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BERNIE SANDERS’ CAMPAIGN MANAGER SHARES VIDEO OF SENATOR NAILING 3 CONSECUTIVE BASKETBALL HOOPS IN 10 SECONDS

Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager this weekend shared a short video of the 78-year-old 2020 candidate impressively nailing three consecutive basketball hoops in roughly 10 seconds.

“3 for 3,” Faiz Shakir tweeted on Sunday afternoon, alongside a clip of Sanders shooting hoops outside. Within an hour, the video had garnered over 11,000 likes and nearly 2,000 retweets.

Half an hour later, Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, shared another video from the outing, writing: “@BernieSanders warming up for a Townhall in Las Vegas!”

In the 38-second-clip, Mrs. Sanders can be heard saying “now you’re just showing off,” as her husband continuously scores five hoops in a row, misses one and then lands another.

In a statement to Newsweek, Shakir revealed that although Sanders has very little time to shoot hoops while campaigning, he will always ask for a minute to play around when he sees a court nearby.

“He’s a basketball fan, but he rarely has time to shoot hoops while campaigning,” Shakir said. “But anytime we see a court, he’ll ask if he can get a few minutes to shoot around.”

Although it is uncertain when exactly the videos were taken, Sanders’ wife post suggests that the candidate’s basketball session occurred earlier on Sunday, ahead of his return to Nevada to host a town hall in Las Vegas this evening.

‘Scared to death’: The left sees an establishment plot to take down Warren, Sanders

Democratic donors say they want Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick to run for president because they’re petrified that a left-wing candidate can’t defeat President Donald Trump.

But progressives see a more sinister effort afoot.

Aides and allies to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, among other liberals, perceive the eleventh-hour campaign launched last week by Patrick — and the prospect of an impending Bloomberg 2020 bid — as an attempt to crush an ascendant left wing that would expand government more than any other Democratic president in decades.

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In their view, Patrick and Bloomberg are stalking horses for moderate Democrats, high-dollar contributors and bundlers desperate to halt the momentum of the economic populists at the top of the polls — and regain control of the party levers.

It’s no minor intra-party spat in an election where all wings of the Democratic Party will need to be working in concert to beat Trump.

“There’s clearly anxiety from parts of the Democratic Party establishment and donor class about becoming a party that is unapologetic about taking on oligarchs, whether they’re Donald Trump or Jeff Bezos,” said Waleed Shahid, a former Sanders aide who now works for the progressive group Justice Democrats. “While he’ll basically try to buy votes through tons of ads, billionaire candidates like Bloomberg remain deeply unpopular. Deval’s supporters compare him to Obama, but forget that Obama also ran as an outsider populist in the 2008 primaries.”

Progressives’ concerns have heightened amid recent advances by their standard-bearers. Warren has risen to the top of the field in Iowa and New Hampshire. Sanders has enjoyed a comeback in the past month as well, receiving key endorsements and a small bump in early-state surveys after suffering a heart attack. Sanders and Warren reported having about $34 million and $26 million on hand, respectively, in their latest campaign finance filings.

SANDERS, WARREN CALL OUT FEDEX FOR PAYING $0 IN TAXES AFTER TRUMP CUTS

Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both blasted FedEx and President Donald Trump’s “corporate elite” tax cuts for allowing the courier giant to avoid paying any federal taxes.

The progressive 2020 hopefuls responded to a Sunday New York Times report that detailed how FedEx was able to reduce their federal taxes from $1.5 billion to $0 in just one year. The corporate mail titan used aggressive Washington lobbying tactics and vowed to boost capital investment as they pushed Trump and Republicans to approve his $1.5 trillion tax cut from 2017. Sanders and Warren have both made the cozy relationship between Trump and corporate America–at the expense of the average taxpayer–a central campaign focus.

Sanders and Warren highlighted how moderate Democrats and conservatives frequently claim the U.S. can’t invest in middle-class taxpayers while offering trillions of dollars in tax breaks to massive corporations.

