Bernie Sanders is due to speak to the Democratic National Committee meeting taking place in Minneapolis. I'll post his speech along the way, not verbatim obviously (and apologies for typos).
Oh, by the way, the presumed "front runner" declared that "if necessary" she'll fight to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United (I've had to endure that canned speech waiting for Bernie). Welcome to the party...and it would have been nice to give credit to Bernie Sanders for proposing it but Bernie should be feeling pretty used to being parroted and imitation is the highest form of flattery.
Feel free to post anything while we wait...(A bit fuzzy about whether Bernie goes first after lunch or O'Malley...)
Caller on CSPAN (rough points): Sanders only one speaking about inequality...Wall Street has not been held accountable...I lost a house because of this behavior...Bernie Sanders has been talking about how they've bought off our politicians.
Caller on C-SPAN: Republican wacko talking about people on welfare=why should we have tuition free college...(I think she also said she's top choice for VP on Trump ticket...just kidding...)
Caller on CSPAN: a veteran supporting Bernie Sanders...we, the people, will be best represented by him...question for the Secretary--will she support decriminalization so Veterans Admin can prescribe it?
Caller on CSPAN: Bernie Sanders has not only said these things for 40 years, he's done things...media shutting him out...his integrity is impeccable...(and basically said the presumed front runner is just copying his positions...)
Oh, so...do I get a Purple Heart to have to now sit through listening to taped Debbie Wasserman Schultz, incompetent Chair, fast-track lover...this has to be something we can all agree on...she has to go. Poor DWS...she seemed a little surprised by the strong chorus of cheers for Bernie when she mentioned his name (biggest applause, not surprisingly, for presumed front runner).
It will be interesting to see who introduced Bernie--and with what enthusiasm or emphasis...
Once Bernie starts speaking, I'll post using "updates" function.
Update: the campaign just sent me the prepared text:
Thank you for inviting me to be with you today, and thank you for the hard work that all of you do every day in trying to make our country a better place in which to live and raise a family.
I understand that there are Republicans who proclaim how much they love America, but how much they hate the people who work in our government or who participate in the political process. I disagree. In my view, participating in the political process and strengthening democracy — as you do — is one of the most patriotic things we can do as American citizens, and I thank you all for your efforts.
I only have a few minutes, so let me jump to the points I want to make:
When I announced my candidacy less than four months ago, I think that it’s fair to say that few took our campaign seriously. But a lot has changed in these last few months.
All across the country we have drawn some the largest crowds of this campaign, including many young people who have not previously been involved in the political process.
Hundreds of thousands of people have signed on with our campaign as volunteers and are already hitting the streets and phones.
We have, I believe, received more individual campaign contributions than any other presidential campaign, some 400,000. And in this day of super-PACs and huge campaign contributions I am proud to tell you that our average contribution is $31.20.
Most importantly, few would deny that the issues I am running on are generating a great deal of energy and enthusiasm in our grassroots campaign, a campaign that is calling for a political revolution.
The Republicans did not win the mid-term election in November. The Democrats lost that election because voter turnout was abysmally low, and millions of working people, minorities and young people gave up on “politics as usual” and stayed home.
Let me be very clear. In my view, Democrats will not retain the White House, will not regain the Senate, will not gain the House and will not be successful in dozens of governor’s races unless we run a campaign which generates excitement and momentum and which produces a huge voter turnout.
With all due respect, and I do not mean to insult anyone here, that will not happen with politics as usual. The same old, same old will not be successful.
The people of our country understand that — given the collapse of the American middle class and the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality we are experiencing — we do not need more establishment politics or establishment economics.
We need a political movement which is prepared to take on the billionaire class and create a government which represents all Americans, and not just corporate America and wealthy campaign donors.
In other words, we need a movement which takes on the economic and political establishment, not one which is part of it.
We need a movement which tells corporate America and the wealthy that you will start paying your fair share of taxes.
