The Bare Bones of Life
Bernie Sanders Won the Americas Largest Arab Community by Being Open to Them
by Zaid Jilani, The Intercept
(Mar. 9, 2016, 16:32) — Bernie Sanders’ upset in the Michigan primary Tuesday can be attributed, in part, to a strong showing in Dearborn, Michigan, which has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation. Sanders won almost 60 percent of the vote there, besting rival Hillary Clinton.
Apparently, something about Sanders resonated with residents.
Sanders Has A Much More Practical Plan Than Clinton To Raise Taxes On Rich
by Howard Gleckman, CONTRIBUTOR
(MAR. 8, 2016 15:31) — Let’s say you’re a Democrat who wants to raise taxes on rich people. It turns out there are two very different ways to do it: The direct, simple, in-your-face Bernie Sanders version and the indirect, complicated, back-door Hillary Clinton model.
I’m not talking about the magnitude of their respective tax proposals. That’s a whole different story. This is really about the best way to structure tax increases, assuming you want to enact them at all. And by that measure, Sanders has the far better model.
Media Bias Against Bernie Sanders: Ever More Obvious Now than Ever
(Mar. 7, 2016 23:45 EST) We have heard it many times over how the mainstream media such as The New York Times and the Washington Post have demonstrated their biases by not covering Bernie Sanders in an objective way. If you take a look at a screen shot of The New York Times “above-the-fold” front page online, you can see more clearly what is going on. No only will these media outlets exclude key instances of the Bernie Sanders campaign, they will lead their articles with headings that mention the other two candidates such as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
In addition, the New York Times’ online front page, they have a side-bar section which provides the viewer the option of looking at articles that are allegedly “most viewed” and “recommended for you.” These subsection areas are also articles which are listed with the same degree of bias.
In he “most viewed” list, there would be no mention of Bernie Sanders, and if it has to be primary election related, it will lead with either Trump or Clinton’s name in the headline.
It was only until the “recommended for you” option, did I see an article for Bernie Sanders pop up. But that only indicates how they are cyber-stalking people who visit their website.
The New York Times and the Washington Post both also have subtle ways of excluding Bernie Sanders from the discussion. If an article is given primary consideration on their online front page, the article will be headlined in a way that views a story on Sanders as a “glass half empty” verses a “glass half full.”
These are seasoned, political news journalists, given instructions to use their well trained writing skills to sway their articles about Sanders into a negative and hopeless theme.
For example, if a primary election result was say out of five states Hillary Clinton won three and Sanders won the other two. The headline will read, “Clinton Dominates the Election Results,” and Sanders walks away with a miserable two states and is not looking good.
Then, when statistical numbers can be used, of course, these mainstream media outlets will use those numbers in the same swayed way.
So, if you’ve been following very closely this election cycle, you would have already seen the bias.
Unfortunately, many people don’t have time to see the waves of bias coming from the mainstream media outlets. Many people are just too busy after work to catch up on the hours of time needed to watch Bernie Sanders rallies online, or to use a wide search to evaluate articles of the day.
The mainstream media knows this. So they use this to their advantage by continuing their drip, drip, drip bias slanted articles. And when they have to mention Bernie Sanders, they will be factually correct, however, twist the article theme of one of an ever looming cloud of doom that hangs over the Bernie Sanders campaign.
Well, now that that is out of the way. There are at least two shows which are a must watch, either live, or when they post to their youtube channels.
Thom Hartman’s, The Big Picture, and The Young Turks are professionally broadcasted news shows which are a breath of reality fresh air.
Check them out.
Florida Courthouse Hosting Early Voting Allows Campaigning on Property
by Daryl Parsons
VOLUSIA Fla. (Mar. 5, 2016) — Early voting started today in Florida permitting its residence to get a head start in this year’s presidential primary elections.
Being only the first day, the Volusia Courthouse was met with both voters and campaigning activity.
Campaign signs for both Trump and Clinton were affixed inside and around the Volusia Courthouse’s parking lot that services the courthouse where the election polling stations are at.
The poll station volunteers were asked about the signs and said there was no problem, “as long as they were 100 feet away from the building.” The emphasis here was from the building, and not the property.
Weather the 100 foot rule applies to the government property or building has yet to be clarified pending a review of the matter by city, state and federal election law officials.
Campaign advocates seeking to promote early voting for both Hillary and Sanders campaigns were also out front of the courthouse. They stood outside the 100 foot distance and were across the street not obstructing any entrance into the polling station building.
When asked why the election process at the Volusia courthouse permitted the Trump and Clinton sighs to e posted in the parking lot to the building, one poll person said, “as long as it’s 100 feet from the building,” that it was okay.
Early voting will continue until Mar. 12. Then two days later on Mar. 15, the general primary election will take place.
More photos.