“We’re told we can’t afford to invest in the housing, health care and education our people need. Meanwhile, giant corporations are paying ZERO in federal income taxes. When we stand up to the corporate elite, we can make real change for our country,” Sanders remarked on Twitter Sunday morning.

Warren, the Massachusetts senator and fellow Democratic hopeful, concurred in a separate tweet Sunday: “You’re probably paying more in federal income taxes than a bunch of big American corporations that make billions of dollars. It’s obscene. These companies love to wave the American flag, but they won’t pitch in a dime to support the investments we make.”

The Chicago Teachers Strike Was a Lesson in 21st-Century Organizing

Despite the Janus decision and years of labor losses, the Chicago Teachers Union has figured out how to organize—and win.

A Week After the Coup in Bolivia, There’s Still No Proof of Electoral Fraud

Mainstream commentators continue to assert that Evo Morales oversaw a fraudulent election in Bolivia that led to his resignation. But the “resignation” was a coup — and there’s still no proof the election was even fraudulent.

The Strike at McDonald’s Is About More Than Fighting Abuse—It’s About Workplace Democracy

On Tuesday, over 1,000 people gathered for a strike action at a McDonald’s locations on Detroit’s East Side. The workers, who were fighting for basic workplace dignity, a fair wage and a union, showed that they’re ready to raise hell in the face of injustice by standing together.

That’s how Patricia Moseley, who has worked for McDonald’s for 34 years, describes her experience of solidarity during the strike. “We always get each other’s backs,” Moseley says. “When I see people out here, doing the same thing I’m doing, it makes me feel like ‘Hey, everybody can do this.’ Come and join us. You ain’t gotta be scared.”

Ignited by the hideously common experience of workplace sexual harassment, the strike was a powerful display of working-class force in an industry where women and people of color make up the overwhelming majority of non-managerial workers.

“This is huge,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who attended the strike, said in a statement to In These Times. “Fast food workers…stood up against corporate greed to demand human dignity in the workplace. These corporations cannot operate without the workers, who deserve to make a living that allows them to provide for themselves and their family. They deserve workplaces free of sexual harassment and violence.”

According to a new class-action lawsuit, McDonald’s is drenched in a “culture of sexual harassment.” And as NPR reports, “more than 50 claims and charges of harassment of female employees are pending against McDonald’s.” But the issue stretches far beyond the golden arches: The industry as a whole is awash with harassment and abuse. A 2016 poll found that “40 percent of women in the fast food industry have experienced unwanted sexual behaviors on the job.”

The poll also found that workers who dare to speak out often face the bosses’ wrath as a result. “A lot of women are scared to come out and speak,” Moseley says, “because they don’t know if they’re going to lose their job.” Moseley easily spots what’s wrong with this picture, and, just as importantly, what’s missing. “If I don’t have a union, I can’t say nothing,” Moseley adds. “That’s what a union is there for. To back you up.”

Arkansas Teachers Went On Strike. Here Are the Corporate School Privatizers They’re Up Against.

Teachers of Little Rock, Arkansas went on strike Thursday over the state’s decision to strip their collective bargaining rights and curtail local control of the school district. It was the teachers’ first strike since 1987, and only their second strike ever.

The Arkansas State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the Governor, voted in October to end its recognition of the Little Rock Education Association, the city’s teacher’s union. The ending of the recognition of the union came as its contract expired on October 31. The Little Rock Education Association is the only teachers union in the entire state of Arkansas.

The teachers are demanding the return of bargaining power from the state. They are also want full local control of the district returned. The state took oversight over Little Rock schools in 2015, claiming low test scores at some schools, and earlier this year sought to create a two-tiered school system that many believe would have, in effect, racially segregated the city’s schools. While that effort by the Board of Education was defeated, it responded by withdrawing recognition of the union. (For further details about the lead-up to the strike and the issues behind it, read Eric Blanc’s helpful column at Jacobin).

Governor Asa Hutchinson has defended the state’s continued takeover of the local school district, and he appointed 8 of the 9 state Board of Education members who voted to end recognition of the teachers’ union. As we discuss below, several of the board members are tied to corporate backers of school privatization in Arkansas.

