Wednesday, November 2, 2016

839 Needing money, Trump turns Zionist. Hillary stays with TPP; Ben Carson links her to Lucifer

Needing money, Trump turns Zionist. Hillary stays with TPP; Ben Carson
links her to Lucifer

Newsletter published on 21 July 2016

(1) Needing money, Trump turns Zionist. Hillary also relies on big
Jewish donors
(2) Trump deletes Tweet showing Hillary with Star of David and a pile of
money
(3) Under Trump, the Old anti-Semitism Is Making a Comeback - Haaretz
(4) Ben Carson warns Hillary is a devotee of Saul Alinsky, who dedicaded
a book to Lucifer
(5) Hillary's mentor Saul Alinsky dedicated a book "to the very first
radical ... Lucifer"
(6) Hillary delegates vote down Sanders' call for TPP to be dropped
(7) Clinton Backers Beat Back Sanders Supporters on TPP Trade Pact

(1) Needing money, Trump turns Zionist. Hillary also relies on big
Jewish donors


From: "Ken Freeland diogenesquest@gmail.com [shamireaders]"
<shamireaders-noreply@yahoogroups.com> Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2016 22:33:22
-0500 Subject: [shamireaders] FW: In the US, money talks when it comes
to Israel, Jonathan Cook

http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-07-19/in-the-us-money-talks-when-it-comes-to-israel/

In the US, money talks when it comes to Israel

Jonathan Cook

The National – 19 July 2016

The grubby underside of US electoral politics is on show once again as
the Democratic and Republican candidates prepare to fight it out for the
presidency. And it doesn’t get seamier than the battle to prove how
loyal each candidate is to Israel.

New depths are likely to be plumbed this week at the Republican
convention in Cleveland, as Donald Trump is crowned the party’s nominee.
His platform breaks with decades of United States policy to effectively
deny the Palestinians any hope of statehood.

The question now is whether the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton,
who positions herself as Israel’s greatest ally, will try to outbid Mr
Trump in cravenly submitting to the Israeli right.

It all started so differently. Through much of the primary season,
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had reason to be worried about Israel’s
"special relationship" with the next occupant of the White House.

Early on, Mr Trump promised to be "neutral" and expressed doubts about
whether it made sense to hand Israel billions of dollars annually in
military aid. He backed a two-state solution and refused to recognise
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

On the Democrat side, Mrs Clinton was challenged by outsider Bernie
Sanders, who urged "even-handedness" towards Israel and the
Palestinians. He also objected to the huge sums of aid the US bestows on
Israel.

Mr Sanders exploited his massive support among Democrats to force Mrs
Clinton to include well-known supporters of Palestinian rights on the
committee that drafts the party’s platform.

But any hopes of an imminent change in US policy in the Middle East have
been dashed.

Last week, as the draft Republic platform was leaked, Mr Trump proudly
tweeted that it was the "most pro-Israel of all time!" Avoiding any
mention of a two-state solution, it states: "We reject the false notion
that Israel is an occupier. … Support for Israel is an expression of
Americanism."

The capitulation was so complete that even the Anti-Defamation League, a
New York-based apologist group for Israel, called the platform
"disappointing" and urged the Republican convention to "reconsider".
After all, even Mr Netanyahu pays lip service to the need for a
Palestinian state.

But Mr Trump is not signalling caution. His two new advisers on Israel,
David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt, are fervent supporters of the
settlements and annexation of Palestinian territory.

Mr Trump’s running mate, announced at the weekend, is Indiana governor
Mike Pence, an evangelical Christian and a stalwart of pro-Israel causes.

So why the dramatic turnaround?

Candidates for high office in the US need money – lots of it. Until now
Mr Trump has been chiefly relying on his own wealth. He has raised less
than $70 million, a fifth of Mrs Clinton’s war-chest.

The Republican party’s most significant donor is Sheldon Adelson, a
casino magnate and close friend of Mr Netanyahu. He has hinted that he
will contribute more than $100 million to the Trump campaign if he likes
what he sees.

Should Mr Netanyahu offer implicit endorsement, as he did for Mitt
Romney in the 2012 race, Christian Zionist preachers such as John Hagee
will rally ten of millions of followers to Mr Trump’s side too – and
fill his coffers.

Similar indications that money is influencing policy are evident in the
Democratic party.

Mr Sanders funded his campaign through small donations, giving him the
freedom to follow his conscience. Mrs Clinton, by contrast, has relied
on mega-donors, including some, such as Haim Saban, who regard Israel as
a key election issue.

