Monday, February 29, 2016

Donald Trump Father's 1966 NY State Investigations Commission Hearing Testimony Revisited

In January 1966, the father of celebrity deal-maker-turned 2016 Republican party presidential candidateDonald Trump--Fred Trump [II]-- was, coincidentally, called by New York's State Investigations Commission to testify about how he made a lot of money from theTrump family business. And in 1992, former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's book, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall, recalled what happened at the hearing and what was revealed at the hearing:


"In January of 1966, Fred Trump suffered the worst public humiliation of his career. Hauled again before the State Investigations Commission--this time at a public hearing--and hounded by television cameras, he testified for several hours about such an array of abuses in Trump Village that the commission chairman, Jacob Grumet, blasted him...and asked state housing officials: `Is there any way of preventing a man who does business in that way from getting another contract with the state?'...Fred Trump was finished.

"He was grilled about an equipment-rental company he incorporated for this job, and the outlandish charges he was billing the state for secondhand trucks and back hoes. He charged $21,000 to lease a dump truck valued at $3,600. He billed $8,280 for two tile scrappers valued at $500 apiece, a ploy the commission cited as an example of Trump's `talent for getting every ounce of profit out of his housing project.'Fred [Trump] hid his ownership of the equipment company from the state, and state inspectors observed him using much of the equipment to build the adjacent shopping center, which certainly wasn't part of the state-subsidized project...

"...Only when faced with the threat of the hearings hadFred [Trump] returned to the state the $1.2 million he'd kept by overestimating his land costs. He'd banked the first land advances for over two years. He also had used the state excess to pay for the land he needed for his own shopping center and two other parcels covered in the city's description of the total site, but unused in the Trump Village development. [Then-State Division of Housing Auditor Leo] Silverman testified that Trump purchased these three large sections of the site for his own commercial development `without putting up a nickel of his own money'...Trump had overestimated his construction costs by $6.6 million [equivalent to over $48 million in 2015 dollars]. Since his builder's fee was based on a percentage of the estimated, not actual costs, he took what the commission called a $600,000 [equivalent to over $4.4 million in 2015 dollars] `windfall,' his additional fee based on the patently hyped cost predictions. When Silverman testified about this padding, tacked onto a $3.2 million fee Trump had alreadly collected as a percent of real costs, the commission was stunned..."

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Donald Trump Father's Profitable Brooklyn/NYC Democratic Administration Connections Revisited

The father of 2016 Republican party presidential candidate Donald Trump--Fred Trump [II]--apparently made a lot of money during the 1950's from his friendship with the Democratic Borough President of Brooklyn between 1940 and 1961,John Cashmore, to get the Democratic City government in NYC to purchase for a public housing project a parcel of Luna Park/Coney Island land in Brooklyn that Trump's father had previously purchased. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall, recalled:


"...Fred [Trump II] was one of a select number of [then- Democratic Brooklyn Borough President John] Cashmore friends to visit him periodically at his Park Slope home. When [then-Democratic NYC Mayor Robert] Wagner's Housing Authority chief, Warren Moscow, went to see Cashmore in 1955 to get him to support Authority projects on various Brooklyn sites, Cashmore had only one condition. `You've got to take care of my friend Fred Trump,' the borough president said. `I want you to talk about his site in Luna Park.' 

"In the end, the City paid Trump $1.7 million for the parcel, giving him a $300,000 [equivalent to over $2.3 million in 2015 dollars] profit. Then Trump bought back a commercially zoned slice of the site, paying the City almost precisely the profit he'd taken on the overall deal. Fred [Trump] effectively got this prime property for nothing, and the 9-store shopping center he built there was an immediate gold mine, serving the 1,576-unit project that the Housing Authority soon opened next to it..." 

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Donald Trump Father's Senate Banking Committee Subpoena and FHA Scandal Revisited

The father of 2016 Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump--Fred Trump [II]--was, coincidentally, subpoenaed to testify before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee in 1954, when that committee was investigating how Federal Housing Administration [FHA]-financed builders and real estate developers apparently made windfall profits from FHA mortgage gouging during the 1940's and early 1950's. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall, recalled:


"...By the time the...Federal Housing Administration [FHA[ Scandal finally receded in 1956, the Senate Banking Committee had likened it to Teapot Dome...The description proved apt when $51 million [equivalent to around $450 million in 2015 dollars] in mortgage gouging was identified during an FBI random survey of 285 projects.