Bernie Sanders draws big crowd for speech in Lawrence
Vermont senator hopes to drum up liberal support for Kansas caucuses
By Michael Mahoney, KMBC 9 News
LAWRENCE, Kan. (Mar. 3, 2016 22:19 pm) — Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders brought his campaign to Lawrence Thursday evening, hoping to get support for Saturday’s Kansas caucuses.
Sanders, who trails front-runner Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, needs to pick up delegates anywhere he can.
“I think we’ll do pretty good here in Kansas,” Sanders said.
Justice Dept. grants immunity to staffer who set up Clinton email server
By Adam Goldman, WashingtonPost
(Mar. 2, 2016 20:20 pm) The Justice Department has granted immunity to a former State Department staffer, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The official said the FBI had secured the cooperation of Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009.
Sanders Wins Vermont, Clinton Takes Two States
By New York Times
(Mar. 1, 2016 19:45 ET) Voters in 12 states are choosing their presidential nominees in a Super Tuesday contest.
This is the largest voting day of primaries and caucuses for both parties, with about one-quarter of all delegates at stake.
Bernie Sanders: $42 million raised in February
By Tom LoBianco, CNN
Washington (Mar. 1, 2016 07:29 am ET) — Bernie Sanders’ campaign announced early Tuesday morning it had raised more than $42 million in February and raised $6 million alone in a final fundraising blitz Monday.
The Sanders campaign announced Monday morning it had raised $36 million in February and set a goal of $40 million. But the coordinated push from the campaign and its supporters, including Democracy For America, helped Sanders beat that goal.
Bernie Sanders raises more than $40 million in February
By Fredreka Schouten, USA Today
(Feb. 29, 2016 21:30 ET) — Despite his recent losses in Nevada and South Carolina, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders remains a fund raising powerhouse, raising $40 million and counting in February for his bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination.
Sanders had set a goal of collecting $40 million for the month before the fundraising deadline ended Monday. That’s nearly two times the $21 million the Vermont senator raised in January.
He started his last-minute fundraising drive Monday morning, having already collected $36 million. By 7:58 p.m. Monday night, he had raised $40.7 million — meaning donors had showered him with more than $4 million in a single day.
Bernie Sanders’ Lucky 27
by Daryl Parsons
(Feb. 29, 2016 14:45 ET) — Not sure if anyone has noticed, but the magic number “27” has made its way into Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and thus into American history. It started off as a statistical number read off during campaign rallies to illustrate how Sanders’ campaign took donations from regular working class people in America averaging a humble “$27 Bucks.” It is now a stable number during his campaign rallies.
The Luck 27 doesn’t only appear in crusty book-keeping accountings of donations. It has appeared in other ways as well. For instance, when Sanders mentions how long he and his wife have been married. The answer, 27-years. Any cosmic correlation going on here?
The symbolism peppered throughout the Sanders campaign pops up in other ways.
Another numerical coincidence was during the very first primary election in Iowa when Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton within 1% of her 49.9 to 49.6 victory. There, the magic number was 1%.
Historically, the 1% designation has been used to refer to how “99%” of the population in American have been subject to the economic and political system imbalance. That is, the majority of the wealth is focused in the top 1% of the population. This leaves the rest of the population, or 99%, having to fend for themselves while fighting over the scraps of society that are left to scrap over.
The 99%/1% symbolism made its debut during Sanders’ first campaign election results in Iowa where he lost within 1%. Quite symbolic given that Sanders’ issue based campaign has advocated against the economic and social inequality existing in America, or for 99% of the population.
His opponent Hillary Clinton, in contrast, won the Iowa election within the 1% range. That is, she benefits from only a %1 margin, the margin which the wealthy class of citizens in American exist over the rest of the population. Clinton has been viewed, and given how she has taken Wall Street money for her campaign, as an establishment candidate beholden to Wall Street money.
It will be interesting to see what other magic numbers appear for Sanders throughout the rest of his campaign.
For now, it looks like the Lucky 27 number will be sticking around for a while.
Already, ActBlue, the Sanders’ campaign online donation service provider, has included a special $27 button in the optional amounts to click-on when making a donation on the site. This makes it easier and fun for people to join the symbolic $27 donation revolution.
One thing is also certain. The ability of Sanders to summon his Lucky 27 donors has been unflinching.
Just this month for February 2016, Sanders campaign reported having received $36 Million in donations.
Contributing to this amount is the surge of donations Sanders received after his win in New Hampshire which crippled ActBlue’s website to a slow crawl. Nonetheless, the Sanders campaign reported receiving $5 Million within 24-hours after his New Hampshire win.
The Lucky 27 is also a routine ad-lib by Sanders supporters during rallies. During the campaign, Sanders would engage his supporters with the question, , “. . and do you know what the average donation was?” The supporters then in cadence sound-off with, “Twenty-seven dollars!”
Related Story
Bernie Sanders Collects $36 Million in February as Fund-Raising Successes Continue
by By Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times
(Feb. 29, 2016 10:11 AM ET) — Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised more than $36 million in February and was hoping to hit the $40 million mark by the end of the day on Monday, his campaign announced.
