The Sanders Institute’s “The Gathering” is underway. Jimmy and Roslyn Carter sent their best wishes to the group. Sister Turner is up on deck first.
Join our Facebook live stream today, Friday, Nov. 30th for the inaugural Sanders Institute Gathering. Today we will discuss bold progressive ideas on healthcare, the climate crisis and criminal injustice, concluding with an international roundtable. #sandersinstitutegathering18pic.twitter.com/7SYj9Fq9g4
In the past day or so on twitter, there are tweets about what progressives want and especially, what Pelosi must do to garner their support if she wants to regain the Speakership in Congress.
Winnie from People for Bernie started the wish list this way:
David Sirota went outside the box with this thought:
I'm serious here — Democrats could right now nominate @BetoORourke or @StaceyAbrams for Speaker of the House. They have legislative experience, they are from red states, and they have serious national followings. I know it may seem far-fetched, but why would that be a bad idea? https://t.co/0hkUhB5FA2
I’m making this thread separate…something we can chew, nibble, etc.
Personally, I like Sirota’s idea, but given that’s unlikely, I know one thing right away I want: amend the 2017 tax law. I want SALT (state & local taxes) to be completely tax deductible again. Additionally, raise the minimum wage and MFA. Long-game: to add more members to the House to properly represent the American people. The last revision of the numbers in the House was 1911.
To borrow from someone I like very much at TOP, we have some things to cheer about this week. The jeers we’ve mentioning today already, but I’m certain we have a few more to add.
I don’t drink alcohol-infused beverages these days, but I will offer a cocktail that I used to drink occasionally in college: a 39th Street whiskey sour.
Ingredients include whiskey, OJ, splash of lemon juice, and a little bit of confectionery sugar. Shaken not stirred. Served with a bit of shaved ice.
This is for toasting Bill Nelson, Andrew Gillum, Stacey Abrams, and Kyrsten Sinema defending their states’ voters’ rights. Not just their supporters, but everyone’s, in ensuring all votes are recorded accurately. I confess I didn’t expect Bill Nelson to fight back. He deserves some kudos for not folding. They are the sunshine gang.
Feel free to continue posting news, tweets, videos (including music videos) for our happy hour! See you in the comments!
I’ll start this with some parrot head music. #bringithome
TX Sen – Beto vs Cruz
NV Sen – Rosen vs Heller
FL Sen – Sick Rott vs Nelson
AZ Sen – McSally vs Sinema
CA Sen – DeLeon vs Feinstein
MO Sen – Hawley vs McCaskill
TN Sen – Breesan vs Blackburn (Dem Lost)
VT Sen – Sanders vs a pack of Indies (well, not a big race, but it is Bernie’s re-up) Win>!
FL Gov – DeSantis vs Gillum
GA Gov – Kemp vs Abrams
MD Gov – Jealous vs Hogan
WI Gov – Evers vs Walker
IL Gov – Pritzker vs Rauner (Dem win)
AZ Gov – Garcia vs Ducey
ID Gov – Jordan vs Little
MI Gov – Whitmer vs Schulette
IA Gov – Hubbell vs Reynolds
MN AG – Ellison vs Wardlow
Democracy Now is reporting that Donnelly is projected to lose, which means it’s very unlikely the Senate will flip blue. That’s a surprise.
Tonight we find out how much of a check the American people want to have on our Executive Branch. Or put it another way, how many of the 1000 legislative seats will the Dems gain from the last 10 years of losses? Will voters feel comfortable with the economy and overlook Trump? Will Trump’s divisiveness prevail and turn out his base?
Will we see our first women Native American Congressional Reps? First AA governor of FL and first female gov of GA? How well will the OR candidates perform in this cycle?
Of course, we hope there are no machine irregularities, but it’s anticipated that some will occur. And election lawyers will be on hand just in case.
In the Senate, Democrats are defending 26 seats while Republicans are only defending nine.
(those are predictions if they are filled in with red or blue, gold signifies toss-up)
In the gubernatorial races, there are 33 races, in which Dems could possibly pick up 9 of them.
