Bernie Sanders is holding a townhall at the Mt. Zion AME Church in Montgomery at 12:45 pm. After visiting Lowndes County, one of the poorest counties in America, Bernie Sanders is holding a town hall in Montgomery to discuss how we can come together in the fight for economic, racial, environmental and social justice.
RT ryanobles: While touring the National Peace & Justice Center- a memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery- Sen. BernieSanders stops to snap a photo with his personal phone of a message on the wall. His National campaign co-chair ninaturner lo… pic.twitter.com/DX6X6aeR6P
— 🌹 #BernieSanders for President 2020🌹 (@WeLoveBernie20) May 20, 2019
We’ll be blogging here. See you in the comments!
Update: Bernie’s team is late with the stream. Go here: https://www.cbs42.com/watch/live
Bernie in Augusta, Courtesy of Channel 12, Augusta
Bernie Sanders continued his southern state swing yesterday in Orangeburg and Denmark, SC. As reported at TPW yesterday, Sanders held a town hall in Orangeburg, SC to discuss issues surrounding education justice. Educators testified about dwindling resources for schools, as well as issues of bureaucracy and lack of reliable broadband that is affordable for low income households. From WIS news:
“Every child has a right to a quality K-12 education, regardless of your race, regardless of your income, and regardless of your zip code. For too long, we have seen devastating education funding cuts used to pay for massive tax breaks for a handful of corporations and billionaires,” Bernie Sanders said. “When we are in the White House, that greed is going to end. We will make a transformative investment in our children, our teachers and our schools to guarantee a quality education as a human right for all children.”
He says with district-by-district disparities in education funding, he wants to add new investments in programs that serve high-poverty communities, support special needs students, and integrate school districts.
“By reducing racial and economic segregation, in our public schools, make sure we attract the best and brightest young people to become teachers reestablishes a positive learning environment for our children in our K-12 schools.” Sanders said.
Sanders says he wants to make sure taxpayers are not funding charter school, and banning those for-profit.
The plan also touched on teacher pay, proposing that the starting salary for educators is no less than $60,000.
Sanya Ahmed Mohiuddin, a teacher who attended his campaign rally said, “This is so incredible it’s so important for us to do. I’m a special education teacher myself, first year teaching and I’ve seen so many problems and issues within the school that needs to be fixed.”
“We need a president with morals and values, a president that will bring us together and not separate us.” Adeline Yon, an Orangeburg resident said.
As Sanders runs for president a second time, Jalal Hakmei, who attended rally said, “I think the first one showed that there was a lot of energy for his ideas and I’m hoping the second run will cement that.”
At the townhall, Bernie laid out am inclusive “Thurgood Marshall” Education Justice Plan (named after Thurgood Marshall who was the lead attorney in Brown vs Board of Education):
Build on the Strength in Diversity Act to increase, not cut, federal funding for community-driven strategies to desegregate schools.
Triple Title I funding to ensure at-risk schools get the funding they need and end funding penalties for schools that attempt to desegregate.
Execute desegregation orders and appoint federal judges who will enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act in school systems.
Address disciplinary practices in schools that disproportionately affect Black children.
Establish a dedicated fund to create and expand teacher-training programs at HBCUs, minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and tribal colleges and universities to increase educator diversity.
Fully fund the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and remove current protocols that allow for arbitrary dismissal of complaints.
Fund school transportation to help integration, ending the absurd prohibitions in place.
Increase access to English as a Second Language instruction.
End the Unaccountable Profit-Motive of Charter Schools
Rethink the link between property taxes and education funding.
Establish a national per-pupil spending floor.
Eliminate barriers to college-readiness exams by ensuring states cover fees for the ACT, SAT and other college preparatory exams for all students.
Triple Title I funding to ensure at-risk schools get the funding they need and end funding penalties for schools that attempt to desegregate.
Provide schools with the resources needed to shrink class sizes.
Provide $5 billion annually for career and technical education to give our students the skills they need to thrive once they graduate.
Ensure schools in rural communities, indigenous communities, Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories receive equitable funding.
Give schools the funding needed to support arts, foreign language and music education to provide all students with important learning opportunities.
Strengthen the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Significantly increase teacher pay by working with states to set a starting salary for teachers at no less than $60,000 tied to cost of living, years of service, and other qualifications; and allowing states to go beyond that floor based on geographic cost of living.
End racial and gender disparities in teacher pay.
