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Sanders disputes Clinton: ‘I worked as hard as I could’ to elect her

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday said he rejected criticism from Hillary Clinton that he and his supporters contributed to her defeat in last year’s presidential election.

“I worked as hard as I could after endorsing Hillary Clinton,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Asked by host Chuck Todd if he accepted Clinton’s criticism that his primary challenge to her and his sustained following helped elect President Donald Trump, the Vermont independent said, “No, I really don’t.”

Sanders also brought up and rebutted a popular talking point that some of his supporters did not go on to vote for Clinton in the general election. He pointed out that a large portion of Clinton’s supporters in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary went on to vote for Republican Sen. John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama.

“You know people say, ‘Well, not everybody who voted for Bernie ended up voting for Hillary.’ No kidding,” Sanders said. “That’s what happens in politics.”

Sanders also said the re-litigation of the 2016 election was unproductive and that the Democratic Party needed to undergo a fundamental shift.

Join the Civilized World

The United States today is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee health care as a basic right to all its citizens. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced legislation this week to change that.

The bill, titled “The Medicare for All Act,” would gradually expand Medicare coverage to all Americans by reducing the program’s eligibility age incrementally over four years. In essence, the health insurance currently provided to seniors over 65 would be accessible to everyone.

More concretely, it would replace private health insurance corporations, and the immense profits, power and administrative bloat that goes along with them.

As Congress remains stymied in partisan gridlock and the president teeters between scandal and incoherence, now is precisely the time to put forward a bold vision for a more civilized, caring country.

Canadian doctor to U.S.: Try single-payer health care instead of trashing it

There’s a joke we sometimes tell in Canada: What’s a Canadian? An apologetic American with health care.

It’s funny because we half-believe it’s true. The United States and Canada are about as similar as two countries get. But Canada has had a publicly funded, single-payer health care system in each of our provinces and territories since the 1960s. It works. Maybe it can work for you too.

I was in the room on Capitol Hill last week when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced new legislation that would seek to enact a single-payer health care system in the U.S. If Sanders’ bill moves forward, all Americans would have access to Medicare, regardless of their age or financial situation. Is it that simple? In some ways, yes.

In Canada, the notion that access to health care should be based on need, not ability to pay, is a deeply ingrained value that crosses party lines right and left, and is a source of collective pride. The single-payer, publicly funded health care systems in Canada cover virtually every resident of our country, at a much lower cost than the U.S. model.

There are plenty of nasty rumors in the American media about the quality of health care in Canada. In fact, Canadians live longer than Americans, and according to a recent study published in The Lancet, the Canadian system outperforms the U.S. on quality and access to care overall.

How Do We Build a Racial Justice Movement Too Powerful to Ignore?

A panel on race and resistance in Trump’s America, featuring Alicia Garza, Walter Mosley, Steve Phillips, Joan Walsh, and Mark Hertsgaard.

Betsy DeVos Is Helping Education Profiteers Rip Off Students

Left for dead under Obama, the industry is suddenly getting everything it wants.

As World Moves Forward with Paris Accord, U.S. Observes From Sidelines

Some officials left a climate summit in Montreal this weekend with the impression that Trump could re-enter the Paris agreement—but critics have doubts

Rejecting Trump Agenda, Immigrant Protections Bill Passes in California

Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign the California Values Act, passed by lawmakers Saturday, which would make the state a “sanctuary state” with new protections for undocumented immigrants.

The 27-11 vote, along party lines, was reached after lengthy negotiations. But immigrant rights groups applauded the final bill, noting that it represented a strong rebuke of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, including the Justice Department’s threats to withhold law enforcement grants from sanctuary cities.

“This was a hard-fought effort but the end product was worth the fight,” said Jennie Pasquarella, Immigrants’ Rights Director with the ACLU of California. “With SB 54, California will meaningfully improve state law to keep families together and communities whole—and not a moment too soon as the Trump administration continues its draconian and indiscriminate crackdown on immigrants.”

Under the law, state and local law enforcement officers will not be permitted to ask about a person’s immigration status during an arrest or police stop, and their communication with federal immigration authorities will be limited.

The bill also gives protections to inmates who are immigrants, allowing them to reduce their sentences by completing educational or rehabilitation programs, and ensures that schools, hospitals, libraries, and courthouses remain safe spaces for undocumented immigrants.

China Calls On U.S. to Stop Threats and Resume Dialogue with North Korea

Chinese officials urged the Trump administration on Friday to halt its threats of military action against North Korea and rejected the notion, pushed by the president in recent weeks, that China is responsible for helping to resolve escalating tensions with military threats of its own.

“[The US] should refrain from issuing more threats,” said Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. “They should do more to find effective ways to resume dialogue and negotiation. Honestly, I think the United States should be doing…much more than now, so that there’s real effective international cooperation on this issue.”

Ciu’s remarks came after a press conference given by U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and national security advisor H.R. McMaster, who warned that the U.S. could resort to a military option following North Korea’s latest missile test over Japan.

Haley and McMaster insisted military action is “not what we prefer to do,” but a White House spokesperson repeated the administration’s position that diplomacy is not an option, saying on Friday that “now is not the time to talk to North Korea.”

The U.S. announced its latest round of harsh sanctions on the isolated nation this week, affecting oil, gas, and other exports to North Korea. Kim Jong-un said Saturday that the sanctions will not stop him from continuing to develop the country’s nuclear program in the hopes of achieving “the equilibrium of real force with the U.S. and make the U.S. rulers dare not talk about a military option.”

Sen. Warren Introduces Legislation to Save Consumers From ‘Equifax Exploitation’

On the heels of Equifax’s massive data breach and its subsequent efforts to force victims into a “rip-off clause” that prevents them from filing class-action lawsuits against the company, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday announced that she is both launching an investigation into the credit-reporting giant’s security practices and introducing legislation (pdf) that would “give control over credit and personal information back to consumers.”

Along with placing more power in the hands of consumers and strengthening fraud protections, the legislation—titled the Freedom from Equifax Exploitation (FREE) Act, which Warren introduced alongside Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)—would also limit the power of companies like Equifax by barring them from “charging consumers for freezing and unfreezing access to their credit files.”

As the Washington Post’s Brian Fung notes, consumers are usually charged anywhere from $5 to $10 to freeze and unfreeze their credit, depending on the agency.

“Ending the fees could save millions of Americans from having to pay to protect their own personal data in the aftermath of the data breach at Equifax, which affected 143 million people,” Fung observes.

Warren said in a statement on Friday that “agencies like Equifax make billions of dollars collecting and selling personal data about consumers without their consent, and then make consumers pay if they want to stop the sharing of their own data.”

Passing the FREE Act, Warren concluded, would be “a first step toward reforming the broken credit reporting industry.”