(those are predictions if they are filled in with red or blue, gold signifies toss-up)
First polls close at 6ET in Indiana, VT and KY. Most in the MSM are saying to watch the 6th district in KY, but the bellwethers will be in VA 4 GOP races and FL 4 GOP races when the polls close at 7 ET.
Larry Sabato of Crystal Ball expects Dem pick-ups in the gubernatorial races, including Kansas.
Big races:
TX Sen – Beto vs Cruz
NV Sen – Rosen vs Heller
FL Sen – Sick Rott vs Nelson
AZ Sen – McSally vs Sinema
CA Sen – DeLeon vs Feinstein
MO Sen – Hawley vs McCaskill
TN Sen – Breesan vs Blackburn
VT Sen – Sanders vs a pack of Indies (well, not a big race, but it is Bernie’s re-up)
FL Gov – DeSantis vs Gillum
GA Gov – Kemp vs Abrams
MD Gov – Jealous vs Hogan
WI Gov – Evers vs Walker
IL Gov – Pritzker vs Rauner
AZ Gov – Garcia vs Ducey
ID Gov – Jordan vs Little
MI Gov – Whitmer vs Schulette
IA Gov – Hubbell vs Reynolds
Hi Birdies–it’s a big primary night. Poll closing Times: OH-4:30 PT/6:30 CT/7:30ET Kansas, Missouri – 5pm PT/7pm CT/8pm ET Michigan – 6PT/9CT/9ET (polls are open the same amount of hours in the Central time zone, which is in the UPI) Washington – 8:00 PT/10pm CT/11ET Incumbents count on low turnout in midterm primaries. That's why we've been all #GetOutTheVote and #GOTV on social all weekend. Voters in MI, MO, KS, and WA need to know who the Justice Democrat in their district is. Share this to help spread the word. https://t.co/bx994hx3cb pic.twitter.com/OFxuO7T4RE — Justice Democrats (@justicedems) August 6, 2018 Most …Continue reading →
Tonight is the Dem primaries for AL, CA, IA, MT, MS NJ, NM and CA. The state being watched most closely is the largest one, California, especially in the house, senate and governor’s races. From Politico: Democrats are more assured of getting general election candidates through the primary in four other Clinton-won, Republican-held districts in California. And in the governor’s race, it could be Republicans who end up without a candidate. That race is a battle for second place. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has led public polling, but former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Treasurer John Chiang, both …Continue reading →
Tonight there are 17 runoffs in Texas and primaries in KY, GA, & AR. Should be an interesting evening looking at the polling results. Did you know some of the folks who worked for Cheeto are also banksters donors for Gov Andrew Cuomo’s campaign? Yep, you can’t make this bowl of party chex up! In other news, Nina Turner issued a statement about the Politico article which reports the whispers of the has-beens of the Clinton campaign. That and more in the comments! Please feel free to post videos, tweets or other things on your mind! Update: NPR and other …Continue reading →
Our Revolution President and former Ohio State Senator, Nina Turner gives a blockbuster presentation in support of true progressive women running for California offices – Jovanka Beckles, Gayle McLaughlin, and Pamela Price. Location: MLK Jr. Middle School, in Berkeley, CA
Speaking to a room packed with progressives running for state and local office, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., advised the first-time candidates to ignore the political establishment and trust their guts.
Crediting the movement catalyzed by his 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, Sanders said the policies of Medicare for all, free college tuition, a $15 dollar minimum wage, criminal justice reform, and legalizing marijuana are now “mainstream” among Democrats.
“What was once considered radical is now mainstream,” Sanders said Thursday to cheers at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington.
Sanders bashed the political establishment and the press repeatedly throughout his speech. The media, Sanders said, plays a “destructive” game by telling the “American people that politics is too complicated, you can’t get involved, you don’t know how to run for office.”
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The former presidential contender encouraged the candidates, who are in Washington for four days of training, to embrace a progressive agenda even if they’re running in red or purple states.
“Let me give you a warning here: Watch out for consultants,” he said to laughs. “Often their advice is conservative and wrong. Trust your own guts, trust your own instincts.”
The training, put on by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Sanders’ Our Revolution, includes four days of helping candidates craft their public persona, how to pitch reporters, building field operations, do-it-yourself opposition research, and budgeting.
