federal lands for very little. They homesteaded and paid for the land but very little because the federal government was more interested in encouraging economic development in the Midwest at the time than it was in charging money and selling off land to the very rich. People, the people who could settle and live in the new lands were what was important.

Then Lincoln opened up the West as the railroads expanded. Settlers could have 160 acres -- pretty much free. It was government land. All they had to do was to develop the land, to farm it, to use it for social good.

Today, there is no federal land to give away. Today, it isn't the ownership of a piece of land that makes it possible for a family to make a living and contribute to our society. We are no longer an agrarian society (not to shortchange our farmers; there are some in my family; God bless them; it's a tough and lonely life.). And there is not enough undeveloped, unused land to be homesteaded, to be given away to those willing to work hard and make the land economically valuable.

Today, we live in a society in which education is like the land that our ancestors homesteaded. We should be giving people education so that they can develop our society, make us a more harmonious, more industrious, more capable, more aware, more technologically and intellectually advanced society, a more successful democracy.

Free education will be for our children's and grandchildren's generations what the homesteading of land was for our great-grandfathers.

This is the American tradition. Bernie recognizes that. I don't think that the other candidates really understand what Bernie is talking about when he talks about free college tuition at public universities and colleges including trade schools and community colleges. But Bernie is talking about one of the basic traditions in this country -- that government gives young people who are willing to work and make something of themselves the gift of a start in life. Education is the most meaningful gift that government can give now.

I hope this makes it clear to the doubters and naysayers why, yes, we can provide free college tuition at public post-secondary schools for our children and grandchildren. It's an investment and it is the American tradition to make this kind of investment.

We cannot afford NOT to do this.

Feel the Bern!

[merrily]

2. I agree.

The only thing I would add is that Bernie speaks of free education at "public" colleges and universities, rather than "state." I am not sure if other entities, such as cities and counties, may have have colleges, but I've notices that Bernie is relatively precise in his choice of words.

[JDPriestly]

3. Thanks for correcting me. You are very right. I think of state in the European sense of

government. But I should be using the word, public. We have community colleges in California.

[merrily]

6. We have them in Massachusetts as well. In fact, I taught some summer courses for adult students

Last edited Sun Sep 13, 2015, 07:07 AM - Edit history (2)

at one, just to break up my mommie time when my son was very young; and my husband was a Division Chair at another one before he went into educational consulting full time.

[Stevepol]

9. Bernie has ways to pay for all this.

He wants to make all public colleges and universities tuition free. It's true that "A lot of people are asking how we can do that." But Bernie answers that question right up front. He will (re-) start a transactions tax on Wall Street. Every transaction will have a very small tax added to it, and it turns out because of the huge number of transactions this amounts to a lot of money and could easily pay for the free tuition and more.

Most other increases in the Welfare State come from increasing taxes on the wealthy, getting rid of special tax breaks for the billionaire class, cutting out the tax havens, etc. etc. Bernie knows how to balance his books. He was a mayor of a city first before anything else.

[delrem]

4. I kind of like it that Ed Schultz is going all in for Sanders in this way.

He's bringing a depth to it and I like that.

[merrily]

5. It's fantastic. And now that Ed is doing his own podcasts, he doesn't have to kowtow to NBC News,

or cross a picket line of his fellow workers. I do hope he is making money from these podcasts. I've read Cenk is doing very well from his.

Wouldn't it be neat, in a way, if things like podcasts and Democracy Now supplanted msm broadcast news to the degree that msm newspapers have been supplanted?

It was very different when one family owned, then controlled, a newspaper or local station. But now that about five mega corporations control ALL the news we get, it stinks. Still, they and the news services, like AP, are the only ones making enough money to have reporters gathering news in cities, towns and other nations. Maybe, as time goes by, bloggers will do that by focusing on one thing, like police blotters in their own town? Or the state house in their own state?

I don't know, but Teddy Roosevelt was right: somehow we have to break up these mega monopolies that have us by the throat price wise as well as making money hand over fist to hire lobbyists, etc. to own our city, state and federal governments./

[delrem]

7. I'm totally on side with you.

I sent nadin a donation. And I think I'd better send Democracy Now a donation, it's time. And I like it that we send our money around, to the best people. It keeps the spirit burning.

[merrily]

8. .

[yuiyoshida]

10. I love this...has tweeted this

on Twitter to my followers and beyond.

[merrily]

11. Thank you so much. Always nice to see you yuiyoshida. You've been posting some

really interesting threads.

[yuiyoshida]

12. sometimes you get lucky and find odd stuff...

Those are always my little gold nuggets,...and cashing them in, I enjoy finding those.

[Enthusiast]

13. Kicked and recommended to the Max!

It's either elect Bernie and set the nation on the right course or regret it forever.

We can become more like the Western European countries or more like third world nations.

This is a choice.

We can only make the right choice if we can defeat the forces of greed and avarice aligned against us. It is a mighty task.

[merrily]

14. The plutocrat power contingent is sure putting up all the obstacles it can.

[Enthusiast]

15. We are going to witness things we can't even imagine.

If the plutocrat power contingent isn't very careful it will bring even greater numbers and enthusiasm to our cause.

[merrily]

16. Or, they'll be going on, but we won't witness them, which is worse.

I think they are already bringing greater enthusiasm. People are getting angry and, sad to say, anger can motivate and mobilize.