We need a movement which tells Wall Street that when a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. That we will reinstate Glass-Steagall and break up those huge banks which have a stranglehold over our economy. That we will create a financial system which provides affordable loans to small and medium size businesses, not maintain a financial system which is an island unto itself – designed to make huge profits for the few.
We need a movement which will work with the trade union movement to end our disastrous trade policies, and that includes defeating the disastrous TPP.
We need a movement which says that every worker in America deserves a living wage, and that we will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years; that we will provide pay equity to women workers and that we will end the international disgrace of being the only major country on earth that does not provide at least 12 weeks of family and medical leave, not to mention paid sick time and vacation time.
We need a movement which says that, when real unemployment is over 10 percent and youth unemployment is off the charts, we need to create millions of decent paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure.
We need a movement which tells the Koch brothers and the billionaire class that they will not be able to continue buying candidates and elections and that we will overturn this disastrous Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision and move toward public funding of elections.
We need a movement which understands that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and that we need to lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy. And that includes defeating the Keystone pipe line.
We need a movement that says, in a highly competitive global economy, that all of our people who have the ability, the qualifications and the desire, will be able to get a college education regardless of the income of their families because we will make public colleges and universities tuition free – and we’re going to pay for it through a tax on Wall Street speculation.
We need a movement which, once and for all, will end institutional racism in our country and reform a very, very broken criminal justice system. We must not continue being the country in the world with more people in jail than any other – disproportionately people of color. We must become the country in the world which invests in jobs and education, not in jails and incarceration.
And when we talk about bringing our country together, we cannot forget that there are 11 million people here who are undocumented. We must provide legal protections for them, we must pass comprehensive immigration reform and we must provide a path towards citizenship. And we must be clear that the racist and un-American idea that we are going to round up millions of people in the dead of night is unacceptable in this great country of ours.
You are looking at a former congressman who did not believe George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld and who voted against the war in Iraq, one of the worst foreign policy blunders in modern American history. And you are looking at a senator who will stand with President Obama in preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, but will do it in a way that prevents another war.
Let me conclude by saying this: We will win in 2016, not just the White House, the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, but Statehouses all across the country because we are going to create an unprecedented grassroots movement which taps into the American people’s desire for real change in this country.
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BUY The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America
11:39 AM PT: Big surprise...afternoon session running late
12:05 PM PT: oh Debbie: so, you've told the timekeeper to keep time for 15 minutes...any apology about giving the presumed front runner 24 minutes? even-handed? you are a sham.
12:05 PM PT: O'Malley up first
12:22 PM PT: At least O'Malley played by the rules...
12:33 PM PT: Bernie being introduced by chair of New Hampshire Dem Party, Ray Buckley...
12:33 PM PT: In both Senate elections, Buckley, reminds people, Bernie was endorsed by VT Dem State Party.
12:34 PM PT: Buckley: US News named him one of 20 Best Mayors in Country
12:35 PM PT: Buckley; Bernie has consistently defended the working and middle class families against excesses of corp America. His campaign for president is generated the excitements we need to win in Nov
12:35 PM PT: Bernie takes stage
12:35 PM PT: Neil Young walk in music...
12:36 PM PT: Thanks Dem Committee...
12:36 PM PT: REcalls the great Paul Wellstone. Yes!
12:37 PM PT: In my view, participating in political process, trying to make it a better country, is the most patriotic thing we can do...(people who work for govt).
12:38 PM PT: I think fair to say few ppl took my candidacy seriously. Fringe was heard. Also fair to say: alot has changed. (CHEERS!!!!)
12:38 PM PT: All across the country we have drawn some of the largest crowds of the campaign including ppl not before involved. More than 100,000 Americans hv signed up to volunteers
12:39 PM PT: We have received more individual campaign contributions than any other campaign. 400,000.
