Bernie Sanders, traipsing across far-flung regions of California as he seeks a comeback victory here next week, swatted at likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for minimizing the state’s water shortage and the effects of climate change.
“The people of California perceive that there was a drought here, and Donald has come to tell you that you’re wrong,” Sanders said. “You thought there was a drought, but Donald, who has studied this issue intensely for decades, has reached the conclusion there is no drought.”
Speaking to a crowd of more than 9,000 on the campus of UC Davis, Sanders sounded familiar themes about income inequality, broken criminal justice and campaign finance systems, the predatory nature of student loans and the need for universal health care and expanded Social Security.
“We have built jails, not colleges,” he said. “It’s time to reverse that trend.”
At a Friday rally in Fresno, Trump declared, “There is no drought.” Part of the reason for the lack of water, particularly in the Central Valley, he said, is the state prioritizing the needs of the Delta smelt over farmers.
Sanders, continuing with his playful knock on Trump as “one of the great meteorologists in the world,” noted that the New York businessman has previously said that climate change is a hoax.
“What the scientists ... tell us is if we do not get our act together in a very short period of time, if we do not boldly transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, the current problems will become much, much worse,” Sanders said.
On the third straight day of his Bay Area swing, Bernie Sanders made a campaign stop in Palo Alto on Wednesday, to reach out to young techies in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Thousands showed up to get a glimpse of the Democratic presidential hopeful, some coming from as far away as Los Angeles.
"It was completely worth it," Michael Hsu said. "I was able to speak with him as he was leaving, and I shook his hand and just said my thoughts, and he loved it. He even gave me a hug."
Sanders said young people are getting more involved in the political process. He told techies he needs their skills to battle income inequality and climate change.
"You can help lead this country in breakthrough technologies that can transform out energy system," he told the gathering.
In an interview with NBC Bay Area, Sanders said, "I think the message to Silicon Valley is it really is too late for establishment politics and establishment economics," Sanders said.
Cheering crowds met Sanders at every turn, and the senator from Vermont hopes to parlay their enthusiasm as he makes a case to superdelegates at the party convention in July that he has a better chance than Clinton of beating Trump.
"There has never been a Bern and there may never be for a long time," said Steven Most, 59. "Finally, we have someone with 1960s values in the game."
Most, who came from Sunnyvale, wore an array of pro-Sanders pins. By far his favorite, though, is one showing Sanders being arrested in a 1963 civil rights protest in Chicago.
Bob Cluff, 50, a physician from Antioch, took his enthusiasm to a different level. He wore an Uncle Sam outfit he bought online two weeks ago.
"Anything for Bernie," said Cluff, who bleached his hair and beard to complete the look. "I've never been a political person, but I just said to myself, 'It's time to make a statement.' "
Karen Huang, 59, walked 20 minutes from her office in Midtown to attend the rally.
Huang, who lives in Palo Alto, said Sanders differs from other candidates who came through the Peninsula's wealthy cities because he held a public rally and not just fundraisers.
Bernie Sanders continued his Bay Area campaign stops today with a community panel in Palo Alto, where he discussed his stance on major issues with Asian-American and Pacific Islander leaders.
Sanders was met with cheers and a standing ovation from roughly 200 supporters as he entered the Cubberley Community Center’s Pavilion for a discussion with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and three other community members.
The panel was Sanders’ second stop today as he works to gather support less than a week before the state’s primary election on Tuesday, when he hopes to win more delegates to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
The Vermont senator discussed what he would do to address issues surrounding foreign policy, climate change, health care, immigration, equal pay and inclusion.
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Mark Ciubal, 28, of Roseville, was supportive of Sanders’ “peaceful” approach to resolving conflict and getting to the root of a problem.
“War is very seldom the answer. There have been very few wars in the past that have been justifiable,” Ciubal said.
Ciubal is a veteran with the U.S. Marines who served two deployments to Iraq and five years with the U.S. Air Force as a contractor working on intelligence analysis.
Timmy Lu, field director with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, asked Sanders what he would do to address climate change as many Pacific Islanders consider themselves environmentalists who support government action as their homelands face rising sea levels and economic challenges.