That may explain why, despite the many concessions made to Mr Sanders on
the Democratic platform, Mrs Clinton’s team refused to budge on Israel
issues. As a result, the draft platform fails to call for an end to the
occupation or even mention the settlements.

According to The New York Times, Mrs Clinton’s advisers are vetting
James Stavridis as a potential running mate. A former Nato commander, he
is close to the Israeli defence establishment and known for his hawkish
pro-Israel positions.

Mrs Clinton, meanwhile, has promised to use all her might to fight the
growing boycott movement, which seeks to isolate Israel over its
decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory.

The two candidates’ fierce commitment to Israel appears to fly in the
face of wider public sentiment, especially among Democrats.

A recent Pew poll found 57 per cent of young, more liberal Democrats
sympathised with the Palestinians rather than Israel. Support for
hawkish Israeli positions is weakening among American Jews too, a key
Democratic constituency. About 61 per cent believe Israel can live
peacefully next to an independent Palestinian state.

The toxic influence of money in the US presidential elections can be
felt in many areas of policy, both domestic and foreign.

But the divorce between the candidates’ fervour on Israel and the
growing doubts of many of their supporters is particularly stark.

It should be dawning on US politicians that a real debate about the
nation’s relationship with Israel cannot be deferred much longer.

(2) Trump deletes Tweet showing Hillary with Star of David and a pile of
money

From: "Come Carpentier comecarpentier@gmail.com [shamireaders]"
<shamireaders-noreply@yahoogroups.com> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:49:49
+0530 Subject: [shamireaders] Trump realises that he is up against
something too strong to be challenged

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/politics/trump-clinton-star-of-david.html

POLITICS

Donald Trump Deletes Tweet Showing Hillary Clinton and Star of David Shape

By ALAN RAPPEPORT

JULY 2, 2016

Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came
under fire on Saturday for posting on Twitter an image of the Star of
David shape next to a picture of Hillary Clinton and calling his
opponent the "most corrupt candidate ever!"

While the six-pointed star is used in other contexts, including as a
symbol of many Sheriff’s Departments, it has deep meaning in Judaism and
the image was overlaid atop a pile of money. It appeared to play into
the stereotype of Jews being obsessed with finances. After being derided
on social media, Mr. Trump deleted the post and replaced it with one
that had a circle instead of the star shape.

Crooked Hillary -- Makes History! #ImWithYou #AmericaFirst
pic.twitter.com/PKQhYhMmIX — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2,
2016

While Mr. Trump has been working to professionalize his campaign, the
Twitter post was the latest example of him making remarks many deem
offensive. Several weeks ago, he insinuated that a federal judge
presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University could not be impartial
in the case because of his Mexican heritage.

Mr. Trump apparently realized the problem with the original Twitter post
because he rarely apologizes for his remarks or deletes his posts. His
campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Before the post came down, Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s
campaign, asked on his personal Twitter account, "Why is there a Star of
David?" Other commenters were more blunt:

@finkowska All right. OK. Is this a deliberate show of grotesque
anti-semitism or an accidental act of grotesque stupidity? — Neil Bennun
(@NeilBennun) July 2, 2016

Mr. Trump regularly touts his close ties to Jewish people, noting that
his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism when she married her husband,
Jared Kushner. He also has promised to make the security of Israel a top
priority if he is elected president.

However, Mr. Trump has frustrated some Jews for initially declining to
take a firm stand on the side of Israel when discussing the conflict
with the Palestinians. And he angered some last year when he joked about
Jews being good with money during a speech to the Republican Jewish
Coalition.

Mr. Trump has also been criticized for failing to denounce supporters
who have harangued Jewish journalists on social media and at gatherings
of white nationalists, and for being slow to disavow the support of
David Duke, the former Klansman.

(3) Under Trump, the Old anti-Semitism Is Making a Comeback - Haaretz
From: "Israel Shamir adam@israelshamir.net [shamireaders]"
<shamireaders-noreply@yahoogroups.com> X-Yahoo-Profile: ish314 Date:
Sat, 9 Jul 2016 08:37:37 +0300 Subject: [shamireaders] Trump and Jews

Regarding Pick Your Poison Part 2 Did Trump surrender his position to
the Jews? Here is a lengthy piece from Haaretz implying that he did not.