Ensure professional development for all teachers, including continuing education and mentorship programs.
Protect and expand collective bargaining rights and teacher tenure.
Provide year-round, free universal school meals; breakfast, lunch and snacks through our school meals programs, and offer incentives for sourcing food from local sources.
Expand Summer EBT across the country to ensure no student goes hungry during the summer.
Fully close the gap in school infrastructure funding to renovate, modernize, and green the nation’s schools.
Make Schools a Safe and Inclusive Place for All
One person on twitter cheered one of the ideas of the plan:
BERNIE JUST CAME OUT FOR UNIVERSAL SCHOOL MEALS. THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!
Sanders also went to Denmark, SC, and held a townhall to hear concerns about tainted water. Residents said they had not felt comfortable in drinking the water in 10 years. Josh Fox, an environmental activist and film maker, was on the panel. A video clip about the water issue, which is not just a SC issue, Flint, MI. has been battling contaminated water for nearly 6 years.
The campaign journeyed on to Augusta, GA and Sanders was sharp in his criticism of new abortion laws in GA and AL. That wasn’t all:
“This time the democrats will have an opportunity to interview several candidates and have a robust debate about the needs of the people and I am quite confident that Senator Bernie Sanders stands light years ahead of any other candidate in this race,” said Nina Turner, national co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign.
The sweltering temperatures [94 deg] didn’t stop a crowd of more than 1,000 [1576] people. Senator Sanders’ discussed hot topics from his platform like immigration, education and President Donald Trump.
“We are sick and tired of a president who demonizes undocumented people,” said Sanders.
Sanders said on prison reform,“How about instead of investing in jails and incarceration, we invest in jobs for our young people and education?”
One attendee said that Sanders had done his homework this time:
He’s done his homework this time,” said Kenneth Sullivan, a 25-year-old African-American voter. The Augusta resident said he noticed black faces everywhere behind the scenes, although there still weren’t many in the crowd of nearly 1,600 people who attended Sanders’ speech at the Jessye Norman Amphitheatre on the shore of the Savannah River.
With those events yesterday, volunteer Tom Davis posted at Reddit that Sanders campaign had at least 100,000 attendees at campaign events this year so far. In comparison to 2016, Sanders had only spoken to 1% of the 1.6 million that attended his events.
While in Atlanta, Sanders made an appearance on Meet the Press. He was questioned about health care, abortion, foreign policy, and the horse race.
https://youtu.be/N0MmfO62dig
Of course, Todd couldn’t resist the red-baiting.
Afterward being on MTP, Sanders stopped by the Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta this morning. He’s not the first pol to have made a speech there.
Sanders will be traveling to Birmingham today for a rally at 4 pm. Here’s the link:
NEW: @BernieSanders will march tonight w/ abortion rights activists in Birmingham. He will go to the march directly after his rally there this afternoon.
Yesterday I had the bad misfortune of going over to TOP to watch the purity trolls. I’ll explain what I mean by that in a moment.
As reported at the Wing, Bernie Sanders eeked out a win on the Straw Poll. Not that the Straw Poll means a lot, but it does give some idea of where the energy is as far as the Democratic bloggers are in organizing for their candidates in the 2020 cycle. Unfortunately, Beat the Press thinks TOP is a progressive blog, but they don’t know because they live in the Beltway and Markos in tight with the DCCC consultants because well, they are one of many consultants for the Dem Party in general.
Markos, in the space of 3 days, penned four diaries to say about the recent poll at TOP and other polls. As you may recall, Kos has his own polling services, called Civiqs. I don’t know which candidates are using his service, but based on these headlines, I’m guessing it’s not Bernie Sanders.
It was our highest-vote total poll yet, with 59,999 votes tallied. After trailing Elizabeth Warren most of the day, a late surge from supporters pushed Bernie over the top, barely. But those trendlines don’t bode well for him.
Let’s see what Kos means.
Oh, so Warren did a lot better and Bernie’s lot shrunk. But the problem is that Kos completely discounted this date when recalling the time-series:
That was when the most votes casted. But of course, Kos was too embarrassed to admit to Chuck Todd on MSNBC that Bernie still has a lot of support.
Each time Bernie wins now, it’s because Berners “freeped” the poll. The good denizens at TOP are just as dismissive as the blog owner because they haven’t quite figured out that purge in 2016 made a lot of folks (hence TPW, C99, r/Kossacks for Sanders, r/WoTB, etc) go and form their own communities. And they aren’t too welcoming in having the progressives disrupt their group think.
