Bernie Sanders' quietly scored a major win against Donald Trump this week.

[Uncle Joe]

The Senate just passed a bill that, if signed into law by the House, would rebuke President Donald Trump's support for Saudi Arabia in its controversial war against Yemen.

The bill would end America's support for Saudi Arabia in a military campaign against Yemen so harsh that the United Nations referred to it as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to NBC News. Thousands of Yemenis have been killed due to Saudi military actions and thousands more have been left on the brink of starvation. Yet despite this human rights concern, as well as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's involvement in the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump has continued to defend Saudi Arabia and support that nation's war against Yemen, even going so far as to publicly disagree with and criticize his own intelligence community when they have lambasted the Saudi government.

"The bottom line is that the United States should not be supporting a catastrophic war led by a despotic regime with an irresponsible foreign policy," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., declared from the Senate floor on Wednesday. The bill passed by the Senate was co-sponsored by Sanders and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on the grounds that (as Sanders put it in his speech) it would "begin the process of reclaiming our constitutional authority by ending United States involvement in a war that has not been authorized by Congress and is unconstitutional."

As Sanders further explained to Talking Points Memo, "The issue of war and peace is obviously an enormously important issue for the people of this country, and it has to do with whether we continue to be involved in never-ending wars, whether we spend trillions of dollars on the war on terror, or if we come up with new approaches which protect American interests, protect American lives, protect American money. I think what is interesting about this vote, this effort, is it really is bipartisan. I hope and expect we’ll have every Democrat, and I think we’ll have a number of Republicans. I think that’s what the American people want on issue like this."

(snip)

https://www.salon.com/2019/03/15/bernie-sanders-quietly-scored-a-major-win-against-donald-trump-this-week/

[CentralMass]

1. K&R

[TwilightZone]

2. The bill had 19 co-sponsors who also deserve credit.

Trump already promised a veto, of course.

The co-sponsors below. Lee and Murphy were original sponsors, along with Sanders.

Sen. Lee, Mike [R-UT]* 01/30/2019
Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT]* 01/30/2019
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] 02/04/2019
Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL] 02/04/2019
Sen. Warren, Elizabeth [D-MA] 02/04/2019
Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] 02/04/2019
Sen. Leahy, Patrick J. [D-VT] 02/04/2019
Sen. Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] 02/04/2019
Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR] 02/04/2019
Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] 02/04/2019
Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] 02/04/2019
Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI] 02/04/2019
Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] 02/04/2019
Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA] 02/04/2019
Sen. Harris, Kamala D. [D-CA] 02/04/2019
Sen. Brown, Sherrod [D-OH] 02/04/2019
Sen. Peters, Gary C. [D-MI] 02/04/2019
Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] 02/26/2019
Sen. Schatz, Brian [D-HI] 03/13/2019

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/7/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22yemen%22%5D%7D&r=3&s=1

[Uncle Joe]

4. Yes and I'm proud of all the co-sponsors of Bernie's bill.

[Autumn]

3. Yes, that's a big win.

Thank you Bernie!

[Hortensis]

5. DU polled support for Sanders holding steady at 8%.

Coincidentally, the TOP 8 posts in this forum just now are about Sanders.

[Autumn]

6. And at least 6 of those are are by posters who "support" other candidates or are "undecided".

[Hortensis]

8. Well, a majority FOR when I counted. Plus, there were several

other Sanders posts all down the screen. But I agree that Sanders' little group of devotees are getting a great deal of assistance in keeping his name dominating, something that exhausted devotees must be more grateful for than otherwise. Come November 3, 2020, the candidate name with the most mentions on social media gets a sticker.

[Autumn]

11. It would be nice of people posted about the candidates they like. I don't know that Bernie has

any "exhausted devotees".

[Hortensis]

13. I just posted about Amy Klobuchar. An extremely competent

and accomplished public servant who's spent her years in the senate to good purpose. Rachel Maddow practically gushed over her, a big favorite.

Here's her govtrack file. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/amy_klobuchar/412242

Here's Politics That Work's summary of her voting record.
Senator Klobuchar opposes
big business, taxing the middle class, domestic surveillance.

She supports
taxing businesses, restrict money in politics, consumer protection, disaster relief, funding education, environmental protection, financial sector regulation, gun control, public health, foreign and humanitarian aid, humane immigration policy, labor rights and wages, lgbt rights, internet freedom, avoiding default, poverty amelioration, racial equality, increasing revenues, taxing the wealthy, a robust safety net, higher spending, women's rights.

[Autumn]

14. I'm not seeing your OP on her. Link?

[NurseJackie]

7. Overcompensating?

It's typically the same posters too.

But, you're correct... the "flooding" and spamming of the forum is inconsistent with, and doesn't accurately reflect reality.

Weird, huh?

[Uncle Joe]

9. This OP isn't about polls or popularity contests.

This is about whether we as a nation wish to tie ourselves to the brutal, autocratic regime in Saudi Arabia; which has been waging a murderous war against a helpless population in Yemen while using our logistic support and in some cases weapons.

If you wish to study the subject, this article may be of use.

The Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) field hospital in the port city of Mocha, Yemen, is the only health facility performing emergency surgery for the local community in this region caught between the front lines of conflict.

MSF opened the surgical field hospital here in August 2018, following the start of a major military offensive launched by the Saudi and Emirati-led Coalition on the city of Hodeidah. The hospital provides emergency medical care to war-wounded people from the front lines in Hodeidah, to the north, and Taiz, to the east.