"Fred Trump was subpoenaed before the [U.S. Senate] Banking Committee in July of 1954 and grilled about the millions in profit he had expropriated from Beach Haven...Questioned by the committee's counsel, William Simon, Trump conceded he'd paid only $180,000 underlying Beach Haven, but got the FHA to put an appraised value without improvement, of $1.5 million on it. He then gave the land to a trust in his children's name and, using the inflated value, charged the Beach Haven project $60,000 a year rent for the land for 99 years...

"Simon moved on to the windfall Trump took on the mortgage proceeds. The committee had established that Fred [Trump] had loaned $729,000 of the excess proceeds from the mortgage to affiliated corporations and kept another $3 million in the bank. This excess, which Trump acknowledged was actually over $4 million on a $16 million mortgage, was the difference between the amount he originally obtained through FHA, based on his pre-construction estimates, and the actual cost of construction. Trump conceded that he'd paid no taxes on the proceeds he was keeping and that he'd invested some of them already...

"...The [U.S. Senate] Banking Committee and FHA findings assailed the inflated cost estimates that had enriched Fred [Trump] and dozens of other builders as `outright misrepresentation.' The final report charged that the developers had `saddled tenants with the burden of meeting not only legitimate costs' but paying rents to cover the unexpended portion of the federal loans that the builders had pocketed. The investigators also condemned the `fictional division of single projects into two or more projects' to sidestep the $5 million limit on insurable mortgages, a tactic Fred [Trump] employed at both Shore Haven and Beach Haven...

"...Fred [Trump] was...threatened with a federal takeover of Shore Haven, where the Beach Haven mortgage scams exposed at the hearings had been tried first..."

Friday, February 26, 2016

Donald Trump Father's Post-1945 Wealth, Robert Moses and Cuomo Connections Revisited

Following the end of World War II in 1945, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump [II], apparently increased his personal wealth a lot and developed more personal, political or business connections to politically influential people, such as former New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses and future Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo--the father of current Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, noted:


"It was in this immediate postwar period that Fred Trump became...a truly wealthy man...Fred began construction on a mansion...The family moved into the 9-room mansion at 85-14 Midland Parkway in 1948...Donald [Trump] was born at the...moment that Fred was making his career change...to big-time New York apartment developer...

"...His name was...mentioned in gossip columns as a possible candidate for Queens borough president, an idea he toyed with in conversations with influential friends...

"Beyond...[political] clubhouse ties [Fred] Trump also took advantage of a very special connection that transcended machine politics: a path of access to...[then New York City Construction Coordinator] Robert Moses...By the late 1950's and early 1960's...Mario Cuomo...would trek out for luncheon business meetings to Fred [Trump]'s Coney Island office, where [Fred] Trump would serve them all cheese sandwiches..." 

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Donald Trump Family's FHA-financed Housing Construction Firm Revisited

Much of the wealth that ultra-rich celebrity deal-maker and 2016 Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump inherited from his father, Fred Trump {II}, was apparently obtained during the late 1930's and 1940's from a Trump housing construction firm that was financed by the public funds of the U.S. government's Federal Housing Administration [FHA]. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall, recalled:


"The financing of Trump's Depression-era housing came from the...Federal Housing Administration [FHA]...By the beginning of 1941...Fred Trump...was beginning to move his base of operations out toward the eastern shore of Brooklyn, buying up valuable tracts in Brighton Beach and Bensonhurst. He announced the development of 200 homes a block from the beach in Brighton and the purchase of a pivotal 50-acre track near Bensonhurst Park right off the Belt Parkway, where he planned another 700 houses...

"The war...brought a shutdown of FHA funding for housing in Brooklyn, forcing Trump to suspend his...Bensonhurst project and sending him off to Norfolk, Virginia, and Chester, Pennsylvania, to build FHA-backed housing hear shipyards for naval officers and related uses...He moved his base of operations to Virginia...In addition to the project Fred built...he became an investor in other Norfolk ventures and bought some outright over the years. He would remain active in the Norfolk area into the seventies, accumulating an estimated 2,400 units at his peak, traveling back and forth from New York on a regular basis...Though Fred prospered in Virginia, he shifted his focus back to Brooklyn by late 1944...

"...Between late 1944 and January of 1945, he bought 3 vast plots of land, putting together a 40-acre site. He got one parcel directly from the City. The other two were in tax arrears, and he snatched them before the City could take them, getting them cheaply and assuming the tax bill. His political connections helped keep him one step ahead of the tax man...

"...Trump's plan called for 1,344 apartments...right off the Belt Parkway and overlooking the bay...The FHA commitment to the plan of $9.1 million was divided into 3 equal parts to avoid the $5 million legal limits on project financing...

