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Sanders Joins The NAACP Journey For Justice March:
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders appeared at the America's Journey for Justice rally at the Lincoln Memorial Tuesday.
The rally was the climax of a 1,000-mile march from Selma, Alabama, to Washington, calling on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act.
"Unless we enact reform that provides easy access for all voters, we will continue to miss 30 million voters from working families. If we don't root out big money in politics, the oligarchy of the wealthy will increasingly control our government," wrote Larry Cohen, former president of the Communication Workers of America and a Sanders' adviser, on the campaign website.
"Voting rights, and the other three issue areas on the Journey for Justice platform, provide a good basis for this discussion as the presidential race heats up," Cohen wrote.
...
"We march today as our predecessors marched fifty years ago as an affirmation of our hope and a firm belief that our efforts will bring about change," said Butterfield, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, in a statement. "We will not make progress in this journey for justice until all Americans share the same equity and fairness under the laws that govern our country."
Sanders Leads In Another New Hampshire Poll:
Bernie Sanders is leading Hillary Clinton by 7 points in New Hampshire, a new poll Tuesday shows.
The Vermont independent senator is on top among likely voters -- 43 percent for Sanders to 36 percent for Clinton -- mostly because of his support with unaffiliated voters who are allowed in New Hampshire to take part in the primary of their choice. The race is tighter among registered Democrats.
Clinton is leading slightly among registered Democrats with 43 percent of the vote, according to the Monmouth University poll. Sanders has 39 percent of the vote among the group.
Sanders receives 49 percent of support among registered independents and new voters compared to Clinton's 26 percent.
Why This Guy Tricked Out His Tesla For Bernie:
Paul Sasso kicked off fall with a Bernie Sanders-inspired road trip.
"It’s America, everyone loves road trips,” he said in an interview with ABC News.
A San Diego architect, Sasso said his all-electric Tesla was a hit at the house party he threw for the Vermont senator earlier this summer.
“It’s green and alternative, the perfect match for Bernie,” he said. At the time, the car only had a few "Bernie 2016" bumper stickers, but that’s when he and his wife got the idea to make what they call “The Bern Machine.”
Looking for a creative way to do more for the Sanders campaign, they designed the wrap for the car and set up a fundraising campaign on Twitter and Facebook. The plan: Sasso promises to donate $1 for every picture of The Bern Machine tagged to the fundraising campaign with #BernMachineChallenge (up to $2,700).
In many ways, Sasso exemplifies the local artistic expression and grassroots “everyone-do-what-you-can” attitude that has propelled the Sanders campaign forward in the last few months.
African American Voters In SC Are Open To Sanders:
Ashley Causey, 24, a senior special education major from Florida, remained undecided, but said she was open to supporting Sanders. Causey, who is African American, said, "I do appreciate what he did when Black Lives Matter activists interrupted him" at a Seattle rally. "He let them speak," she said, and then "he made an attempt to address their concerns."
While she said it's important that Clinton is running - "as a woman I appreciate her making a move" - she said, "I don't think she is as in touch with marginalized people."
Donovan Hill, 19, a biology/pre-med major at University of North Carolina at Charlotte and an African American, said that while he "loves and supports" Hillary Clinton, he prefers Sanders in the primary, particularly because of the candidate's views on "income inequality."
Bernie Rejects The WSJ's $18 Trillion Pricetag:
Bernie Sanders is pushing back against a Wall Street Journal report that calculated the total cost of his proposed polices as $18 trillion over 10 years.
“That is not the reality, and we will be responding to the Wall Street Journal on that. I think most of the expense that they put in there, the expenditures, have to do with a single-payer health care system,” the independent Vermont senator said in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday.
Sanders said the WSJ had “significantly exaggerated” those costs, and hadn’t accounted for the benefits of “eliminating the cost that you incur with private health insurance.”
According to the WSJ, Sanders’ program would include $15 trillion in additional costs “for a government-run health-care program that covers every American, plus large sums to rebuild roads and bridges, expand Social Security and make tuition free at public colleges.”
Sanders, in the MSNBC interview, argued that a single-payer system was preferable to the status quo, in which many Americans’ health care is tied to their jobs.
Bernies Plan Is More Affordable Than It Sounds:
Implementing the entire Bernie Sanders policy agenda would cost a staggering $18 trillion, according to a somewhat alarmist Wall Street Journal article about Iowa’s favorite social democrat.
But his proposals are also more affordable than you might think.
As you can see from the WSJ’s handy graphic, this “$18 trillion” cost over 10 years can be basically broken down into two buckets.
