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The Bernie Birthday Money-bomb Is A Thing:
While the front pages of the New York Times and the evening broadcasts of the television news are bannering stories of candidates from Hillary Clinton to Jeb Bush raising big dough from big donors and reaping the benefits of giant Super PACs, the legions of grassroots supporters of Bernie Sanders are quietly marching across the playing fields of social media and planning a small donor moneybomb extravaganza to celebrate the birthday of their champion on September 8. Stay tuned: the Sanders moneybomb will be a big deal that will fuel organizing for other big deals that have already begun from even larger crowds at big rallies and mass organizing for Democratic caucuses
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On September 8 during the Bernie Sanders birthday moneybomb small donors will be inspired to give $8, or $80, or $800, or they might even organize their friends to raise $8000 dollars. In the old politics it is no secret that campaign “bundlers” can buy an ambassadorship to Britain or France by bundling hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign donations, while in the world of small donors to Bernie Sanders and other change candidates a lot of donors of $8 or $80 or $800 seek to buy nothing better than a more fair and just America.
The potential power of this combination of social reform and social media, of people power driven by high ideals and great aspirations, is limitless in a world that cries out for fairness, decency and change and a nation that is fed up with business as usual in a system that is corrupted by politics as usual.
From BBC - The Sanders Brothers - A Tale Of Two Underdogs:
Bernie Sanders is known to many for taking on Hillary Clinton in a bid to become the Democratic candidate in next year’s race for the White House. But his brother has been fighting a political battle of his own in the UK.
Larry Sanders sounds pretty cheerful for a person who recently lost an election.
The 80-year-old retired social worker and academic came fifth in the seat of Oxford West and Abingdon in May, representing the Green Party.
“Although we didn’t win, we increased our share of the vote… we recruited new members and established new branches,” he says.
He has lived in the UK since emigrating from his native New York in the late 1960s, but his voice still bears a trace of his childhood which was spent in Midwood, Brooklyn, from where his father used to travel to Long Island to sell paint.
That, he explains, was where his awareness of politics began.
“As a Jewish child growing up in the 1940s, in the shadow of the war, you saw quite starkly that politics was a life-and-death thing.
“But on a less dark note it was also the period of the New Deal. Our parents, who were not very political, believed politics could do something tangible for us. We didn’t have many books in the house, but we had a good public library and a free college, Brooklyn College, which helped me get an education.”
Sanders Does Not Think He Is An Outlier:
One recent afternoon, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont gave another of the populist speeches that have drawn the largest crowds of the 2016 campaign to his rallies around the country and have made him the unexpected rival to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The role of “super PACs” is “corrupt and amounts to legalized bribery,” he bellowed. Waving his arms, he quoted Abraham Lincoln and shared his own “vision for the future of this country.”
On the campaign trail, the speech would have elicited wild enthusiasm from his liberal supporters. But this was the Senate, which was virtually empty except for Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who was busy editing her own speech, and Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, who was texting.
“You come here, it’s like, ‘O.K., not much response,’ ” Mr. Sanders said with some resignation in his Senate office earlier this month..
These days, Mr. Sanders, a professed socialist, does not feel rejected by his colleagues so much as baffled by a clubby institution that does not seem to understand the deep resentment about economic inequality that his campaign has tapped. “When I’m outside of here,” he said, “the ideas and the points that we are making are reverberating very strongly with the American people.”
Bernie Has Room To Grow With Latino Voters:
“Polling by Latino Decisions has found that Bernie Sanders has very, very low name recognition and following among Latinos,” said Matt Barreto, a co-founder of the leading Latino political opinion research group. “As a senator from Vermont, he does not have a strong history of doing outreach to the Latino community, or being involved on Latino issues such as immigration or bilingual education.”
That verdict will be a wet blanket to supporters who have begun to believe the self-described democratic socialist can go all the way to the White House. It raises the spectre of Howard Dean, another Vermont insurgent who electrified progressive enclaves in the 2004 primary race before flaming out.
Sanders has recognised the danger and ramped up efforts to connect with Latinos, adapting rhetoric and tactics originally aimed at white liberals. The shift was on display earlier this week when Latinos joined a rapturous, diverse crowd at the Los Angeles memorial sports arena.