"Shore Haven was a dramatic change for the 2-story neighborhood, requiring all sorts of City zoning, sewer and street support...By the time Shore Haven was completed Trump's FHA mortgage was increased to $10.4 million, and his own claimed construction cost was raised to $9.5 million...In addition to his fee as a builder, Fred [Trump] managed to take a $1.6 million profit out of the mortgage proceeds..."

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Donald Trump and Fred Trump's Historic Brooklyn Democratic Party Machine Connection Revisited

Ultra-rich celebrity deal-maker Donald Trump has been campaigning for the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination in recent months. Yet, ironically, during most of the 20th century, Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump II, apparently enriched himself and the Trump family by developing a decades-long political and business alliance with Brooklyn Democratic Party machine politicians. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book Trump: The Deals and The Downfall recalled:


"...[Charlie] Kriger came from the Seneca Democratic Club, then ruled by a major power in Brooklyn politics, Frank V. Kelly...By September of 1934,Kelly would...begin a ten-year reign as the ironfisted, solitary boss of Brooklyn. Though up to then just a small-time Queens builder, Fred Trump had already apparently managed to open lines of communication with Frank Kelly's Brooklyn boys...He was seen lunching with Kelly at the Moutauk, a social club where the bachelor boss lived...

"Fred Trump discovered...in 1934...that he was up against...competition in the hunt to take over the right to service [the jailed] Lehrenkrauss's mortgages...Kriger...announced that the Trump bid was...favored by...John Curtin, a lawyer who was a personal adviser to boss Frank Kelly and had been chosen...to manage the...solvent wings of the Lehrenkrauss empire. Referee Stott was faced with a thoroughly stacked deck of support for Trump...

"...Fred Trump was back in the housing business. For the next 30 years, he would build principally in Brooklyn, attaching himself to a variety of powerful party leaders...The vigorous support he received from the Democratic Party players suggests that he was their designated winner...for an alliance between Trump and the Brooklyn organization that would last a lifetime...

"...Trump became the sole stock holder of Metropolitan Investors, the company he formed to take over the Lehrenkrauss mortgage list...Trump would also form a partnership with Charles A. O'Malley, the appraiser selected by Frank Kelly's...friends to put a value on over 1,000 Lehrenkrauss properties. In 1935 O'Malley and Fred Trump began to build...hundreds of new houses in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn..." 

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Donald Trump's 1980's U.S. Presidential Ambition Revisited

The 2016 Republican presidential candidate for "U.S. Business Deal-Maker-In-Chief"--Donald Trump--apparently first indicated during the 1980's that he wanted to seek the U.S. presidency and eventually occupy the White House oval office. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall, recalled:


"...Tom Fitzsimmons...a sometimes bodyguard and driver for Trump, had known Donald since the early seventies...Fitzsimmons...believed that Donald would become President. It was a notion the golden boy himself had begun toying with at least as early as 1985, when New York state Republican chairman George Clark visited with him at Trump Tower to try to talk him into running for governor.

"`Have you ever thought about running for high public office?' Clark asked. 

"Donald replied without a smile: `Yes. President of the United States.'

"By the end of 1987, he'd advanced this almost eerie ambition with a well-timed appearance in New Hampshire and the formation of a nascent Trump-for-President committee.

"`This is a serious test of the political waters,' his top casino executive, Steve Hyde, said at the time. `If things shake out, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he decided to do it.'

"Donald continued conscientiously planting the seeds, talking about the presidency quite seriously in wide-ranging interviews and buying full-page ads on national political issues..."

Monday, February 22, 2016

Donald Trump's German Immigrant Grandfather and Father's Inherited Wealth Revisited Family

Ultra-rich television celebrity deal-maker turned 2016 Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump has apparently been scapegoating immigrants in recent months for the failure of the current U.S.corporate capitalist economic system to bring back prosperity and affluence for working-class and middle-class people in the United States in 2015.


Yet, ironically, Donald Trump's grandfather, Fred Trump I, was apparently a white real estate business deal-maker who was a late 19th-century immigrant from Germany. And when Donald Trump's grandfather died in 1918, Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump II, apparently inherited a lot of real estate property and money from Donald Trump's white German immigrant grandfather. As the 1992 book Trump: The Deals and The Downfall by Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett observed:

"...Trump mythology--promulgated first in Fred Trump [II] interviews in the forties and fifties, and later embellished by Donald [Trump]--would depict Fred as a struggling carpenter's helper who miraculously lifted himself by his teenaged bootstraps into a leading role in Queens home building. In fact, Fred's father, also named Fred, who had emigrated from Germany...in 1885, already had substantial real estate holdings before he died of pneumonia in May 1918, only 49-years-old.