All of that was pretty small potatoes for “an analysis”. Within the next 24 hours, 3 more diaries were penned by GOS, using a poison font keyboard. I’m only going to mention 2 of the most odious ones. If Bernie loses support among youth, what’s left?
Kos digs in and uses polling data from the Morning Consult, comparing March to April polling.
However, what happens if he can’t hold that core? This isn’t 2016, with a binary choice between Bernie and a demonized establishment Democrat. This is a rich field, with credible candidates representing just about every key party constituency. There are candidates just as liberal as Bernie, yet not as polarizing. So would Bernie’s core supporters stick with him as they became better aware of this amazing field? Apparently not, according to the latest Morning Consult primary poll.
“Sanders on the decline with 18-29 year-olds,” reads the polling memo. ”Throughout March, Bernie Sanders had 45% of the first choice vote share among America’s youngest voters. That support has steadily declined and currently sits at 33%.”
Overall, the poll pegs the race at Joe Biden 39, Sanders 19, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris at 8, Pete Buttigieg at 6, and Beto O’Rourke at 5.
snip
He can’t grow, and if he can’t hold his most important supporters? His path to the nomination, already near-zero, becomes effectively zero.
What’s funny is that Sanders isn’t even losing his supporters to some of the new, dynamic, exciting Democrats. Rather, they’re mostly going to Joe Biden. That feels a little sad. (My conjecture? Biden is a low-information-voter proxy for Barack Obama, and who doesn’t miss Obama?)
Now the question begs, what’s left if the millennials finally wake up and realize Bernie (as well as Biden) is an old man? They’ll leave him, of course.
Will Biden hold that youth vote? I’m on that limb that says “no way,” but who knows. What is clear at this point is that if Sanders can’t even stop a significant portion of his youth support from defecting to Biden, what happens when more of them become aware of other alternatives?
Kos doubles down to a new low in his next diary, which is within a couple of hours of the above one, but hey, he’s on a roll to smear Bernie and give you some alternatives better than Bernie and why.
Moreover, Mayor Pete, Castro (not named) and Klobuchar are desperate to garner eyeballs and would also go to a Klan rally.
The Sanders appearance has its own internal logic: He likes to thumb his nose at Democrats, including those fighting the war against Fox News. And he delighted his supporters by doing battle with Fox News hosts. It wasn’t helpful to the broader movement, and reinforced the fact that he’ll never be a team player, but it definitely gave him a nice promotional boost at the time. Ratings were legit great. I’ll call it a smart move. An asshole move, for sure! But smart.
But the rest of these Democrats? Going on Fox is a desperate cry for attention, from a crew so desperate for relevance that they would apparently attend a Klan rally if it gave them a shred of a spotlight.
If GOS wasn’t bad enough with his offensive missives, the Berners got slammed when defending their candidate. Some of the comments were vile. Here’s an ice cream scoop for you, mixed with manure:
Kossack Centrist: Well, are white men threatened under Trump? Nope. He’s creating a white patriarchal utopia.
White men can see going on Fox as a political move, instead of the legitimatization of the state sanctioned terrorism against marginalized people that it is.
Any candidate, that wants to appeal to Fox News viewers, doesn’t care enough about my safety for me to consider voting for them.
Berner: Jews have been persecuted for centuries. Sanders was brave to face the enemy instead of cowering.
Kossack Centrist: Yeah, Bernie sure is under direct physical threat due to his appearance on Fox (sarcasm).
Give me a fucking break.
Rolling my eyes forever, over the new forced narrative, that somehow, an old white man from Vermont, experiences the same threats to his personhood as women, black men, black women, Muslims, Latinx, the LGBTQA community, and practicing Jews (an no, Sanders isn’t one of those).
Right now in this country, women are losing their right to bodily autonomy. Black men are murdered at will by agents of the state. Latino children are living in cages. Trans Americans are being erased from society. People are being shot in their houses of worship.
Don’t you dare try and claim, that the old white man from the whitest white state in the nation is somehow in the same amount of danger as those marginalized groups.
The martyrdom syndrome and cosplaying victimhood of Sanders supporters is sickening.
My comment:
Markos is already getting critical comments on twitter about this diary, and perhaps that is what he wants. If I were Harris and Warren, I would be disgusted by the commentary. They made their points implicitly that they differ from Bernie Sanders and others on FC appearances. But they didn’t pay someone to batter the candidates and throw insults at their supporters.