There’s a $15 trillion Medicare-for-all plan, and then there’s everything else. Everything else tallies up to $3 trillion over 10 years. That is a lot of money. It is, however, $400 billion cheaper than Jeb Bush’s tax cut plan. So the typical middle-class family will get $942 from Jeb Bush, while in Sanders-land the typical middle-class family will get free college, paid parental leave, and a bunch of new transportation infrastructure — plus Sanders averts the need to cut Social Security benefits or raise the retirement age.
More On The NAACP March/Rally:
Bernie Sanders ripped Republicans over voting rights on Tuesday, though he refused to criticize front-runner Hillary Clinton on her civil rights record.
As he hustled from an NAACP rally at the Lincoln Memorial, Sanders promised to “do everything I can” to end the GOP push to restrict ballot access.
“It's just simply cowardly that these governors and legislatures are making it harder for poor people, for elderly people and people of color to participate in our political process,” he said.
Sanders also called for criminal justice reform, saying the U.S. must “end the disgrace that we have more people in jail than any other country on earth.”
Connecticut For Sanders:
At its recent regular monthly meeting, members of Democracy for America’s Fairfield County chapter heard from members of CTforBernie.org , who presented the status of Bernie Sanders's campaign for president in Connecticut.
Speakers discussed Sanders' political career, his platform and his campaign, which has rejected political action committee money in favor of small donor fundraising and volunteer-based campaigning, according to a press release.
Paul Regnier, of Westport, spoke of the consistency in Sanders’ positions over his career.
“I’ve followed Bernie since he first came to Washington as a newly elected House member," Regnier said in a press release. "He’s a straight-forward guy, who may not have Bill Clinton’s charisma. He has spoken the same way for 40 years and has always been in favor of keeping America in the hands of the people.”
Bill Collins, a member of Democracy for America’s Fairfield County chapter, served as Norwalk's mayor at the same time Sanders was Mayor of Burlington, Vt. and had an opportunity to work with Sanders personally. He spoke passionately of Sanders as a man of conviction and determination, who was effective at getting things done, according to a press release.
Sanders Meeting With Prominent Racial Justice Activists:
Bernie Sanders will meet with DeRay Mckesson, a prominent activist and organizer, in Washington on Wednesday, a Sanders campaign spokeswoman confirmed to Mashable.
Mckesson has been one of the most recognizable faces in protests against racial injustice and police brutality around the country, including in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland. He is one of the activists behind a platform called Campaign Zero that is focused on stopping police killings with a series of local, state and federal-level proposals and recommendations. Mckesson declined to comment on specific details of the meeting, but said that members of Campaign Zero’s planning team and other activists would be in attendance.
News of the meeting was first circulated on Twitter by Mckesson himself, who hasn’t shied away from engaging with presidential candidates including Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Sanders, and originally suggested a meeting with the Democratic presidential candidate, saying that his racial justice platform had “promise.”
Go See Jonathan Tasini In Seattle Thursday:
Author Jonathan Tasini will be in town to promote his new book, The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America. This book is the first, and to date, only book that defines Bernie in his own words and lengthy legislative record on 20 core issues facing the country. It’s a must-read for anyone who is ready to organize for a better America, and be part of an unprecedented movement to change the course of history.
Jonathan Tasini, former President of the National Writers Union, is a well-known writer, organizational strategist and an economics and political analyst. He is the author of four books, including The Audacity of Greed, and They Get Cake, We Get Crumbs, and writes for national magazines, newspapers, and television, including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Business Week, Playboy Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. He lives in New York City.
From Curiosity To Phenomenom:
The last time Sen. Bernie Sanders was in North Carolina he filled the sanctuary of Raleigh’s Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. On Sunday night, 9,000 cheering, foot-stomping supporters packed Greensboro Coliseum and an overflow hall to chant “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie.’’
Clearly, Sanders has passed from curiosity to phenomenon.
So far this is shaping up as the year of the outsider who can tap into voter frustrations with Washington. For the Republicans, we have seen the rise of Donald Trump and Ben Carson, two people who have never held public office.
For the Democrats, a 74-year old democratic socialist from Vermont is now threatening Hillary Clinton’s front runner status. CBS released a poll over the weekend showing Sanders up over Clinton by 20 points in New Hampshire and by 10 points in Iowa.
That has led to talk that Clinton’s firewall in the nominating process will be in Southern state primaries like those held in the Carolinas early next year.
“You don’t need a firewall if there is not a fire,’’ quipped Mike Briggs, Sanders’ communications director, shortly before his boss took the stage. Briggs knows the state well, having worked as press secretary for former Sen. John Edwards.