We have provided more than 2,000 emergency room consultations and performed around 1,000 surgical procedures in Mocha. Many of our patients are children, wounded by mines, improvised explosive devices, and unexploded ordnance while playing in fields. Teams also treat pregnant women with complicated deliveries that require urgent surgery.

Photographer Guillaume Binet traveled to Mocha to report on the extraordinary medical needs of people affected by the ongoing war.

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/story/yemen-look-behind-battle-lines

There are pics and a video on the link but some DUers may find them too upsetting.

Or this article

Yemen’s Unending Agony – OpEd

The people of Yemen are in desperate straits. The vicious conflict that has engulfed the nation has led to the worst humanitarian crisis in today’s world. At this moment the vast majority of Yemenis – four out of every five, or more than 24 million people – need assistance to survive. Nearly a quarter of the entire population are malnourished, many acutely so. There are two million malnourished children under five, while more than a million pregnant and lactating women require urgent treatment to survive. On top of this, mounting rubbish, failing sewerage and wrecked water supplies have resulted in the worst cholera outbreak in recent history.

What has brought Yemen to this catastrophic state of affairs? It all started in the sadly misnamed “Arab spring” uprisings of 2011. Mass protests, a near-assassination of the then president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and pressure from neighbouring petro-states forced Saleh to step down in favour of his vice-president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The political instability was largely caused by attempts of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels to overthrow Saleh’s government.

(snip)

The prospect of Shia Iran, its arch-enemy, gaining a permanent foothold on the Arabian peninsula, right on its doorstep, alarmed Sunni Saudi Arabia. The kingdom determined to prevent Iran from doing so. Accordingly, in March 2015 Saudi’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), assembled a coalition of Arab states, obtained the diplomatic backing of the US, UK, Turkey and Pakistan, and launched a series of air strikes against the rebels.

If MBS anticipated a quick or easy victory, he was to be sadly disappointed. Four years of combat have not succeeded in defeating the Houthis. On the contrary, time seems to have emboldened them. Using Iranian hardware, they have fired ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia itself.

(snip)

https://www.eurasiareview.com/15032019-yemens-unending-agony-oped/

Or you can stay focused on the "horse race" and popularity contests.

[Hortensis]

10. I'll just stick to pointing out that 8% support for Sanders

because I think a few second spent posting that offsets the long hours invested by others in trying to delude people into believing a very different picture.

[Uncle Joe]

12. You might be right, I hope you're not.

[Hortensis]

15. These are the primaries. Those already committed to

a particular candidate are certainly entitled to speak up for him. It's just that the volume and types of claims are often very overblown, when they should ideally be honest and informative.

Let's face it, Sanders didn't really have a great victory over Trump this week, so describing this activity that way...isn't. The senate of which he is a part did pass a meaningful, though toothless, rebuke of Trump on Yemen; however, not with a veto-proof majority.

Note, though, that Sanders is not involved with any of our senate foreign policy committees. His posturing with hard-right Republican senator Mike Lee on Yemen, who's helping Sanders build a fake foreign policy resume for voters who don't read, have insulted those who are, implying that dozens of Democratic senators who DO work on many areas of foreign policy -- and their hard work -- don't even exist. Do you wonder his colleagues and so many of those voters who do read despise him?

[Uncle Joe]

16. Bernie sponsored a bill that a Republican dominated Senate passed and it should most definitely

pass the Democratic House.

Whether you wish to admit it or not, that's a victory.

P.S. Having said that I believe the biggest winners would be the people of Yemen.

[Hortensis]

17. Republicans refused to pass bills presented by DEMOCRATIC

senators. Their willingness to join in this belated bill sponsored by Sanders but none of the bills sponsored by our senators on the Foreign Relations Committee really should make you wonder WHY.

You and the Republican leadership are promoting the same candidate, but for very, very, VERY different reasons. Your reasons may be honorable, but theirs are emphatically not.

And please do note that our Democratic senators of course (!) put aside the many insults Sanders has dealt them and put themselves to getting this bill passed because, of course, passing it was the right thing to do.

Btw, you might wonder why Sanders missed that critical vote on lifting sanctions on Russian oligarch Deripaska. We came extremely close but failed to stop that. He claimed he had a meeting scheduled at his office for when the vote was held.

[Uncle Joe]

18. Perhaps it's because the more "liberal" Republicans see the political writing on the wall and they

don't care to tie their political fortunes too close to Trump anymore as in Cohen, Manafort, et al with it also being an election year?

Perhaps it's because of all the Democratic Candidates for President Bernie Sanders has been the most aggressive in taking on Trump directly, of course that's understandable, they have different challenges facing them, name recognition, organization and such.

If WAS the right thing to do whether it be the other Democrats voting for the bill, Bernie and even the few Republicans that voted for it.

[Hortensis]

19. Or perhaps not for both those wishful points.

Truth isn't whatever we decide it'll be to suit ourselves. Or what we'll find by immersing ourselves only in whatever confirms what we want to believe, avoiding what doesn't.

Zealous Fox viewers on the other side of the political spectrum are a big warning to all of us. They've been exposing themselves only to what they want to hear for so long that many are permanently screwed. They'd literally need professional assistance to reconnect with reality, but no one will ever offer it to them and they certainly wouldn't accept it anyway.

[McCamy Taylor]

20. K&R for positive action!

Why are all these positive threads at the bottom of the page? Kick them up!

[George II]

21. It was initially Chris Murphy's resolution, he's been talking about this for four years:

“I started raising the alarm about this issue four years ago, and I was a lonely voice in Washington.”

https://ctmirror.org/2019/03/13/senates-yemen-war-measure-rebukes-trump-rewards-murphy/

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kudos to Chris Murphy