A lot of hypocrisy. Calling Bernie Sanders’ FC appearance an asshole move is not too different from the comments one makes on The Blaze. Red meat to stir up the place.
Holocaust deniers maybe? Purity indeed. That what was said about Bernie Sanders. But nope, they are purifying for a slightly center left political lot. Which is bad. Most of the American people are not where Biden or even Harris is today. They support MfA, GND, 15% cap on credit card interest, and that excessive capitalism isn’t working too well for them.
The hypocrisy is amazing. It’s a blog for Identitarians, yet, it’s OK to use borderline anti-semitic comments to smear Bernie Sanders, a Jewish candidate whose paternal family was killed by the Nazis in WWII, and grew up in a neighborhood in which people wore identification numbers on their arms.
.@BernieSanders address to the Islamic Center of Southern California is unusually personal.
He reflects on growing up Jewish & crying while reading about the Holocaust.
In the wake of the New Zealand 🇳🇿 shooting, he says it’s abhorrent we haven’t learned more from history. pic.twitter.com/HvC6JmhjN1
1: Publish caustic conjecture on the front page about one of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination
Once they’re at the convention with his 30 percent, they presumably figure they can threaten and bully the party to nominate him. This way, he doesn’t have to work to expand support beyond his core group of supporters.
#2: Instead of following Elizabeth Warren’s model and simply presenting a reasonable case for not participating in Fox News townhalls, publish a front page article casting Democratic candidates who have a difference of opinion on this subject as being either an “asshole” or…
so desperate for relevance that they would apparently attend a Klan rally if it gave them a shred of a spotlight
#3: In that same front page article, state — without any sense of the irony of your statement — that a leading contender for the Democratic nomination (the one pictured above pitching in to save the ACA) “will never be a team player.”
No doubt there are additional examples of how Daily Kos can gin up infighting among Democrats, but I’ll stop at those two articles, which were published on the same day (May 15, 2019) on the front page, by the same author.
Of course, it goes without saying that this author has every right to publish whatever he wants here, since he’s the founder of the blog. He is of course not subject to warnings or “time outs” or whatever slaps on the wrist might apply to regular users.
I hope you will go recommend that diary.
Kos is looking into the mirror of desperation in my view. Why does he continue a circular firing squad on Democrats, yet his moderators have told Berners to quit criticizing other Dems and just support our candidate? Like the tv corporate media, DK Alexa ranking has sunk like a stone.
What I don’t know is if Elizabeth Warren’s and Kamala Harris’ campaign are feeling the bern (and Biden) because these circular attacks seemed planned, especially if Bernie had lost the straw poll and Kos didn’t get his contributing spot on MTP as a result. I hope it’s not a conspiracy.
I’m reminded of a song from the early 70’s by the 5 Man Electrical Band in which a hippy constantly has to deal with the Establishment (the Man). TOP continues to hippy punch Bernie Sanders because his democratic socialist practices are “not team” player methods. Bernie wants to create mass politics, something Kos was successful when George Bush put us into a war through lies. But now, Daily Kos, is well, withering away, just like Hillary Clinton. And Bernie threatens his neoliberal politics. If Bernie wins it all, Kos’s blog likely won’t survive.
The United States Congress must do everything it can to prevent the Trump Administration’s attempts to put us on the brink of a catastrophic and unconstitutional war with Iran. https://t.co/n2Wbzcj2Pq
It takes about a min or so before Bernie appears. You may wish to move the bar a little so that you don’t have to wait.
Bernie Sanders was one of the original co-sponsors of Tom Udall’s S1309 bill, Prevention of Unconstitutional War with Iran Act of 2019. I don’t know why Elizabeth Warren waited until today to sign on, but we should get this bill out of the committee. It’s stuck there.
More tweets, news, and videos in the comments. Consider this an open thread.
ICYMI- Here is our conversation with @AOC about what it will take to win her 2020 endorsement. She said it will take “a while” to decide. She is considering @BernieSanders & @ewarren but didn’t seem high on @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/sT69GTusVN
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most popular figures on the Democratic left, are using the new bill to address an issue that many closely identify with another presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Ocasio-Cortez has not endorsed any primary candidate and has indicated she could wait until New York votes next year before making a decision.
Speaking to CNN on Thursday, she named Sanders and Warren as two potential picks.