Under Trump, the Old anti-Semitism Is Making a Comeback

by Chemi Shalev Jul 07, 2016 11:18 PM

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.729654

The motto "Always Fight, Never Apologize" was bequeathed to Donald Trump
by his late lawyer and presumed mentor, Roy Cohn. The repulsive
mastermind of the McCarthy hearings could also answer Trump’s claim that
he can’t be an anti-Semite because he loves his converted daughter and
his Jewish son-in-law and grandchildren: Cohn was a full-fledged Jew,
yet he hated Jews with a vengeance and persecuted them with undisguised
zeal. So it can be done.

But even if we accept Jared Kushner’s assertion, in response to the
brave essay posted in his own Observer newspaper by Dana Schwartz that
"my father in law is an incredibly loving and tolerant person who has
embraced my family and our Judaism since I began dating my wife." And
even if we take at face value the factually-challenged statement of
Trump’s adviser and advocate Jason Greenblatt that Trump "has refuted
anti-Semitism, loudly and publicly". his follow up rhetorical question
remains unanswered: "Why would Mr. Trump countenance the support of any
Jew hater, when he is one of the most pro-Jewish, pro-Israel candidates
ever to seek national office?"

Why indeed. Greenblatt claims that Trump hasn’t countenanced such
support, but things may seem different outside Trump Tower. The facts
are that Trump tried to avoid denouncing David Duke for as long as he
could; that he has said nothing about the racists and anti-Semites
coming out of the woodworks in droves under his umbrella; that he
refused to criticize the anti-Semitic trolls who hounded journalist
Julia Ioffe after her magazine portrait that Trump’s wife Melania did
not like and that he has said nothing about the vicious anti-Semitic
social media bombardment of any Jewish journalist who happens to write a
bad word about him; that he has refused to let go of the slogan "America
First" even though he must surely realize by now that it carries a
specific anti-Semitic historical connotation; that he repeatedly lauds
tyrants and dictators that are problematic for Jews, including Benito
Mussolini and Saddam Hussein; and that he himself has been known to
release the occasional anti-Semitic remark, including his assertion to
the Republican Jewish Coalition,  more relevant today perhaps than it
was back in March, that Jews won’t support him because they can’t
control him because they can’t buy him with money. You know, like
Hillary Clinton in the star-studded ad that Trump insists has nothing to
do with Jews.

But instead of simply apologizing and moving on, as Jewish leaders have
begged him to do, both publicly and privately, Trump has persisted in
doubling down and making things worse. He asserted on Wednesday that
critics who see a Star of David where there is only an innocent
sheriff’s badge are "sick". He insisted that he wouldn’t have removed
the offensive ad in the first place, as his staff did, because there’s
nothing offensive about it. He completely ignored the fact that the ad
was lifted directly from a neo-Nazi website. And then he added insult to
injury with an inane tweet that compared the Clinton ad to a poster of a
Disney book of Frozen that also featured a six-pointed star. So which is
it? Is Trump playing stupid? Pandering to what he assumes is the lowest
common denominator of his supporters? Or is there something more
sinister at play?

Even if you stipulate that you agree with Trump 100% that the Star of
David ad is completely innocent, why is he so totally unresponsive to
protests that have come from Jews and non-Jews alike, including Paul
Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives? Why is such a
self-proclaimed lover of Jews allowing anti-Semitism to rear its head in
the middle of his election campaign instead of nipping it in the bud so
that it goes back under the rock from which it emerged? How is it
rational for Trump to antagonize and alienate so many Jews for no good
reason?

Perhaps it’s truly because he never apologizes and always hits back "ten
times harder," as Cohn taught him. Perhaps he thinks that standing tall
against the media and refusing to bow to political correctness was, is
and will forever be essential to his success. Perhaps he’s counted and
then realized that there are far more racists than Jews, who aren’t
going to vote for him anyway, because they can always a buy a Democrat
like Clinton, as the ad states and as he once implied.

And perhaps, in a worst-case scenario, Trump is keeping the Jews in
reserve as an emergency scapegoat, if his campaign doesn’t go well. It’s
a long-standing tradition in American politics, though not one usually
kept by mainstream candidates of the two big parties. From the
manipulative Rothschild bankers of William Jennings Bryant in 1896,
through the Bolshevik agents in the 1920’s, the international Jews who
pushed Franklin Roosevelt to fight the Nazis and implement the Jew Deal
in the 1930’s and 1940’s, Roy Cohn’s 1950’s communists, George Wallace’s
liberals in the 1960’s, Jesse Jackson’s hymies in the 1980’s and Pat
Buchanan’s neocon Israel-Firsters, pushing America into a war of
civilizations in the 1990’s, anti-Semitism is always just around the
corner, if anyone needs it.