"The senior Trump held 14 mortgages at the time of his death, valued at over $20,000 [in early 20th-century money]; owned outright 6 pieces of property, including several buildable lots; had deposits totaling over $3,500 in three different bank accounts; and owned 50 shares of preferred stock valued at $3,662. With life insurance policies and loans due him, the total value of Trump's estate exceeded $36,000 [equivalent to over $840,000 in 2015 dollars], a small fortune at the time. While Trump legend would describe him as the operator of `a moderately successful restaurant,' his death certificate accurately listed his occupation as `the real estate business.'...

"This was hardly the only misconception in the biography of Donald's father, Fred {Trump II], sewn together over time by the family. He would be described...as born in New York to Swedish parents, when in fact he was born in the Bronx to German parents (his mother, Elizabeth, was born in Germany in 1880)..."

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Donald Trump's Inherited Wealth and Family Background Revisited

The ultra-rich deal-maker and television celebrity (whose campaign for the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination has been given a lot of Big Media television news coverage in recent months), Donald Trump, apparently received a lot of help, historically, from his multi-millionaire father, Fred Trump, in becoming an extremely wealthy business deal-maker. As former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall, observed:


"...Recognizing how dependent Donald [Trump]'s early career was on his father's resources and guile, I rummaged through half-a-century of Fred Trump history, finding haunting parallels between the machinations of the father and son....

"His father, Fred Trump, was more than a friend to him, more than a parent...He had grown up under Fred's stern watch...He liked to pretend he'd done it on his own, announcing that `the working man likes me because he knows I didn't inherit what I've built'...The Trump legend--invented by Donald himself--never acknowledged the defining imprint of Fred's money...on the...early deals that were the foundation of his success....

"...The bankers sifting through Donald's assets had begun asking about Fred [Trump]'s...They sensed that his steady rental and co-op empire, thousands of middle-class apartments largely unencumbered by debt, might become Donald's...They concluded that Fred had a minimum of $150 million `that could be drawn on,' according to one involved banker..."

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 `Outsider In The House' Book

During the 1990's, when he held a seat inside the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. as Vermont's congressional representative, 2016 Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote a book that Verso published, titled Bernie Sanders: Outsider In The House, in which Sanders stated the following:


"In 1976, as the now `perennial candidate' of the Liberty Union, I ran for governor again....I ended up with 6 percent of the vote....

"After that campaign I decided to leave the Liberty Union Party....

"....With politics behind me, I...began building, reasonably successfully, a small business in educational filmstrips. I wrote, produced, and sold filmstrips on New England history for elementary schools and high schools....

"In 1979, after discovering that....college students I spoke to had never heard of....Debs, I produced a 30-minute video on his life and ideas....The Debs video was sold and rented to colleges throughout the country, and we also managed to get it on public television in Vermont. Folkways Records also produced the soundtrack of the video as a record....

"....I now had a business career....The Debs video was a success and I was now beginning to think about a video series on other American radicals--Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Paul Robeson....My media production career came to an end in 1980....

"....In Congress, I chair the 52-member House Progressive Caucus which has 51 Democrats and me, people with whom I have an excellent relationship....

"....Forward now to 1996....Bill Clinton is a moderate Democrat. I'm a democratic socialist.

"Yet without enthusiasm, I've decided to support Bill Clinton for president....I will vote for him, and make that public....A Clinton victory could give us some time to build a movement, to develop a political infrastructure to protect what needs protecting, and to change the direction of the country....

"The problem with a third-party or independent candidacy, as I had learned back in my Liberty Union days, was that although people will often agree with the candidate's position, they are skeptical of his or her `electability.' So it was of major importance that, shortly before the election, the Burlington Patrolmen's Association endorsed my bid for mayor. They did so because I promised to listen to the concerns of cops on the beat and open serious labor negotiations with their union....

"Vermont is a rural state in which tens of thousands of people enjoy hunting....During hunting season thousands of kids go out with their fathers and mothers to hunt....I am pro-gun, and pro-hunting...."

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 9

In his 1997 South End Press book, Democracy Unbound: Progressive Challenges to the Two Party System, David Reynolds described how 2016 Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders governed in Burlington, Vermont during the 1980's, when Sanders was the mayor of that small city of 38,000 people:


"Bernie Sanders....had clear limitations when he entered the mayor's office [in Burlington, Vermont[ in 1981.