The current “global environmental crisis” can become worse if nothing is done now, said Sanders, who called for more reliance on efficient energy sources other than fossil fuels.
Just days after two federal agencies seemed to clear the way for offshore fracking in the Pacific Ocean, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on it to stop.
"Make no mistake about it: This was a very, very bad decision by the federal government that will not be allowed to stand if I have anything to say about it," said Sanders. "And as president, I would have a lot to say about it."
With environmental activists by his side and a verdant lettuce field behind him, Sanders used Wednesday morning to restate his opposition to hydraulic fracturing -- a process of extracting natural gas by breaking up the ground with chemicals. He has campaigned for a ban on fracking throughout the primaries, winning some parts of New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania where "fracktivists" have blamed the process for toxic drinking water or greater incidence of earthquakes.
But on May 27, responding to a lawsuit from environmental groups, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement jointly released a report that found only a minimal environmental impact from California's existing offshore fracking. On May 31, the bureaus announced a task force, which would include California's pro-fracking Gov. Jerry Brown (D), to assess offshore fracking opportunities. (In Spreckels, Sanders said he had not discussed the issue with Brown, who endorsed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton this week.)
Clinton has not responded to the report, and there were no questions about it at the White House briefings since its release. Sanders rushed into the gap, criticizing Clinton for favoring international fracking as secretary of state, comparing the potential damage from fracking fluid to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., and arguing for the Democrats' platform to call for a fracking ban.
"Offshore fracking has the potential to pollute the ocean with toxic fluid, and to harm our beautiful beaches," said Sanders. "That risk, to me, is unacceptable."
When the Democratic National Committee announced that Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont would get to pick five of the 15 people who'll write the party platform, it was seen as a small coup. But at a news conference today, Sanders revealed that the DNC had actually vetoed his nomination of a key labor ally, and said he was told not to pick anyone else from the labor movement.
“What we heard from the DNC was that they did not want representatives of labor unions on the platform-drafting committee,” he said. “That’s correct.”
Yesterday, Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Nicholas was the first to report that Sanders had included RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, on his list of preferred platform committee members. "He told me that he really wanted me on the committee to advocate for Medicare for All, especially," DeMoro told The Washington Post today.
According to Sanders and DeMoro, the DNC nixed her, resulting in a Sanders delegation of four men, one woman (Native American activist Deborah Parker), and no one from organized labor. While many progressive commentators cheered Sanders's picks, which include the environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben and the academic iconoclast Cornel West, the gender and work balance opened him up to criticism.
"I think it was a set-up," said DeMoro. "It fed into the 'Bernie bro' narrative and meme -- oh, Bernie picked one woman, he's a sexist. As soon as the list was out, there were articles about how he chose two 'anti-Israel' people. The truth of the matter is that they were choices the DNC had signed off on."
In an interview Wednesday, DNC platform committee spokeswoman Dana Vickers Shelley confirmed that the DNC had not wanted labor leaders on the platform drafting committee, limiting labor's presence to Paul Booth of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union.
Hillary Clinton is clinging to a narrow two-point lead over Bernie Sanders in California ahead of the state's June 7 primary, according to results from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll.
Clinton gets support from 49 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the state, while Sanders gets 47 percent, which is within the survey's statistical margin of error.
And among a wider electorate of all potential Democratic voters in California, Sanders is actually ahead by one point, 48 percent to 47 percent
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In the Democratic horserace, Clinton leads Sanders among likely voters ages 45 and older (63 percent to 33 percent), self-identified Democrats (57 percent to 40 percent), women (54 percent to 41 percent), past Democratic primary voters (53 percent to 42 percent) and whites (51 percent to 46 percent).
Clinton also is ahead among those who have already voted, 58 percent to 41 percent.
Meanwhile, Sanders leads among first-time participants (72 percent to 28 percent), independents (68 percent to 26 percent), those younger than 45 (66 percent to 30 percent), men (54 percent to 43 percent) and Latinos (49 percent to 46 percent).