“I would like to see in a presidential candidate is one that has a coherent worldview and logic from which all these policy proposals are coming forward,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN. “I think Sen. Sanders has that. I also think Sen. Warren has that. I also want to see us centering working people in the United States to stem income inequality (and) tackle climate change.”
Asked if she would consider former Vice President Joe Biden, Ocasio-Cortez said, “I’m not sure,” adding with a laugh, “Now it’s getting a little nuts.”
More videos, tweets, (including the video of Bernie and AOC’s Loan Shark Prevention Act) and news in the comments! Consider this an open thread.
The contract, says UFCW Local 400, does a number of things.
It provides:
field workers with paid healthcare premiums;
interns a $20/hour rate and medical benefits;
overtime pay for hourly employees;
coverage for mental healthcare services;
a pay cap on management pay;
pay transparency;
a pay equity review process; and
and anti-discrimination provisions.
Such protections are especially important given the nature of campaign work, said Local 400 president Mark P. Federici.
“Political campaigns are cause-driven and because there is always more work that can be done, staffers are typically worked to the bone,” said Federici, who suggested other presidential campaigns take a cue from the Sanders team.
“First, Senator Sanders walked the talk on unions, agreeing to a truly democratic process—neutrality and card check—that every responsible employer should embrace. And then, the campaign engaged in good faith bargaining, recognizing that it’s in their own interest to have well-treated employees empowered to operate at the top of their games,” he added. “I urge every other campaign to follow their lead.”
Krista Harness, a staffer who served on the bargaining committee that led negotiations on behalf of the union, said, “I am so proud to be taking this historical step of becoming the first-ever presidential campaign with a unionized workforce.”
Unions are my family. I have worked with them my entire life, and I am incredibly proud this campaign will be powered by union workers.
When unions are strong, the middle class is strong. Together, we are going to rebuild the labor movement in America. https://t.co/fsc9d1WZBP
I cried watching this, thinking of my beautiful son Henry and his final weeks at home. Thank you, brave, beautiful @AdyBarkan. I will honor your incredible work & continue the fight for #MedicareForAll. PLEASE watch this in full & RT. pic.twitter.com/jNNb8PnqIz
Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren will participate in this live, internationally telecast 2020 event from New Hampshire on April 22.
The CNN town halls are co-hosted by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College and the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. The presidential hopefuls will field questions directly from students and young New Hampshire Democrats, said a CNN spokeswoman, who added the audience will be drawn from the two schools and a pool of young Democrats living in the state.
On April 22, Chris Cuomo will moderate the Klobuchar (7 p.m. ET) and Sanders (9 p.m. ET) town halls, Anderson Cooper will moderate the Warren (8 p.m. ET) and Buttigieg (11 p.m. ET) town halls, and Don Lemon will moderate the Harris (10 p.m. ET) town hall.
The CNN town halls will take place on the campus of Saint Anselm College, and coincide with the release of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School’s new national poll of young voters.
The latest Harvard Poll shows that Sanders has a commanding lead among 18-29 year olds over his political rivals: 31% back Sanders, while former Vice President Joe Biden places second with 20% support. At this point during the 2016 campaign, Sanders was polling at only 2% with the same age group in the Harvard poll.
More news, tweets, videos, op-eds, analysis clips in the comments. This also serves as an open thread.
Bernie was one of two POTUS candidates who spoke at the International Association of Machinista and Aerospace Workers convention in LV. He is the sole candidate who has worked the picket lines with this union.
BERNIE, AMY, & UNIONS: 2020 contenders Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speak to union workers at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at their annual Transportation Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Sanders is the first presidential candidate to announce he would unionize his campaign workers and Klobuchar has a 95% lifetime rating from the AFL-CIO.
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., posted a message of support for transgender Americans to social media.
“Discrimination has no place in our society. I am proud to display this flag as a symbol of my support for the transgender people across the country. We must stand with transgender people in all of our communities.”
“The flag was hung outside our Senate office yesterday to recognize transgender visibility day, which is March 31,” Sanders staff wrote in a Tuesday email.
Discrimination has no place in our society. I am proud to display this flag as a symbol of my support for transgender people across the country. We must stand with transgender people in all of our communities. pic.twitter.com/W6Esa16vzP
I live down the street from Fort Mason, where the Bernie Sanders rally is taking place today. Walking home from Safeway and saw this… the line wraps around the park. @abc7newsbayarea#abc7nowpic.twitter.com/1sVMD9tnaQ