"Although sympathetic to the issues raised by the women's movement, Sanders was not a feminist nor did he understand gender oppression as well as class exploitation. As a result, the Sanders' administration came under increasing criticism for not including more women in positions of authority. Indeed, Sanders' inner circle of advisors was all male....The women's council had to fight for its independence from the mayor's office, and was not one of the administration's top priorities.

"Sanders also ran into conflicts with the environmental and peace communities. Some ecologists have criticized him for focusing too much on economic growth rather than questioning the desirability of growth as an end in and of itself. The well-known intellectual advocate of social ecology, Murray Bookchin....became an outspoken Sanders opponent. A group of his supporters evolved into the Burlington Greens.

"During his first term in office, peace activists were angered at Sanders when he opposed their civil disobedience actions at the local General Electric plant. For these activists, the plant, which is the sole significant manufacturer of the high-speed, multi-barrel guns used against Nicaragua, was the natural local manifestation of the U.S. military machine....Although in negotiating around these issues Sanders agreed to set up a peace conversion task force, little was done. Similarly, anger flared again in 1985 when a newspaper reporter discovered that the local police had infiltrated the peace movement.

"In response, the Sanders' administration pushed the police commission to adopt guidelines for the use of undercover police officers. Yet critics from the peace movement did not see this measure as an adequate protection. The administration did not give their issue priority perhaps due to the role that the police union played in Sanders' electoral success in 1981....

"Sanders also took criticism for his own leadership style. Critics have argued that his administration involved a tight-knit inner circle and top-down decision-making. As such, Sanders had failed to break fully with the well-established politics of the status-quo...." 

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 8

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders in Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders apparently related to local anti-war movement and peace movement activists in Vermont when he was the mayor of the small city of Burlington, Vermont during the 1980's, by writing the following:


"....In August 1982, a group of activists targeted the General Electric [GE] plant in Burlington because it `is the only significant producer anywhere of the high speed, multi-barrel machine guns that are a basic component of virtually all the fighter aircraft in the Western world'--the Gatling gun, which is used extensively in Central America....

"In summer 1983, the Burlington peace community....planned to engage in civil disobedience [CD] action at the plant, which drew criticism from....Sanders....

"The tension that existed between the peace community and Sanders early in his administration came to a head over the GE demonstrations. One of Sanders's progressive critics offered this perspective on the differences between the peace movement and the mayor:

"`It goes back to '83, when we decided to sit in at GE and Bernie opposed that....'

"The tensions between Mayor Sanders and the peace movement were confirmed by many both inside and outside the administration...." 

Monday, February 15, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 7

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders in Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders governed in Burlington, Vermont during the 1980's, when Sanders was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont:


"....One administration insider noted that Bonnie Vander Tain, Personnel Department director after Jim Dunn, was the only woman appointed by Sanders to head a department, and she didn't stay long....In another administration insider's estimation, `the tension comes with the women's groups because they don't see Bernie as a feminist--and he's not--and partly that's his age, and he tries hard. I think he relies on men primarily.'....

"Progressive critics of the Sanders administration were generally harsh on Sander's record with women. For example, one said:

"`I guess he's finally agreed to set up a women's committee (that is, Women's Council) that has some teeth to it, but for years women were trying to get to take their concerns seriously....and it was the same thing--he just wasn't listening....'

"Another progressive critic explained her view of the situation of women at city hall: The `lack of women around him and his seeming inability to have women in any leadership position in city hall [is a problem[....I think his inner circle's...all men.'

"Still another progressive critic had this to say about Sanders's relation to women:

"`If you look at all....the big jobs, very few [go] to women. Only through great pushing was there finally a Women's Council....in the city....after four years in office....He hasn't done anything affirmative, he hasn't done anything necessarily too bad, but he's done nothing that would make any great changes for women at all.'....

"....Women's issues were not one of Sanders's top priorities. Many women interviewed, both inside and outside the administration, raised concerns around the mayor's style and process....Women generally spoke of his `male style' of doing things and his not being a feminist....

"Sanders's leftist critics were harsh in their assessment of the mayor's interactions with women....People from various groups raised the issue of Sanders's inner circle of all male advisors. The mayor's inner circle, while changing somewhat over the years, included David Clavelle, Peter Clavelle, Jonathan Leopold, Jr., John Franco, Jim Schumacher, and George Thabault. Some women expressed feelings of having been `overlooked' or `cut out of the decision-making process' at various points...." 

