Sanders chafes at responding to real world events....

[Historic NY]

As Washington and the campaign trail are consumed by questions of terrorism and gun control after last week’s shooting in San Bernardino, California, Bernie Sanders chafed this weekend at the idea that news events should dictate what his campaign says or does.

On a swing through this key presidential primary state, Sanders largely stuck to his bread and butter domestic issues, before tacking on some more topical material towards the end of two speeches Saturday about guns and the so-called Islamic State. And as if sensing the criticism before it came, Sanders preemptively defended himself by saying he would not be, as he sees it, cowed by the media into jettisoning his core message.

“Let me conclude by saying this,” the senator told a crowd of 1,000 at Keene State College. “If you turn on the TV, what they now say is well, we’ve got one problem: It’s ISIS. We don’t have to worry about old people not having enough to eat. We don’t have to worry about having more people in jail than any other country… All we should focus on now, 24/7, is ISIS.”

Sanders supporters are thrilled by the fact that he has strong convictions and sticks to his message no matter what. But presidents rarely have such luxury. Sunday night, for instance, President Obama will update the nation on the fight against ISIS in a rare Oval Office address.

Sanders spent the previous week trying to shore up his uneven record on gun control, which has become a liability for him. Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley have made the issue central pillars of their campaigns.

Sanders held a press conference with Senate Democratic leaders to push for new gun laws, voted for every piece legislation he could that came before the Senate, went on a tweet storm about guns, wrote an op-ed on the subject, and emailed his supports with a lengthy missive laying out his plan to reign in firearms.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sanders-chafes-responding-real-world-events

[jfern]

1. ISIS wouldn't exist without foreign policy like Hillary's

[Historic NY]

6. Really it was George Bush's policy that cause it....

Thousands of well-trained Sunni officers were robbed of their livelihood with the stroke of a pen. In doing so, America created its most bitter and intelligent enemies. Bakr went underground and met Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Anbar Province in western Iraq. Zarqawi, a Jordanian by birth, had previously run a training camp for international terrorist pilgrims in Afghanistan. Starting in 2003, he gained global notoriety as the mastermind of attacks against the United Nations, US troops and Shiite Muslims. He was even too radical for former Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Zarqawi died in a US air strike in 2006.

Although Iraq's dominant Baath Party was secular, the two systems ultimately shared a conviction that control over the masses should lie in the hands of a small elite that should not be answerable to anyone -- because it ruled in the name of a grand plan, legitimized by either God or the glory of Arab history. The secret of IS' success lies in the combination of opposites, the fanatical beliefs of one group and the strategic calculations of the other.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/jeb-bush-isis_n_7284558.html


President George W. Bush says he has one regret about his decision to invade Iraq in order to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003: the rise of the terror organization the Islamic State (ISIS) which followed the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011.

"A violent group of people have risen up again," Bush said in excerpts of an interview with CBS Television’s "Face the Nation" scheduled to begin airing on Sunday. The Islamic State, he added, "is al-Qaida plus" and "they need to be defeated."
Bush said he was surprised that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had failed to take seriously his threat to target his regime over its refusal to cooperate with international inspectors investigating illicit Iraqi efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. The former president is currently promoting a biography he has written about his father, President George H.W. Bush.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/George-WBush-Iraq-War-ISIS-regret/2014/11/07/id/606104/#ixzz3tcdHWkkF

[aidbo]

2. Implying that the issues which Sanders speaks out about are not part of the real world?

[Bonobo]

3. To poor people, hunger is a fuckload more real than the problem of ISIS.

So what YOU or the media decide is a "real world event" is largely a matter of where you stand.

Some of us have seen this movie before and don't want to pay the admission.

Hope you don't mind if I make that an OP. You inspired me.

[Cha]

4. "But in Keene, his first speech since the San Bernardino shooting, Sanders did not mention guns once

That prompted a sharply worded rebuke from O’Malley’s campaign, which also dispatched a staffer to Sanders’ second event of the day to spin reporters on why Sanders “did the NRA’s bidding.”

Whoa.. that will get him stick.

[leftofcool]

13. Bernie cares more about his war on Walmart than this country's gun problem.

[Cha]

14. It's unreal.

[JonLeibowitz]

16. And O'Malley has been documented on DU to be incorrect

He should apologize.

[Cha]

17. Nah.

[Scootaloo]

5. Wow. What a masturbatory article

MSNBC is reporting exclusively about Daesh. Ergo Daesh must be the absolute only thing of import happening anywhere.

Like Bonobo says. There are people in America who are vastly more worried about where their next meal is coming from, than they are about anything pertaining to Daesh.

This desire to see the presidency as a purely military position is a gross deformity of our political perception that lingers on from the Bush administration.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Keep in mind that CNN really wants to record a mushroom cloud....