12:39 PM PT: In this day of SuperPACS, our AVG CONTRIBUTION IS 31.20. THIS IS A PEOPLES CAMPAIGN
12:40 PM PT: The issues we are running on are generating an enormous amount of enthusiasm. Campaign calling for political revolution striking chord all over America.
12:40 PM PT: The republican party did not win mid-term, we lost the election. Turnout was abysmally low. Ppl gave up and stayed home.
12:41 PM PT: We will not retain the White House, will not be successful...unless we generate excitement and momentum and produce a huge voter turnout.
12:41 PM PT: With all due respect, that turnout, that enthusiasm, will not happen with politics as usual (READ: Hillary Clinton)
12:42 PM PT: Given grotesque inequality, we do not need more establishment politics or establishment economics,
12:43 PM PT: What we need is a political revolution that takes on the billionaires (CHANTS "BERNIE, BERNIE!!!)
12:43 PM PT: WE NEED A POLITICAL
12:44 PM PT: We need a movement that tells corp America and the wealthies that they will start paying their fair share of taxes. That we will end the obscenity of living in a country where the top 3/10 of one percent earn as much as the bottom 90 percent
12:44 PM PT: When a bank is too big to fail, to big to exist,and we're going to break them up.
12:44 PM PT: A financial system that works w small and medium sized businesses, and not one concerned w the profits of a few.
12:45 PM PT: Works w our trade unions and ends our disastrous trade policies, that has cost decent paying jobs. and that includes defeating the TPP (Yeah what is the presumed front runner's position on that...crickets...)
12:46 PM PT: A movement...Every worker deserves a living wage...that understands current minimum wage is starvation wage...go up to $15 an hour.
12:46 PM PT: End disgrace of women earning less. PAY EQUITY!
12:47 PM PT: Paid family and medical leave...
12:47 PM PT: We need a movement when real unemployment is over 10 percent, when black youth unemployment is over 50% we need massive jobs program to rebuild infrastructure.
12:48 PM PT: We need a political grassroots movement that will tell Koch Bros they will not be able to guy elections....(sustained applause)
12:49 PM PT: I have not made many campaign promises so far. But, no nominee of mine to Supreme Crt unless that person agrees to rehear and overturn CITIZENS UNITED (coming soon--Hillary Clinton will mimic that)
12:50 PM PT: We need public funding of elections....
12:51 PM PT: Bernie shook his head just now and I *think* he was saying to timekeeper: no I'm not ending at 15 minutes...
12:51 PM PT: Defeat the Keystone Pipeline....
12:52 PM PT: College education tuition free no matter income of families...
12:53 PM PT: We pay for free college by imposing Wall St speculation tax (CHANTS "BERNIE BERNIE BERNIE")
12:53 PM PT: AMERICAN PPL bailed Wall St out, now it's their turn to help the middle class of this country,
12:53 PM PT: We need a movement to end institutional racism and reform broken criminal justice system
12:55 PM PT: We must not accept the deaths of unarmed blacks {names]...we must not continue with more people in jail than any other country. And disproportionatley people of color
12:55 PM PT: 11 million ppl are undocumented--comprehensive immigration reform and path to citizenship.
12:55 PM PT: The racist and unAmerican ideal that we are going to roundup ppl--it's not going to happen.
12:56 PM PT: VOTED AGAINST THE WAR IN IRAQ--i did not believe Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (but of course the presumed front runner did)
12:57 PM PT: Stand w Obama to prevent nuke weapon for Iran but in a way that prevents war
12:57 PM PT: [winding up]. We should not think small. If we stand together there is nothing we cannot accomplish
12:59 PM PT: We can live in a country where health care is a right for all ppl, not a privilege, w best quality child care in the world, where seniors retire with security and dignity and not choose between medicine and good (I am leading fight to expand SS).
12:59 PM PT: Respect for veterans.
12:59 PM PT: End...
1:05 PM PT: Full prepared text now in diary...gotta go...#FeelTheBern