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 6

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders in Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders apparently governed Burlington, Vermont during the 1980's, when Sanders was the mayor of that small city of around 39,000 people: 


"....There appears to be little difference between Sanders, a socialist mayor, and any non-socialist mayor regarding the issues of who has access to the mayor's office, decision-making processes within the administration, and the centralization of power....

"....Many women inside the Sanders administration raised concern about the mayor's style and his decision-making process. One administration insider, speaking from personal experience, said that women sometimes were `overlooked' or `cut out of the decision-making process'....

"One progressive activist criticized Sanders's style on other grounds....He....spoke of what he labeled `authoritarian' tendencies: `I don't think he has a real commitment to internal democracy....'

"Progressive critics of the administration leveled similar criticisms. One said: `He just meets with two or three people and that's who decides what's going to happen, and he just really doesn't care what anybody else thinks....'

"Still another charged that Sanders's style works against democracy: `The most fundamental thing that's wrong with the administration is that we have personal paternalism here--we don't have municipal democracy....

"`....Sanders....often makes decisions with little or no input from the people around him....It certainly is an impediment to developing a non-reformist strategy toward a democratic socialist society. As many people as possible must be included in both internal and external decision-making processes if we are to move away from the hierarchical, authoritarian, and centralized models of society....'

"....Women and the peace movement did not have such an easy time gaining access to the Sanders administration....His frequent retreat to an old-boy style of making decisions indicates that he has incorporated few of the principles that guide the women's movement today, all the more disappointing to socialist feminists that see his administration as more of the same old patriarchy.

"....There can be little doubt that Sanders bears the responsibility for running the city [of Burlington, Vermont] like a hierarchically run business instead of creating a democratic socialist polity, where all people have a voice and are truly empowered...."

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 5

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders in Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how Burlington, Vermont was apparently governed by 2016 Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, when Sanders was mayor in the 1980's of that small city of around 39,000 people:


"We must ask how the Sanders administration's economic development policies differ from a traditional capitalist approach....In certain cases like the waterfront [area of Burlington, Vermont]....there was little to distinguish his [Sanders's] position from that of capitalist interests in the city of Burlington....

"....Concerning the more fundamental issue of the necessity of growth, the question of mass transportation as an alternative to increased vehicular traffic, and the impact....on Burlington's low-and moderate-income neighborhoods, Sanders rates poorly.

"Sanders and his administration have affected the nature of development in the city of Burlington [Vermont]....We must ask whether there was a basic difference between the Sanders administration and a capitalist Democratic or Republican administration regarding development issues....As evidenced by the critiques from various progressives, the administration certainly did not do as much as it could to limit undesirable development in the city, nor did it pursue, except perhaps at the end, a non-reformist reform or socialist strategy toward development projects....

"One of the guiding principles of democratic socialism is participatory democracy....While Mayor Sanders himself professed a democratic-socialist philosophy, his administration's internal decision-making processes tended to be limited and exclusionary,....to certain progressives and women...

"....One would expect tenants' concerns to be a big agenda item for Sanders. However,....this really has not been the case....

"When one thinks of non-reformist issues that a local socialist administration could promote concerning tenants' rights, the issue of rent control immediately comes to mind. However....Sanders, who says he supports the idea, has not strongly promoted the issue...."

Friday, February 12, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 4

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders in Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders apparently governed the city of Burlington, Vermont during the 1980's, when he was the mayor of that small city:


"....One of Sanders's progressive critics strongly felt that Sanders's comment about running the city [of Burlington, Vermont] like a corporation was indicative of the sellout of his socialist principles. Said this critic about Sanders: `He respects capitalists....The big fact is he's running the city like a corporation. The city's not an ethical community to him, it's a corporation....'

"....His `honeymoon' with Antonio Pomerleau, the city's largest individual taxpayer, [head of] a large insurance business and own[er of] shopping centers and development throughout the state, was a curious one that raised eyebrows in the progressive....community. The two seemed to strike a personal friendship early on in Sanders's first term. Said Sanders: `On a personal level, I have to say I'm fond of Tony....He's a self-made capitalist, not a corporate capitalist....' This is not the sort of distinction one expects a socialist to make.

"....Some progressives accused the [Sanders] administration of making too many compromises with developers....

"....One prominent Burlington businessman commented: `I think most of Bernie's initiatives around job formation and economic development have been very entrepreneurial and capitalistic, frankly.'....Business fears of `nationalization' or real socialism in Burlington have proved unfounded...."