The situation is laced with irony. It was only a short while ago, no
more than a year or two, when the era was being touted as a golden age
for American Jews, in which they are more than prosperous, their culture
permeates throughout the land and they are the most admired and sought
after religious group of all. In any case, if anyone was going to
unleash a new wave of anti-Semitism, it was going to be the Jewish
Democrat Bernie Sanders, rather than the candidate of the party that in
recent years has been portrayed as absolutely philo-Semitic as well as
completely supportive of Israel.

This was supposed to be the year that the GOP would hit the jackpot with
the Jews. Jewish Republicans had hoped to use the 31 per cent that Mitt
Romney extracted from the Jews in 2012 as a launchpad to try and match
the previous records of 39 per cent for Ronald Reagan in 1984 and 40 per
cent for Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. Instead, they should now fear
plummeting to John McCain’s 24 per cent in 2008, George W. Bush’s 19 per
cent in 2000 and even, heaven help them, his father’s measly 11 per cent
in 1992.

While the government of Israel and its constituent Jewish organizations
have been waging a crusade against new anti-Semitism that is fueled by
hostility to Israel from Islam and the left, the far older and more
entrenched anti-Semitism that requires hatred for Jews alone has reared
its head on the right. Reservations about Barack Obama’s attitude
towards Israel and fear that Clinton will follow in his path will now
have to compete with far more primeval fears that Jews have known
throughout the ages. And after several years in which it may have seemed
that Jews in America and in Israel are growing closer and facing common
enemies, the particular Diaspora experience suddenly reappears, driving
a new wedge between them. Israelis have grown accustomed to a
dichotomous worldview in which the left is the root of all evil while
the right, racist as it is, is a kindred spirit. A resurgence of
anti-Semitism from the right will be disconcerting for many Israeli
Jews, reminding them that support for Israel and animosity towards Jews
are not mutually exclusive.

Jewish groups that are not identified with the left have kept mainly
silent until now, with the notable exception of the Anti Defamation
League’s Jonathan Greenblatt, who has been urging Trump to apologize and
get the Star of David affair over with. Several Jewish groups united
yesterday to issue a call against anti-Semitism in the campaign, without
mentioning Trump by name. You can imagine that some of the groups were
concerned about their right wing donors, while others insisted that
Sander’s demands for changes in the Democratic platform also merit a
mention.

"It’s like a bad dream that we need to wake up from," one Jewish leader
told me this week. Which reminded me of a "nightmarish fantasy" I wrote
in March in which anti-Semitism exploded during the campaign, Trump won
the elections and liberals found refuge in Israel. That last part
remains wishful thinking, of course, but of the "nightmarish fantasy"
that existed three months ago, I suspect only the nightmare remains today.

  Chemi Shalev Haaretz Correspondent

(4) Ben Carson warns Hillary is a devotee of Saul Alinsky, who dedicaded
a book to Lucifer


http://www.jta.org/2016/07/20/news-opinion/politics/when-gop-needs-a-rallying-tactic-better-call-saul-alinsky

When GOP needs a rallying tactic, better call Saul (Alinsky)

By Ron Kampeas

July 20, 2016 7:33am

CLEVELAND (JTA) — Two days into the coronation of Donald J. Trump, the
arrival of Saul Alinsky, in all his dead Jewish radical glory, was not a
surprise.

Lucifer, on the other hand, was an unexpected guest, brought into the
proceedings by Ben Carson, the rival Trump defeated.

Alinsky is the community organizer and author whose templates have
loomed large in the conservative mind in recent years as the ur-text of
leftist nefariousness.

Among other techniques, he advocated using non-violent conflict as a
rallying principle, and the identification of an external threat as a
means of uniting an afflicted community.

Those disruptive tactics and Alinsky’s associations with Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama have made him a bogeyman for the right wing. Clinton
wrote her undergraduate thesis on Alinsky, and interviewed him – she was
critical of some of his tactics, but her association still incurs
conservative wrath.

Alinsky was a community organizer in Chicago and Obama was a community
organizer in Chicago — but decades later, long after Alinsky died when
Obama was 11.

Newt Gingrich embraced the Alinsky-Obama nexus during his abortive 2012
run for president, thrice mentioning Alinsky in his South Carolina
primary victory speech. The Forward’s Gal Beckerman wondered at the time
if Gingrich was sending out a high-pitched whistle.