Like other teachers who have recently struck – from Los Angeles and Chicago to Arizona and West Virginia and beyond – Little Rock’s teachers are pitted against a billionaire-backed school privation agenda that wants to crush collective bargaining rights and advance charter schools. As in those strikes, Little Rock students have the backing of their students, thousands of whom recently staged a “sick out” protest in support of their teachers.

A major backer of the anti-union, pro-charter agenda in Arkansas is the Walton family, whose foundation is a huge funder of the school privatization infrastructure that exists across the state. In addition to the Waltons, corporate elites from Murphy Oil, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and others are backers of the school privatization efforts. These corporate interests are close to Governor Hutchinson, who supports their agenda, and they have close ties to the state Board of Education. In addition, they are also interlocked with a host of lobbyists and academics that push their agenda.

Military Times questionnaire: Sen. Bernie Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was the runner up for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination and served as chairman of Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee from 2013 to 2015. Military Times reached out to his campaign for answers on several questions related to his military and veteran policy plans if he is elected president.

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President Donald Trump has touted that the U.S. military is now stronger than ever before, due to increases in military spending and fewer battlefield restrictions on troops. What is your assessment of the current state and readiness of the armed forces? Are they in a better place than they were four years ago? Why?

The United States fields the most powerful military in the world, with unmatched power projection capability. Senator Sanders rejects the idea that U.S. national security suffered under President Obama as a result of the Budget Control Act’s spending constraints. The shortfalls and imbalances that occurred resulted from necessary retrenchment after years of poorly conceived operations abroad. The United States can and should make prudent reductions to its military budget in order to support the needs of young, working, and elderly Americans. America’s greatness stems from more than just its military budget.

Trump said that he would withdraw the United States from “endless war.” But like everything else he says, that is a lie. Since becoming president, Trump has actually increased U.S. troop levels in the Middle East by over 25 percent. He vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have ended U.S. support for the disastrous Yemen war. He has sent thousands of additional troops to Saudi Arabia.

At the same time, Trump has shattered U.S. capacity and credibility to conduct the kind of diplomacy needed to reduce our military presence in a responsible way. He withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement, isolating the United States from its most important allies and pushing us toward another conflict.

As president, Bernie will ensure that the United States pursues diplomacy over militarism to bring about peaceful, negotiated resolutions to conflicts in the Middle East region and elsewhere.

Finally, Bernie believes that if we are truly committed to a military that is ready to defend our country, we must say clearly that discrimination has no place in the U.S. military. As president, he will immediately end Trump’s bigoted transgender troop ban.

Democrats Not Headed Too Far Left, Says Ocasio-Cortez, ‘We Are Bringing the Party Home’

As part of a wave of reaction to comments made by former President Barack Obama who reportedly suggested to “liberal wealthy” party donors late last week that some Democrats were going “too far left,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded by saying progressives are not pushing in some new, radical direction but rather trying to bring it back to where it came from.

“I want to be the party of the New Deal again,” tweeted the freshman Democrat from New York on Saturday, referencing the era of progressive change under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt last century.

“The party of the Civil Rights Act, the one that electrified this nation and fights for all people. For that, many would call us radical,” she said.

“We aren’t ‘pushing the party left,'” Ocasio-Cortez concluded, “we are bringing the party home.”

The tweet also included a new campaign ad for Sen. Bernie Sanders, who Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed in the Democratic presidential primary. The two recently campaigned together in Iowa where they championed the need for a Green New Deal and spent time with local residents in the early voting states.

NH Primary Source: Progressive grassroots group Rights and Democracy endorses Sanders

Rights and Democracy, a progressive grassroots group based in New Hampshire and Vermont, has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president after holding a vote of its members.

An announcement of the endorsement vote, which the group said was “overwhelming,” was made at its annual “Membership Assembly and People Power Summit” on Saturday. The end0rsement process included a questionnaire and an in-person forum, Rights and Democracy said.

WMUR first reported the endorsement earlier Sunday on Twitter.