“I truly believe he represents the people. He’s not beholden to corporate interests. He’s the one representing minorities across the US,” exulted Yuliana Miranda, 23, a teacher, amid deafening chants of “Bernie”.
The question is whether the campaign can attract enough people like Miranda, a newly recruited activist who has joined a grassroots group in Los Angeles. The omens are mixed.
A survey of Hispanic voters conducted last month for Noticias Univisión found that 73% would vote for Clinton in the Democratic primary. Some 68% did not know or had not yet formed an opinion about Sanders. In a separate Fox News poll earlier this month Clinton led Sanders by 29 points among all Democratic voters – and by 50 points among non-white Democratic voters.
Barack Obama lost the Latino vote by 26 points to Clinton in 2008 but compensated with overwhelming endorsement from African Americans – a remote prospect for Sanders. He needs to make inroads with both groups.
The 73-year-old has momentum.
Bernie Sanders — Halfway There? by Michael Bremmer:
No — not to the nomination, much less the White House.
What Sanders has done is to establish himself as a force in the Democratic Party’s selection process. He has done so by demonstrating two qualities that have largely disappeared from America’s political life over the past few decades. One is conviction and intellectual honesty. The other is articulate statement of a progressive creed that was the party’s heart and soul when it dominated the country’s electoral life, before lapsing into the “me-too” wing of our current Establishment uniparty. Sanders, thereby, has flinted a spark of life into those nominally liberal circles whose lazy and complacent inertia had led them to declare the compromised Hillary Clinton as their latest champion.
None of this was foreseen by the commentators and strategists who set the tone for our political discourse. Their domination of the electronic airways generates the Washington Consensus that few dare dispute. That consensus is invariably wrong – on almost every matter of electoral and policy consequences. They boast a record of unrelieved obtuseness that does nothing to undermine their authority in delimiting what or who qualifies for “serious” discussion. One could amass a fortune simply by betting against the Washington Consensus. A quicker and more socially responsible alternative to joining in the corrupt shenanigans that pass for finance these days.
The “experts,” in their typical blinkered way, overlooked or grossly underestimated some stark truths. Most Americans are poorer today than they were 45 years ago. Stagnant salaries may have left them on a par with or very slightly ahead of where they were in 1970 in absolute terms, but they have lost all purchase on the kind of lives led by those who are infinitely better off in relative terms. In America’s status society where well-being is measured in lifestyle terms, that counts for a lot. Especially so, when the outlook for your children is a struggle even to keep up with their parents
Did I post this already?
Could A President Sanders Deliver?:
I've lived in Vermont for nearly four decades, and I've watched Bernie (everyone here calls him Bernie) at work, listening to him carefully since he first won the mayor's job in Burlington in 1981. I've read his position papers, listened to many of his speeches and attended his town hall-type forums, even talked to him personally about the issues that concern him. Most Vermonters know him well, and we have a pretty good idea about what he might attempt to do in the Oval Office.
What does he say he'd do?
His laundry list of proposals includes campaign finance reform -- an issue he approaches with passion -- and a strong desire to fight climate change in real ways.
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His platforms on key issues are breathtaking in their ambition. But can he deliver?
Let's look at how he has fared in Vermont. He has, in fact, been an outspoken, bold and effective senator.
I don't doubt the difficulties a President Sanders would face from his first day in office.
There would be massive opposition to his ideas on many fronts, from the Supreme Court to Congress to the tea party to even some on the left. The wealthiest 2% would squeal, as would major corporations, and they would fund lobbyists who would attempt to fight any legislation that threatened business as usual, which has worked very well for those in the highest tax brackets, although not so well for those below them.
But as Americans will vividly learn when the Democratic Party debates begin, Bernie Sanders is extremely smart and well-informed. And he doesn't back down in a fight. Vermonters already know this.
As president, he would take his agenda to the country and without flinching.