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 3

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders in Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders won election for a third term as mayor of Burlington, Vermont in the late 1980's:


"After Sanders's unsuccessful 1986 gubernatorial bid, the daily newspaper speculated that he would run for mayor again....At the beginning of December [1986], Sanders threw his hat into the ring....Sanders announced that....this would be his last race for mayor....

"As the race unfolded....Sanders proposed a 4-cent tax increase to hire more police officers and administrative personnel and to buy more police cruisers--his first proposed tax increase since 1983....."

`Farewell To Claudia Jones'--(lyrics by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn)




Elizabeth Gurley Flynn  poem/lyrics--(written in Alderson prison in 1955 shortly after U.S. political prisoner Claudia Jones was released from same prison, prior to being deported to UK by U.S. government)

Nearer and nearer drew this day, dear comrade,
When I from you sadly part,
Day after day, a dark foreboding sorrow
Crept through my anxious heart.

No more to see you striding down the pathway,
No more to see your smiling eyes and face.
No more to hear your gay and ealing leaughter,
No more to feel your love, in this sad place.

How I will miss you, words will fail to utter,
I am alone, my thoughts unshared, these weary days,
I feel bereft and empty, on this dreary, gray morning,
Facing my lonely future, hemmed by prison ways.

Sometimes, I feel you've never been in Alderson
So full of life, so detached from here you seem,
So proud of walk, of talk, of work, of being,
Your presence here is like a fading dream.

Yet as the sun shines now, through fog and darkness,
I feel a sudden joy that you are gone,
That once again you walk the streets of Harlem,
That today for you at least is Freedom's dawn.

I will be strong in our common faith, dear comrade,
I will be self-sufficient, to our ideals firm and true,
I will be strong to keep my mind and soul outside a prison,
Inspired by ever-loving memories of you.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 2

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders In Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was re-elected as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont in November 1983:


"....The 1983 election differed from the previous mayoral election....Sanders received more than 50 percent in a three-way election...

"....A progressive critic expressed disappointment in Sanders's reelection campaign:....`His [campaign] slogan in '83 was `Leadership that's keeping Burlington strong.' It's not a radical posture to take. And the context of it [the campaign]--street improvements, keeping taxes down, efficiency in government, saving money,....at best they're kind of democratic, reform-oriented platform. He [Sanders], in fact, does what almost all politicians do, which is he runs left between elections and then back right, right before the election--not so much in the spoken word--but in what the machine produces. And the machine gets the word out real well...."

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 Political Career--Part 1

In his 1991 book, The Socialist Mayor: Bernard Sanders In Burlington, Vermont, Steven Soifer indicated how 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was elected to be the mayor of Burlington, Vermont in November 1981:


"...Sanders formally announced his independent bid for mayor [of Burlington, Vermont] in Fall 1980....After a tense recount [in November 1981], Sanders was declared the official winner, but by an an even slimmer ten-vote margin...

'How do we explain the extraordinary upset of Bernard Sanders over Democratic mayor Gordon Paquette?....The lack of a Republican candidate and the presence of three independent candidates, including Sanders, also was critical to Paquette's defeat. One of these independent candidates, restaurateur Dick Bove, ran against the incumbent after losing in the Democratic Party city caucus. If Bove had not gotten the 1,000 voters he did, Paquette almost surely would have won the election....

"The endorsement of the Burlington Patrolman's Association in a week before the election was still another crucial factor. Paquette had alienated this group over the years and the socialist challenger actively courted their support. One Sanders administration official commented that the endorsement `probably took him [Sanders]...to a situation where he was now a real legitimate contender.' And one newspaper reporter confided that it `gave Bernie an endorsement from a very credible source that in and of itself negated all the possible...red-baiting that would have gone Bernie's way....I mean how can you be a communist if the police are for [you]?'.

"The news media also played an important role....By giving Sanders a lot of coverage, the news media helped turn him into a major contender in the election. Said one progressive: `I can't believe he [Sanders] would have won as mayor if he had not been on the news almost every night--and sympathetically so!'....

"....One campaign worker said Sanders's identification as a socialist was `never brought up by the media or Paquette, even though the campaign was ready for it.' Immediately after the election...a story appeared inThe Burlington Press on Sanders's socialist beliefs and philosophy, making it widely known for the first time...."