"I might be overreacting, it’s possible, but if I hear what I hear when
he uses that obviously Jewish, foreign-sounding name, I’m sure others do
as well," Beckerman wrote.

No surprise, Alinsky had a walk-on Tuesday night, hours after Donald
Trump formally assumed the nomination through a roll call vote on the
floor of the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on the second night of the
convention.

Alinsky’s channel was Carson, the neurosurgeon who briefly overtook
Trump in polls last year, earning him a typically Trumpian scorched
earth takedown. (The developer and reality TV star likened Carson to a
child molester. Don’t ask.)

Carson is now ensconced in the Trump camp – it came down to hating Ted
Cruz even more than he did Donald – and was the penultimate speaker.

Carson was charming and self-deprecating at first, wondering, in his
neurosurgeonish way what had happened to the brain of Democrats, who, he
argued, were losing their minds to political correctness.

Then came Hillary Clinton, and this:

"One of her heroes, her mentors was Saul Alinsky. Her senior thesis was
on Saul Alinsky. He wrote a book called ‘Rules for Radicals.’ On the
dedication page it acknowledges Lucifer, the original radical," Carson said.

"This is a nation where every bill in our wallet says ‘In God we
trust,'" Carson continued, and the audience joined in with him on the
last four words, and also when he got to "under God," reciting the
pledge of allegiance.

"Are we willing to elect as president someone who has as their role
model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?" he asked.

Here’s Alinsky’s dedication (or, to be precise, an epigraph that
precedes his book, along with a quote from Rabbi Hillel): "Lest we
forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first
radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know
where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the
very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment
and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer."

Alinsky, a Jew, is not embracing Christian phenomenology, nor is he
lauding its antithesis. He is asking why a society needs a Lucifer, and
suggesting that the invention of the devil is a product of repressing
tendencies that might at times prove productive.

(5) Hillary's mentor Saul Alinsky dedicated a book "to the very first
radical ... Lucifer"


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-ben-carson-lucifer-20160720-story.html

Dr. Ben Carson links Hillary Clinton to Lucifer in RNC address

Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun staff

July 20, 2016

Ben Carson walked away from night two of the Republican National
Convention with only seven delegates voting for him to get the
nomination. Even still, he left quite an impression.

The retired neurosurgeon delivered a scathing assessment of presumptive
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the Republican
National Convention on Tuesday, criticizing her ties to community
organizer and author Saul Alinsky.

Carson said Clinton was an admirerer of Alinsky, having written a thesis
about his work. He connected the former secretary of state with an
epigraph for Alinsky's 1971 book "Rules for Radicals" that calls Lucifer
"the very first radical."

"This is a nation where every coin in our pockets and every bill in our
wallet says, ‘In God We Trust.’ So are we willing to elect someone as
president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges
Lucifer?" Carson said.

The full text of the note at start of "Rules for Radicals," one of three
at the beginning of the book, reads:

Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very
first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is
to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is
which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the
establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own
kingdom — Lucifer.

According to Politifact, there is no other discussion of Lucifer or
Satan in the book.

Clinton has said she agreed with some of Alinsky's opinions on social
change, but disagreed with his view that the political systems could
only be changed from the outside.

Alinsky, who died in 1972, is a favorite target for conservatives to pin
on Democrats. Republicans also sought to tie Barack Obama to him in 2008
and 2012.

Alinsky, born in Chicago to Jewish immigrants from Russia, is credited
with formalizing many of the tactics used to organize modern protest and
community movements in the United States. He was active in the labor
movement, led community organizations on the South Side of Chicago and
received both praise and derision from politicians in his lifetime.

(6) Hillary delegates vote down Sanders' call for TPP to be dropped

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2111843-sanders-supporters-praise-most-progressive-platform-despite-losing-key-battle-over-trade/

Sanders Supporters Praise ‘Most Progressive Platform’ Despite Losing Key
Battle Over Trade

By Steven Klett, Epoch Times

July 11, 2016 AT 1:09 PM

Last Updated: July 11, 2016 2:39 pm

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton delegates came to an agreement during
a meeting in Orlando, Florida on a final version of the Democratic
party’s platform to be voted on in the Philadelphia convention later
this month.

The platform is a non-binding agreement, but acts as symbolic
representations of influence and compromise between Clinton and Sanders
who have different visions for the party.

The Sanders campaign claimed victories, passing amendments raising
minimum wage to $15, expansions to health care, and language calling for
environmental and drug reform.

"We have made enormous strides," Sanders said in a statement on his
website. "Thanks to the millions of people across the country who got
involved in the political process – many for the first time – we now
have the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party."