Here or there matters not.

[delrem]

7. While other and more "inevitable" and "their turn" candidates, join in the rabid

screams of Republicans for vengeance.

And who the fuck cares the peoples the vengeance is carried out on, so long as they've got oil.

[Scootaloo]

10. They're not joining, they were already members

neoconservatiism is a plague of both parties.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Actually, Sanders refuses to play along for the Media Drama Queens....

Tweety was giddy over the idea of a Republican in power again.

Fear = Republican Win in his world.

[JDPriestly]

11. The ISIS war and the killings in San Bernardino are dramatic and important enough.

But the fact that so many Americans, especially people of color, are being killed and imprisoned IN OUR VERY OWN COUNTRY is just as important and merits more attention than ISIS and the anomaly of the shooting in San Bernardino.

We do have to be concerned about ISIS, but first and foremost we need to be concerned about the racist police in our own country, the extreme numbers of people in our prisons and the shocking disparity in wealth in our country.

ISIS we can deal with. We do not have a large Muslim population. But our overcrowded prisons, the too-big-to-fail banks, our environmental deterioration, our failing infrastructure, our lack of family leave, our too-expensive-to-afford state colleges and universities, our racism, our extreme disparity in wealth and the other problems that Bernie focuses on are OUR PROBLEMS.

We cannot deal with the problem of ISIS unless we deal with our domestic problems either first or at least at the same time.

'Oh! Look over there! Isn't that awful what those other evil people are doing" when we are allowing evil to continue in our society is a bad approach to life.

Yes. ISIS is important and dramatic. But it is not the insidious threat that the problems that Bernie is talking about are. Bernie is right to focus on the problems that the media likes to ignore. I'm 100% with Bernie on this.

We can handle ISIS. We need to get our own house in order too.

[Enthusiast]

12. This is why I am boycotting MSNBC.

Join me.

[daybranch]

15. Bernie puts things into perspective

That is why we love him. He does not ignore current weeks happening , he considers them based on a lifetime of experiences. Some Hillary people seize on every current week's event as if nothing like this ever happened before and they want to overwhelm people with any news they believe they can turn to Hillary's favor.
AS for Bernie publicizing thr need for what you call gun control laws, has he really changed ? I think he is saying like he has said many times in the past, yelling is not going to enact reasonable legislation, but we have areas of agreement such as background checks, gun show regulations,assault type weapons, mental illness etc. around which we can enasct sensible helpful regulation. Of course with recent evrents , he took advantage of it to step up efforts in this regard. So did Hillary, So did O Malley, and so did Obama. To do less would be irresponsible. To act as if it is in response to Hillary and polls shows you know little about what motivates an authentic , honest man. Bernie is not politics as usual and to claim he is shows you are either twisting things to support Hillary or you are just blind to how he conducts himself and his campaign. Go Bernie!

[tecelote]

18. How dare Bernie not care about what he's told to care about!

The sheep might wake up and realize that they're being fed bullshit.

What would happen if Americans began to care about issues they can have an impact on?

This articles shows that Bernie is getting MSNBC worried. What if they don't get their Hillary elected? Bernie might change the national focus from war and hate to helping America live up to what America could be.

But, hey, don't worry. If Bernie wins you can still watch the crap on MSNBC and feel a longing for the time when ISIS and terrorism were your evening entertainment.

I mean, hey, not much you can do about ISIS from your couch. But, helping your neighbor, that is something that might make you feel a need to participate. Wouldn't want that, would you.

[leftofcool]

19. It has to be one or the other?

We can't have a President concerned about terrorism and gun control and the economy at the same time? I'm sorry that I don't see ISIS as evening entertainment and I hope that Senator Sanders does not feel that way. I want a President who is concerned about all of the issues we face, not put one over the other.

[tecelote]

20. The article is about just that. Sanders is not toeing the line and scaring us all.

"We can't have a President concerned about terrorism and gun control and the economy at the same time?"

Absolutely, but the MSM seems to care only about ISIS. And, it is entertainment for many viewers.

The last paragraph: “If you turn on the TV tonight, someone will say this is the major issue facing the country. It’s the only issue – until tomorrow’s issues,” he said to laughs before another crowd of more than 1,000. “Who determines what the major issues are? You do. You have got to do that. And don’t let CNN or NBC or anybody tell you what the major issues are.” - Bernie

I'm glad you protest.

[riversedge]

21. Sanders is going to have to find a balance. Ignoring-or barely talking of world affairs will

get him nowhere fast IMHO

[Sunlei]

22. He really is an excellent Senator

[Fuddnik]

23. Posts like these make me long for the old unrec function.

[madokie]

24. I've not read anything I disagree with like I do this screed

in a long ass time.

Bernie is going to be our next President. If I was a betting person I'd take bets on that.