While waiting for the debut of the new and improved GMD here are some recent poll results on the crowded GOP presidential race.

The common advice is to mostly ignore polling this early, but who would have predicted Trump’s success at the wheel of the GOP clown car. According to those questioned in an Economist/YouGov poll, Trump is now seen by those who call themselves Republican as having a positive impact on the race.

Results also show The Donald is now considered a credible candidate and possible general election winner.

And this week the more politically experienced Republicans, like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, are even further back.

 

Alas poor Jeb!,the smart Bush.It was a bad summer for him and now he has to face the fall.

I’ve just got to share a link to “Searching for Bernie,” a new podcast series that promises to track the Bernie Sanders phenomena as it unfolds on the campaign trail.

http://searchingforbernie.us

The “shameless self-promotion” part is where I will be featured in one of the upcoming segments.

A couple of months ago, I received an email request for an interview from journalist Alan Mairson, who describes himself thusly:

I’m a freelance journalist, a former staff writer and editor for National Geographic magazine, a husband, a dad, and a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. I’m also not much of a Lefty or a progressive. I’ve never considered myself a democratic socialist. I tend to be suspicious of large groups of people who gather under a single banner, any banner, to do virtually anything. I’m not a big joiner, and I’m certainly no revolutionary…

Alan had come across one of my GMD diaries discussing Bernie’s appeal, over the years, to Vermonters, and he asked if he could interview me over Skype for his podcast series that was then in development.  

He explained that he and his teenage son, Caleb, who will be a first-time voter in the 2016 election, were setting out on a shared experience in practical democracy, pounding the boards on the campaign trail in Iowa.  

After hearing Bernie speak and “Feeling the Bern” first hand,  they signed on to ring doorbells and make phone calls as campaign volunteers.  At the same time, Alan would be collecting and editing interviews for the podcast series.

That series has just premiered with the ‘Welcome’ and first interview episodes, which are very professionally framed, edited and presented with stirring impact.

The production schedule is apparently lagging a bit due to the other commitments that have emerged for the two volunteers; but any of us who have ever volunteered for Bernie know all about how that goes.  One quickly comes to appreciate how much of the success of this aspirational campaign rests on the shoulders of committed individuals.

My own interview with Alan was a delightful experience for me, and I hope it will bring something of use to his undertaking.

It made me feel that I was able to play a small role in capturing the excitement of this audacious attempt to move mountains of well-oiled political machinery using just the collective will of the people.

Look for my interview on Searching for Bernie, sometime in the coming weeks (months?), and keep checking Green Mountain Daily for it’s upcoming makeover and re-boot.

It is outrageous and SHAMEFUL that Shumlin and other Vermont Dems have endorsed and are supporting Hillary Clinton!

Sanders is now within 7 points of Clinton in IOWA!  IOWA–A CAUCUS state!

Not only has Bernie straightened out his act with Black Lives Matter, but he has been speaking about how the same old same old ‘establishment’ politics are no longer relevant to the needs of THE PEOPLE because ‘establishment’ politicians and Congresspeople are in the pockets of the Rich and the Corporate Reich, and, that when we elect them, they act in the interests of those who would turn this nation into a Corporate Fascist State.  

He’s been saying in his speeches that The People need to exercise their POWER.  He’s right!  The People not only need to applaud and cheer for Bernie, The people need to SPEAK OUT along with him, to show that they are fed-up with and reject more BETRAYAL from the ‘establishment’ political system–that, as far as The People go, this system essentially is ‘broke’ and needs fixing.

So, I’m going to endorse Bernie, and try to DO SOMETHING TO HELP!

First off, I urge all Vermonters to contact the Vt. Dems I am listing below and DEMAND that, since this state is overwhelmingly for Bernie, that THEY repudiate any endorsements and support of Clinton and endorse and support Sanders.  Here are some numbers to call, folks:

Gov. Shumlin–828-3333

Peter Welch–802-652-2450, or 888-605-7270

Pat Leahy–802-863-2525, 0r 800-642-3193

The Vermont Democratic Party–802-229-1783

I also urge people to call your local radio stations, write or email Letters To The Editor, Vigil (You already know how to do that), DEMONSTRATE and MARCH and RALLY, call the TV stations and VPR, hand out flyers–which I will make out of this post, and you can also–and SPEAK OUT!

Bernie Sanders is only one man.  And he’s not Jesus Christ.  He cannot do it by himself, nor should we count on a ‘savior’ to do everything for us.  We have to get off our asses and SPEAK OUT!  Next year’s election gives us a chance to have IMPACT.  Even if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination, we will have begun to work on breaking down a system that is DESTROYING THIS NATION!

So, please people, especially YOU FRONT PAGERS here at Green Mountain Daily, it’s past time we speak out as Vermonters to show the rest of The People throughout the country what The People CAN DO!

Here’s Sanders out there saying what most of us feel, and here we are, SITTING BACK ON OUR LAZY ASSES WATCHING!  Get the emails of those folks above, and the emails of the papers, TV stations, etc.  Call them AND write them!  NOW is the time, NOT next year.  And it isn’t that hard to do.

It would be a hoot-in-Hell if Sanders won Iowa AND New Hampshire.  And wouldn’t our Little Dems here look awfully foolish?  Not to mention venile.

And think how foolish we would feel if we just sat back and let Sanders do it all by himself.  People all over the country would be saying:  “What’s the matter with those Vermonters?  Are they STUPID or just plain LAZY?  Or BOTH?

I’m Peter Buknatski and I approve this message.