Bernie Is Planning On A Large Crowd In Iowa:
Republican presidential candidates are getting the headlines for going to the Iowa State Fair, but signs are growing that Bernie Sanders will outdraw them all after his Sunday town hall in Iowa was forced to move to a bigger venue.
The Sanders campaign announced that due to audience demand their town hall event in Dubuque, Iowa on Sunday has been shifted to a larger venue. The campaign said in a statement, “With turnout projections mounting, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign has shifted the location of Sunday’s town meeting in Dubuque, Iowa, to the Loras College Athletic and Wellness Center.”
Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are flocking to the Iowa State Fair. Jeb Bush has already spoken there. Donald Trump will appear on Saturday, as will Bernie Sanders. Scott Walker is scheduled for Monday, but none of the candidates in the 2016 field will attract a crowd like Sanders will on Sunday.
Some of the skepticism towards Sanders comes from those who point out that he has been drawing huge crowds to liberal areas. Sen. Sanders can mute much of that criticism by speaking in front of a packed house in Iowa.
Sanders Continues To Shake Up The Campaign:
It isn’t a coincidence that as Bernie Sanders is being forced to move to a bigger New Hampshire campaign headquarters due to increasing popularity, Democrats are actively searching for more serious candidates to enter the 2016 field.
The Sanders campaign is so popular in New Hampshire that they have to move to a bigger headquarters. Kurt Ehrenberg, the New Hampshire coordinator for the Sanders campaign, told The Washington Post, “We’re ramping up our campaign. We’re hiring new staff every day. We’re opening new offices. Things are going extremely well….Our volunteers don’t just want to come out and see the candidate. They actually want to work for Bernie because Bernie instills this terrific enthusiasm in them.”
While Sanders continues to grow both organizationally and attendance wise, other Democrats see Hillary Clinton as a vulnerable frontrunner and are worried about what the Sanders rise might mean for November 2016.
Some Democrats are clearly fishing for another established candidate to enter the Democratic race. There was a brief flirtation around Al Gore, but that was quickly squashed. Most of the serious chatter is coming from supporters of Vice President Biden.
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None of this conversation would be happening without the rise of Bernie Sanders. Sen. Sanders has turned the Democratic Party on its ear by building a grassroots movement that is based on a take no prisoners populist economic message.
Some Sanders Events:
Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday will speak at the Loras College Athletic and Wellness Center rather than the Fieldhouse.
The free-to-attend event will begin at 6 p.m. The new location for the town meeting was necessary due to "mounting" turnout projections, according to a press release from Sanders' campaign.
Admission is first-come, first-served. Tickets are not required, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged.
& In Reno:
Would you like to come hear Bernie speak about taking on the billionaire class and standing up for working families?
Tuesday, August 18
Rally with Bernie Sanders
Gates open at 6 p.m.
Program begins at 7 p.m.
Joe Crowley Student Union, Gateway Plaza
University of Nevada, Reno
1664 N. Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89557"
Iowa Feels The Bern:
The historic venue that hosted the final performance of legendary rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper was rocking and rolling Friday night.
Filled at least to — and probably beyond — its capacity of 2,100, the Surf Ballroom was rocked by Democratic activists who clearly feel good about the candidates who seek their party’s nomination for president.
Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee all spoke Friday night at the Iowa Wing Ding, an annual fundraiser hosted jointly by 23 northern Iowa counties.
The line to get into the building snaked for two blocks, the ballroom was standing-room-only, and the applause lines and standing ovations were plentiful as the candidates attempted to earn favor with activists in this first-in-the-nation caucus state.
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Sanders hit on many of his campaign themes and touted the large crowds his events have been drawing.
Sanders, who is second to Clinton in most primary polls — although he finished first in a recent New Hampshire poll — also talked about a few issues in a way that differentiates him from Clinton. He called for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, said he opposes construction of the Keystone pipeline and noted his vote in the U.S. Senate against the Iraq War.
Sanders also said his campaign has been financed by thousands of small-dollar donors. He said he has rejected Super PAC support and the average contribution to his campaign is $31.21.
“That is what this campaign is about, is saying loudly and clearly it is not just about electing Bernie Sanders for president, it is about creating a grassroots political movement in this country,” Sanders said.