     Thanks to millions of people across the country, we have the most
progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. Thank you!

     — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 10, 2016

Sanders delegates also expressed surprise and optimism about the results.

"It went a lot better than I thought it would," said environmentalist
and author Bill McKibben, one of the platform committee delegates
supporting Bernie Sanders, in en email to Epoch Times.

McKibben agreed with Sanders’ assessment that the platform was the "most
progressive platform by far ever."

The Clinton campaign also touted the success of the platform stressing
the unity between the two candidates coming together to strengthen the
document.

"We are proud of the work that Democrats did in Orlando and for coming
together to further strengthen the most progressive platform in the
history of our party," said Clinton senior policy adviser Maya Harris as
the two-day Platform Committee meeting wrapped up late Saturday night,
according to a report by NBC.

Sanders is preparing to end the rivalry with Clinton on Tuesday at a
rally in New Hampshire where he will be campaigning with the presumptive
nominee and is expected to make a full endorsement of her. Issues
Sanders Lost On

Three major issues that were pushed by the Sanders campaign were
rejected by the Platform Committee: trade, fracking, and a change in
position on Israeli settlements.

An amendment to oppose the TPP was voted down by Clinton delegates
despite the fact that neither campaign supports it and no Clinton
supporters spoke up in support of the trade agreement. The delegates
didn’t want to cross the President’s support of the deal.

(7) Clinton Backers Beat Back Sanders Supporters on TPP Trade Pact

http://www.newsweek.com/clinton-backers-beat-back-sanders-supporters-tpp-trade-pact-479138

By Nicholas Loffredo On 7/9/16 at 6:07 PM

Bernie Sanders' attempts to progressively influence the Democratic
Party's 2016 platform suffered a blow Saturday when his supporters
failed to add specific opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
trade deal to the party's planks.

Sanders' supporters shouted insults at Hillary Clinton loyalists and
vowed to force a vote on the party's stance on the 12-nation trade pact
when it holds its convention later this month, CNN reports. But it
wasn't a lost weekend for Sanders; the party added explicit support for
a federal $15-an-hour minimum wage to the platform, expressing support
for one of the Vermont senator's signature initiatives.

"We will continue fighting to protect American jobs and to ensure
Congress does not pass this disastrous trade agreement," said Warren
Gunnels, Sanders' policy director, according to the Washington Post.

Both Clinton and Sanders oppose the TPP, which has been a major priority
of the Obama administration. Attempts to avoid embarassing Obama, who
stumped with Clinton this week, kept the anti-trade deal language out of
the platform although an amendment was adopted that lays out the party's
priorities for trade deals. The amendment, proposed by the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union president Lee
Saunders, avoided actual mention of the TPP and passed by a vote of 116
to 64, according to the Post.

Sanders controls a minority of votes on the 187-member Democratic
National Committee, with 70 to Clinton's 100, according to NBCNews.com.
The balance are appointed by the committee itself.

At least two attempts were made by Sanders backers to take a stand
against the TPP, which is also opposed by Donald Trump, the presumptive
GOP candidate. Both failed, prompting some Sanders delegates to walk out
and others to shout "shame" and "fake progressive" at Clinton backers.

"We’ve had no speech in favor of TPP, but we can’t bring ourselves to
say that we oppose TPP?" asked Robert Kraig, a Sanders delegate,
according to the Post.

"The majority of Democrats, like the majority of Americans, are against
the TPP," said Ben Jealous, who sparked the effort to denounce the TPP.
"Hillary is against the TPP. Bernie is against the TPP. Let’s not be
bureaucrats—let’s be leaders."

Sanders hasn't suspended his campaign or endorsed Clinton for president
despite the former secretary of state reaching the delegate threshold to
be nominated at the party convention. He has largely faded from
headlines recently as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed
and campaigned with Clinton, and was booed this week by House Democrats
who want him to get behind the Clinton campaign. His reluctance has
largely been seen as an attempt to extract concessions from the party
establishment and move the platform left—which he did accomplish with
the successful adoption of the $15-an-hour minimum wage plank.

The platform will call for the benchmark to be introduced "over
time"—less specific than Sanders wanted but a significant break from
Clinton's prior support for a $12-an-hour minimum wage. He is expected
to win further concessions to his progressive platform before the
weekend concludes.

Sanders will appear with Clinton at a campaign event Tuesday in New
Hampshire, with speculation swirling that he may finally endorse her
candidacy.



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