“It is clear that the 2020 election is one that will test our democracy, our political resolve, and demand that we stand in support of human rights for everyone and a future for our planet,” said Rights and Democracy board co-chair Alison Nihart said in a statement.

“The energy of his 2016 campaign revolutionized what’s possible in our country and now, as we head into this historic election in 2020, we stand with Bernie to finish what began in 2016 and help elect Sen. Bernie Sanders as the next President of our United States.”

“Bernie’s vision of the need for a political revolution has inspired people to run and win seats at all levels of government,” added board co-chair Amy Hathaway.

Here Are The Billionaires Funding The Democratic Presidential Candidates

Billionaires are everywhere in the 2020 election. Donald Trump, of course, is the incumbent. Howard Schultz, of Starbucks fame, considered launching a campaign to challenge him. Then Tom Steyer, the hedge fund billionaire, actually did. Now Michael Bloomberg, who is richer than all of them, is reportedly positioning to do the same. And while those four made the headlines, around 100 other billionaires have been quietly donating to Democratic hopefuls.

Forbes mined roughly 2.5 million entries in the Federal Election Commission database and found that almost 20% of American billionaires have donated—either directly or through their spouse—to the campaign committees of Democrats running for president. Ninety billionaires donated in their own names. We found 23 billionaires who did not give any money but are married to people who did. By the close of the latest fundraising period, on September 30, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Cory Booker each counted at least 40 billionaires or spouses of billionaires among their backers.

Call it the billionaire horse race, as candidates travel the country collecting funds from the richest people in America. Harris got out of the gates quickly, attracting 30 big-money donors, including Laurene Powell Jobs and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, during her first two months on the campaign trail. Lately, Joe Biden has been gaining ground. He got 19 new donors from July to September—more than any other candidate in that span. Some billionaires are betting on virtually everyone, increasing their odds of picking a winner. Blackstone president Jonathan Gray, for instance, has given to ten candidates.

Billionaires aren’t necessarily the secret to winning elections. Just ask Beto O’Rourke, who got 13 of them to donate to his campaign, then dropped out in early November. Or Bernie Sanders, who has raised more money than any other Democrat, without a single billionaire donor that Forbes could find.

‘Too Clever for Its Own Good’: Progressives Concerned Over Warren’s New Medicare for All Strategy

While Sen. Elizabeth Warren received praise from some high-profile Medicare for All proponents after the 2020 Democratic candidate released a detailed “transition plan” on Friday, progressive critics of the proposal openly worried the proposal reveals gaps in her commitment to the goal of universal healthcare, a naivety about the political fight needed to get there—or both.

Under the new proposal, Warren will work to establish during her first 100 days in office what she calls a “Medicare for All option” that would allow any American who wants to participate in Medicare, the ability to do so. Following that successful effort, and alongside other reforms—including pushing anti-corruption reforms, lowering drug costs, and repairing the damage to the existing Affordable Care Act by President Donald Trump—Warren says she would then initiate a separate effort to pass Medicare for All legislation later in her first term.

While the initial stages of the transition she proposes would take place over the first half of her term, Warren said in statement that “no later than my third year in office,” she will begin the “fight to pass legislation that would complete the transition to full Medicare for All.”

Top Medicare for All proponents like dying activist Ady Barkan and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—who introduced the “Medicare for All Act of 2019” in the U.S. House in February—praised Warren’s plan as a serious effort to address concerns about how to transition from the current system to a single-payer model.

“Warren’s transition plan,” tweeted Jayapal on Friday, “reaffirms her commitment to the four-year transition plan outlined in the Senate Medicare For All bill. It lays out how she’d use executive and administrative authority to take on for-profit insurers and begin providing relief to the American people on Day 1.”

But progressive critics skeptical of Warren’s plan, including writer and activist Carl Beijer—author of a piece published by Jacobin magazine Saturday titled “Elizabeth Warren’s New Health Care Plan Would Doom the Fight for Medicare for All”—the transition timeline proposed is a key indicator that the Senator from Massachusetts is either not in it to win it or grossly miscalculates what a delayed implementation of Medicare for All will mean