Friday, February 5, 2016

Black Youth "Not Seasonally Adjusted" Unemployment Rate Increases To 25.5 Percent In January 2016

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 21.2 to 25.5 percent between December 2015 and January 2016; while the number of unemployed Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 15,000 (from 150,000 to 166,000) during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 76,000 (from 560,000 to 484,000) between December 2015 and January 2016.
The “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 13 to 14.9 percent between December 2015 and January 2016; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 71,000 (from 562,000 to 633,000) during the same period. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of white youths who still had jobs decreased by 154,000 (from 3,773,000 to 3,619,000) between December 2015 and January 2016.
Between December 2015 and January 2016, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the United States increased from 14.2 to 16.5 percent; while the “not seasonally adjusted” total number of unemployed youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 105,000 (from 782,000 to 885,000) during the same period. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 13.7 to 18.1 percent between December 2015 and January 2016; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 57,000 (from 154,000 to 211,000) during the same period.

Between December 2015 and January 2016, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased from 8.7 to 9.1 percent; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Black workers (youth, male and female) in the United States increased from 8.1 to 9.1 percent during the same period. In addition, between December 2015 and January 2016, the “not seasonally adjusted” total number of unemployed Black workers in the United States increased by 188,000 (from 1,565,000 to 1,753,000)..

Between December 2015 and January 2016, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black female workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased by 142,000 (from 680,000 to 792,000); while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 6.6 to 8 percent during the same period.

The “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased by 39,000 (from 835,000 to 874,000) between December 2015 and January 2016; while the “not seasonally adjusted” total number of unemployed Latino workers in the United States increased by 128,000 (from 1,619,000 to 1,747,000) during the same period.. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Latino workers (youth, male and female) in the United States increased from 6.2 to 6.6 percent between December 2015 and January 2016.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 5.9 to 6.2 between December 2015 and January 2016; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of  unemployed Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased by 33,000 (from 629,000 to 662,000) during the same period.

The “not seasonally adjusted” number of  Asian-American workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 260,000 (from 5,367,000 to 5,627,000) between December 2015 and January 2016; while the unemployment rate for Asian-American workers was still 3.7 percent during the same period, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

Between December 2015 and January 2016, the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all white workers (youth, male and female) in the United States increased from 4.2 to 4.7 percent; while the “not seasonally adjusted” total number of unemployed white workers in the United States increased by 535,000 (from 5,244,000 to 5,779,000) during the same period. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased from 4.2 to 4.5 percent between December 2015 and January 2016; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” number of jobless white male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 114,000 (from 2,718,000 to 2,904,000) during the same period.

The “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white female workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased by 78,000 (from 1,964,000 to 2,242,000) between December 2015 and January 2016; while the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 3.6 to 4.1 percent during the same period. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of white female workers over 20 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 26,000 (from 52,596,000 to 52,570,000) between December 2015 and January 2016..

Between December 2015 and January 2016, the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all female workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States increased from 4.4 to 5.1 percent; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 4.1 to 4.7 percent during the same period. In addition, the number of unemployed female workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States increased by 479,000 (from 3,262,000 to 3,741,000) between December 2015 and January 2016, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States increased from 5.1 to 5.5 between December 2015 and January 2016; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 4.8 to 5.1 percent  during the same period.. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of all unemployed male workers over 16 years-of-age in the United States increased by 289,000 (from 4,280,000 to 4,569,000) between December 2015 and January 2016; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 251,00 (from 3,836,000 to 4,087,000) during the same period..

In January 2016, 8,309,000 workers in the United States were officially unemployed, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data; and between December 2015 and January 2016 the “not seasonally adjusted”” unemployment rate for all U.S. workers (male, female and youth) increased from 4.8 to 5.3 percent.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ February 5, 2016 press release:

“…Employment declined in private educational services, transportation and warehousing, and mining…

“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged in January, at 2.1 million, and has shown little movement since June. These individuals accounted for 26.9 percent of the unemployed…

“The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed at 6.0 million in January…These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs.

“In January, 2.1 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

“Among the marginally attached, there were 623,000 discouraged workers in January…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

“Private educational services lost 39,000 jobs in January due to larger than normal seasonal layoffs.

“Employment in transportation and warehousing decreased by 20,000 in January. Most of the loss occurred among couriers and messengers (-14,000), reflecting larger than usual layoffs….

“Employment in mining continued to decline in January (-7,000)…Since…September 2014, employment in the industry has fallen by 146,000, or 17 percent…

“…Employment in temporary help services edged down in January (-25,000)…Employment in other major industries, including construction, wholesale trade, and government, changed little over the month……


“…Employment gains in November and December combined were 2,000 lower than previously reported…”