Last week, I joined Bernie Sanders in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Sanders was overwhelmingly well received by both passersby and the local audiences who came to hear him speak. But so far, the media coverage of his trip has revolved around a brief aside, in which Sanders faulted the Democratic Party for its recent legislative failures:
“The business model, if you like, of the Democratic Party for the last 15 years or so has been a failure,” said Sanders. “People sometimes don’t see that because there was a charismatic individual named Barack Obama. He was obviously an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy. But behind that reality, over the last ten years, Democrats have lost about 1,000 seats in state legislatures all across this country.”
Twitter erupted immediately, and critics, like former South Carolina representative Bakari Sellers, accused Sanders of “arrogance” and of “dismissing” President Obama. But Thursday’s critiques were only loosely tethered to Wednesday’s words, which, on their face, were fairly uncontroversial: Who could defend as successful the “almost unprecedented” loss of legislative seats over the last ten years, or Hillary Clinton’s defeat to game-show host Donald Trump? In Mississippi, when Sanders called the Democratic Party a “failure,” the audience erupted into applause. And of course, President Obama was a uniquely charismatic and brilliant president.
In fact, if Beale Street could talk, it would tell a very different story about Bernie Sanders than the now-familiar critique that he is insufficiently sensitive to racial issues. As I walked with Sanders down Memphis’s famous thoroughfare, his popularity, including among the predominantly black crowd attending the commemorative festivities, was self-evident. The senator was stopped every few feet by selfie-seekers and admirers. Yes: Perhaps this is to be expected of any politician with a national profile, but given his poor showing in Mississippi during the 2016 Democratic primary, in which he secured less than 17 percent of the black vote, I had thought the senator and his small cohort might go unnoticed. I was wrong.
Over dinner afterward, Mayor Lumumba elaborated on the unique conditions of his state to @BernieSanders highlighting why economic justice matters: The per-capita income in Mississippi is only about $19,000 per year. – @briebriejoypic.twitter.com/Nvueu15oKe
Participants in Ann Arbor’s 47th annual Hash Bash found themselves under the influence of more than just cannabis Saturday afternoon, as thousands gathered at the University of Michigan’s Diag: several politicians also found their way to the city’s popular weed festival, all hoping to convince voters they were biggest supporters of legalizing it. Many participants and organizers came hoping this year’s Hash Bash will be the last before marijuana is legalized in the state of Michigan. Many believe state Congress will approve ballot proposal in November to legalize the use of recreational marijuana for those 21 and older.
Speakers at this year’s event included many notable marijuana legalization activists and professional athletes, such as Detroit Lions running back Mike James, former Detroit Red Wings hockey player Darren McCarty and former NFL player Eugene Monroe. Local political figures addressed the crowd, including Ann Arbor City Councilmember Jack Eaton, D-Ward 4; Councilmember Anne Bannister, D-Ward 1; and state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor. State politicians such as gubernatorial candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Gretchen Whitmer also made appearances.
El-Sayed spoke on his support to legalize marijuana, stating the current law unjustly incarcerates youth.
“I’m here as a doctor and I’m here as a young servant, and I’m here because I’m done waiting while young people get arrested for something that should not be illegal,” El-Sayed said, according to MLive. “We’ve got to stand up and demand that we expunge records for marijuana possession and use … For too long we’ve watched as corporations have bought and sold our politics.”
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LSA junior Amal Alzendani, the U-M campus field team leader for the El-Sayed campaign, came to the Diag to hear the candidate speak.
“It was great to see Abdul El-Sayed at Hash Bash engaging with voters to whom the issue of marijuana legalization is important,” she wrote in an email interview. “It seems clear that Abdul’s stances regarding marijuana, which include expunging the records of people who have previously been arrested for marijuana-related charges once it is legalized, should be the standard among democrats, as should the open and vocal support of its legalization that Abdul showed by having such a presence at Hash Bash.”
Two student journalists from the Eagle Eye, Stoneman Douglas high school’s newspaper, interviewed the Vermont senator about the search for a breakthrough in the gun debate – and his own voting record.