"As throughout the primary season, age is the story in this California tossup," says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. "Sanders inspires younger or first-time voters, and Clinton relies upon those who are older or have participated in the past."
Geographically, Clinton is ahead in the Bay Area (56 percent to 42 percent) and Los Angeles County (54 percent to 40 percent), while Sanders has the advantage in the inland/valley areas (54 percent to 44 percent) and the coastal region (58 percent to 36 percent).
Bernie Sanders signaled Wednesday that he would continue his presidential campaign beyond the California primary next week, saying he had the money to keep running until the Democratic National Convention next month.
During a news conference while campaigning in California, the Vermont senator said he already had plans to host events in Washington next week and to lobby superdelegates to withdraw their support from Hillary Clinton and back him instead. He added that he felt confident he can win California’s primary on Tuesday and that Mrs. Clinton was campaigning in the state because of polls showing the two locked in a tight race there. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released on Wednesday shows the race in a statistical tie.
“We have absolutely the financial resources that we need to run a very, very strong campaign here in California and in the other states and in D.C. and Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands and throughout the rest of the campaign,” Mr. Sanders said.
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Mr. Sanders also said he hoped that a round of coming victories would help him and his allies encourage the party to include a nationwide ban on fracking in the Democratic platform.
“I would hope that the Democratic Party makes it clear that it has the guts to stand up to the fossil fuel industry,” he said.
Three days before Puerto Rico's primary, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is digging in on his opposition to a House deal to rescue the U.S. territory from $70 billion in debt.
Sanders said Thursday that he will introduce his own legislation to help the island. His bill would allow the Federal Reserve to give the territory emergency loans and provide broad bankruptcy protections, unlike legislation approved by a House committee last week that would create a control board to oversee limited debt restructuring. Sanders' bill would also boost Medicaid and Medicare payments to the island and designate $10.8 billion to rebuild the territory's crumbling infrastructure.
The Vermont senator has said the existing House bill would make "a terrible situation even worse" and that it serves Wall Street bondholders over ordinary Puerto Ricans. The compromise bill is backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and the Obama administration. Puerto Rican officials are split.
"We have got to make it clear to these vulture funds that they cannot have it all," Sanders said in a statement. "The solution to Puerto Rico's debt crisis is not more austerity. The solution is more economic development, more jobs and less poverty."
"Older people often get frightened by labels [like 'socialist'], and I'm here to tell them they shouldn't."
In America there's always been a tension — a delicate balance — between capitalism and democracy, and when the pendulum swings one way or the other too far, things get sticky. During the '50s and '60s, we were pretty much all in it together as citizens: We got the Civil Rights Act passed; there weren't economic crashes, because regulations were in place; and almost any American who was willing to work could earn a decent living. But in recent years, things have gone too far in the other direction — we're practically an oligarchy now — and we as a society urgently need to stop worrying so much about big banks and big businesses and start worrying more about people.
That's why I'm supporting Bernie Sanders for president.
Bernie, whom I went to Reno to campaign for ahead of the Nevada caucuses and introduced at a rally in Santa Monica on May 23, gets called all sorts of names. "Socialist" is supposedly a bad one, but he isn't any more socialist than the New Deal that enabled America to emerge from the Great Depression and become the world's greatest superpower. The good news is that millennials aren't particularly worried about labels — they're focused on ideas, such as everyone paying their fair share in taxes, and that's why Bernie is doing so well with them. But older people often get frightened by labels, and I'm here to tell them they shouldn't. (I'm 90 years old, and I like to give young politicians like Bernie a hand up!) They're just words.
Some people say Bernie's platform is unachievable in a divided government — that universal healthcare and free college are things that President Obama would have seen through if he could have, but he could not. Bernie, however, is actually very realistic: He acknowledges that he cannot achieve these things without the support of a movement behind him — a "revolution" — that compels Congress to support these sorts of changes. And he has found tremendous support in response to that call to action. Inevitably, any of the candidates' major initiatives would be watered down by Congress — which is why it's all the more important to support the guy who's swinging for the fences.
Backers of Bernie Sanders are pushing for a vote at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention this weekend that they hope will pressure the state’s superdelegates to switch their allegiance from Hillary Clinton to the Vermont senator.