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

You may have noticed over the past month that GMD has been unusually inactive.  That’s because our energies have been concentrated on a transition that will bring you an exciting new Green Mountain Daily; hopefully, within the next few weeks.

The 2016 election is already shaping into a unique and transformative contest, both statewide and on the national front.   What happens over the next fifteen months will tell us much about what kind of political future we face in the coming decade.

We want GMD to be ready for the challenges of that future, so our admin elves are hard at work on an ‘upgrade.’

Please excuse us while we take this little break; and stay tuned.  We will return better than ever!

Well after years of headlines about out of this world CEO compensation there is a small effort to control the greed underway. A new Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)  rule will require disclosing the gap (usually massive- an average of twenty to one is estimated)[Correction:an average of 20 times in 1965 to almost 300 in 2013.BP ] between a company’s chief executive pay and the rank and file workers.  

Their thinking goes like this: Because the rule will generate an easily graspable and often decidedly shocking number, it may energize a cadre of new combatants in the executive pay fight. And because these newcomers — company employees, state governments and possibly even consumers — will most likely be more vocal on the matter than institutional investors have been, the executive pay bubble might actually start to deflate.

   Some are hopeful, but the effort may have its hands tied from the start.One independent compensation consultant points out that the SEC’s reporting method may understate the CEO/worker compensation gap.

That’s because the calculation, which relies on what is known as the summary compensation tables in the annual proxy statement, does not include the total amounts executives have built up in their pensions and supplemental retirement plans.

  And there is this detail;the rule doesn’t become effective until 2017 which means it won’t be until shareholder meetings held in 2018 that SEC pay ratio reports will be available.  I guess someone figured out there is no 'shame' in waiting-at least for the fatcat CEOs.

I freely admit that I watched last week’s Republican debate for the same reason that much of America did: to witness the spectacle that is Donald Trump.  We were not disappointed.

But in the post debate kerfuffle over DT’s predictably offensive behavior, one rather incisive observation that he made has been completely overlooked.  That is a shame because, in context, it held the seminal truth about our twenty-first century “democracy,” and he deserves credit for acknowledging the elephant in the room.  No pun intended.

I can only paraphrase because the words came out in his signature fountain of incomplete thoughts and hyperbole; but I cling to the hope that it was intentional truth telling and not just his id on overdrive once again.

He said something about giving money to “all “of the candidates, as well as to the Clintons and to “everyone”…because he is a businessman and that is how business gets done.  I believe he even said that that was exactly the problem in Washington, and why he is running for president.

Lord, let it be so.

Wouldn’t it be something if Trump’s candidacy wasn’t merely the whim of a rich, selfish media junky but an intentional act of social sabotage intended to graphically demonstrate how money buys elections and, ultimately, policy on Capitol Hill?

Why have those remarks attracted absolutely no media attention?  

True, they could have been just more Trump-style free-association, spit-balling for the cameras; but plenty of other things he said, apparently with no more measured consideration, have generated endless discussion, follow-up interviews and analysis.

Is the media so completely in the tank for spectacle that they can’t see a story of potential substance when it bites them on the nose?

Trump’s made noises many, many times over the years about joining the presidential cattle call; but only now, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, with sixteen other contenders on his flanks, does he actually enter the ring.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that Trump doesn’t actually think he’d make a pretty damned grand president; but he is first and foremost about always coming out on top.  It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if, once the RNC finally shows him the door, he doesn’t come back with a claim that he did it all to shine a bright light on the role that money plays in bending democracy into the mold of oligarchy.

I, personally, would applaud the effort if he did.

No one knows where this unusual election cycle will take us, but Bernie Sanders, candidate for president, has been gaining in the polls even as he was flattered with a pot shot by the front runner

Never one to bask in what might prove temporary glory, Bernie is wasting no time in getting the important messages out there while he commands the spotlight as Hilary Clinton’s chief competitor for the Democratic nomination.  

Today, that message focussed on campaign funding in the wake of Citizens United, agreeing with former president Jimmy Carter who has called it

“unlimited political bribery…a complete subversion of our political system, as a payoff to major contributors who want, and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election is over.”

Sanders has promised that, when Congress reconvenes in September, he will introduce legislation that would create a system of public funding for election campaigns so that the focus of such campaigns can return to issues and policies rather than the distortions that result from competition for special interest dollars.

Just one family, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, plan to invest some of their fossil-fuel fortune and, along with other wealthy donors, bankroll a $900 million political operation this election cycle. That’s more than either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party will each spend on the 2016 campaigns, Sanders noted.

Since Koch money has bought and paid for much of our sitting Congress, the measure is unlikely to pass this time; but sooner or later, American voters will throw off the yoke of corporate agenda control and demand meaningful change with no little urgency.  

We’d better hope it will be sooner because the longer it is postponed the more dreadful the potential consequences for civil society.

The argument has to be made that public funding of elections will more than pay for itself in taxpayer savings, when elections become uncoupled from boondoggle projects and subsidies for things like the sugar and corn industries.  

Economy driving innovation will soar when legislators shake off the grip of the powerful fossil fuel lobby and end preferential treatment of the nuclear energy industry.

With such an unencumbered Congress, infrastructure projects that will benefit the entire country and employ millions will replace the few projects that currently get funded (even over-funded) only because special interests are pulling the strings.

It’s got to happen before very long if this nation is going to survive well into the twenty-first century without being torn apart by the powerful pull of grave social inequities.

Revolution is only glorious in hindsight when the flag wavers and reenactors get hold of it.  

I understand that it is far less pleasant to live through.