The split among Wisconsin Democrats over Sanders and Clinton mirrors that seen nationally as the presidential primary drags on. Anger over the party’s election rules - where party insiders known as superdelegates aren’t bound to vote for the candidate who won the state’s popular vote - has led some Sanders supporters to say the system is rigged.
That rallying cry now moves to Wisconsin - where several Sanders supporters gathered near the state Capitol on Wednesday to rail against the current system. They are pushing for approval Saturday of a nonbinding resolution that would say superdelegates should cast their votes proportionately based on who won the state.
If the superdelegates in Wisconsin would do that, Sanders would leave Wisconsin with 12 more delegates than Clinton. As it stands now, the best Sanders can hope for is an eight delegate advantage, but it could be as slim as just two.
He won the state’s April primary by 13 percentage points. But six of the 10 superdelegates back Clinton, one is for Sanders, and three are undecided.
“It’s a corrupt system and it’s designed just to ensure democracy will not be stolen by the people,” said Sanders backer Buzz Davis, speaking into a megaphone next to a farmers market a block from the Capitol.
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Feingold, who has refused to say who he voted for, downplayed any rift between Sanders and Clinton supporters but told reporters Wednesday that some changes to the superdelegate system were needed.
“Not for this election, not for this convention, but certainly going forward I think it would be much more in the spirit of a populous Democratic Party if we had a different, more direct system,” he said.
Prominent Arab-American activists will speak at the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton Thursday evening to stump for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jim Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, and Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, will talk about “why Bernie is the best candidate for Arab Americans.” Palestinian-American comedian and writer Amer Zahr also will speak.
The event is sponsored by Sanders’ campaign for the New Jersey primary and by Muslim Americans for Bernie Sanders.
In his bid for the Democratic nomination, Sanders has courted Muslim Americans, who come from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and Arab Americans, the majority of whom are Christian. Although their overall numbers aren’t large in the U.S. – Muslims make up about 1 percent of the population, and many live in electoral swing states like Florida, Ohio and Michigan.
Political pundits say that a strong Arab American vote for Sanders helped him pull off a surprise victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary. According to news reports, Arabs voted for Sanders by a 2-to-1 margin. The Sanders campaign is hoping to tap into that kind of support in New Jersey in the primary on Tuesday.
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The event takes place at 7 p.m. at the Palestinian American Community Center, 388 Lakeview Ave., Clifton. It is open to the public, but RSVPs are encouraged.
Thurston Moore, the former Sonic Youth co-leader, did not actually head into the studio to cut a record with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, amazing though that might’ve been. But he did work with the Sanders campaign in putting together a new piece of music called “Feel It In Your Guts.” The track — credited to Moore and Sanders the same way that Pope Francis album was credited to the Pope — takes bits from Sanders speeches and layers them over Moore’s 12-string acoustic guitar work.
And Moore is giving the song away to anyone who donates to the Sanders campaign. To get the track, all you have to do is head over to joyfulnoiserecordings.com and show evidence that you’ve contributed to the Sanders campaign since yesterday, and you’ll get the song as either a free download or a free flexi-disc.
Joyful Noise explains:
We are very excited to announce this very special release: a brand new composition by Thurston Moore, created in collaboration with the Bernie Sanders campaign. Titled “Feel It In Your Guts,” the track is a twelve-string acoustic piece laced with excerpts from Bernie Sanders’ speeches, touching on topics like the worship of money, economic inequality, social justice, and the need for basic human rights for all people. (Arranged and mixed by our buddy Mike Bridavsky.)
The release is limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies on square, white flexi-disc vinyl, with screenprinted cover art by David Kloc.
Why do you have to jump through these hoops to order? You see, we wanted this to be a benefit release, but Joyful Noise is a company… and that means Bernie won’t accept a check from us. True story. So, we can’t merely sell you the release and pass the donation to Bernie. Instead, you have to follow the ordering instructions and make a direct contribution to the campaign, prove you’ve donated by uploading a screenshot, and then proceed to checkout and claim your free limited edition flexi-disc.