Democrats Abroad In Argentina For Bernie Sanders

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I believe that we will win, Janis.

On Wednesday night, over 100,000 supporters gathered at 3,500 events across the country to kick off the Bernie 2016 organizing effort. It was an unprecedented grassroots gathering this early in a presidential campaign.

And earlier this week, we received some tremendous polling news from CNN. Check out these two potential general election match-ups:


Bernie Sanders (D): 48% Bernie Sanders (D): 48%
Scott Walker (R): 42% Jeb Bush (R): 47%

Bernie has more than tripled his support in the Democratic primary since our April 30th launch, and he is the ONLY Democratic candidate with higher favorable ratings than unfavorable.

We told everyone they should not underestimate us, but we still have a lot of work left to do.

When this campaign started, people said it was impossible — that we were dreaming. But it’s not: this is happening. Right now. Because of you. And if we keep it up, it won’t be too difficult for anyone to imagine seeing this on November 8, 2016.

CNN: Bernie Sanders elected president

Like Bernie says: “Now is not the time to think small.”

We have our sights set high, but if we stand together and continue to grow, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. And your contribution today will help get us there.

Thanks for adding one,

Jeff Weaver
Campaign Manager
Bernie 2016
 
Janis,

If you can believe it, Jeb Bush said this today:

"I'm not sure we need half a billion dollars for women's health issues."

Let me tell you what I believe: we need to be spending a lot more money on women's health care. We need to be investing in organizations like Planned Parenthood that provide absolutely essential health services for women, particularly in low-income communities.

And Americans need a president who knows women in this nation deserve a whole lot more than $3 a person for health care.

We must stand up for women's health. Add your name to fight these Republican attacks on women's health care.

Jeb Bush saying that a half billion dollars for women's health care is too much shows just how low the Republican candidates will sink to cater to the radical fringe in this election. I am eager to show the country why they are wrong, and I hope you'll join me in standing up for women's health care.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders
 
Did you watch last night’s Republican presidential debate, Janis?

If you are one of the wealthiest people in this country, then you had ten candidates talking about your needs for two hours.

But in the entire time I watched, I saw very little discussion about the issues important to most American families. There was no talk about climate change and clean energy, raising wages and providing healthcare for all Americans, criminal justice reform and the undermining of the Voting Rights Act, and nothing at all about the crushing burden of student debt.

And when they did talk about campaign finance reform and the billionaire class buying candidates and elections, it was the butt of a Donald Trump joke.

We need to be discussing issues facing working families at a debate hosted by trade unions. We need to discussing climate change and environmental issues at a forum hosted by the environmental community. We need to be discussing civil rights issues and racial injustice at a forum sponsored by civil rights groups. We need to be discussing gay rights at a forum hosted by the LGBT community. In other words, more discussion, more debate is good for the Democratic Party and good for the American people.

I know, and you know, that the best chance for this country is to discuss the issues that matter. Republicans aren’t going to do it, so we need more Democratic debates — more than the four scheduled by the Democratic National Committee before the Iowa Caucuses.

And I know that if Secretary Clinton wants more debates, we’ll get them.

Sign my petition and tell Secretary Clinton to encourage the Democratic National Committee to schedule more debates before the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire primary in February and to allow important constituencies within the Democratic Party to host their own debates.

Here’s what I did hear a lot about last night: I heard a group of ten Republicans on stage longing for a return to the days of George W. Bush. The return to more war and tax breaks for the rich, and less jobs and health insurance for most American families.

Do they remember the two wars George Bush put on the credit card?

I do. Some of us voted no.

Do they remember the 800,000 jobs a month we were hemorrhaging when Bush left office?

I do. Some of us voted against the policies that led us there.

The American people deserve more debates — debates about how we got to where we are today, and how we move this country forward. And if all the candidates running for the Democratic nomination, especially Secretary Clinton, call for more, then we’ll get them.

Add your name and encourage Secretary Clinton to call on the Democratic National Committee to schedule more debates before Iowa and New Hampshire, and let’s start right away.

We are at a moment of truth. We need to face up to the reality of where we are as a nation, and the best ways to move forward.

Thank you for standing with me.

Bernie Sanders
 
Dear Janis,

Climate change is an unprecedented planetary emergency. If we don’t act aggressively now to combat it, there will be major and painful consequences in store later: rising oceans that inundate coastal areas, bigger super storms like Hurricane Sandy, worsening droughts, out-of-control wildfires, historic floods that come year after year, rising food prices, and millions of people displaced by climate disasters. It’s not a future any of us wants to imagine.

But despite how difficult the problem is, the basics of how we should respond to it are actually not that complicated: we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, and move to 100 percent renewable energy — and we need to act immediately.

That’s why I cannot understand why some Democratic presidential candidates have refused to take a stand against the Keystone XL pipeline. Keystone XL would transport millions of gallons of some of the dirtiest oil on the planet — oil that scientists tell us we simply cannot burn if we want to stop the worst impacts of climate change. As former NASA scientist James Hansen has said, building Keystone XL would mean “game over” for the climate.

A decision on Keystone XL could come at any moment, and that’s why it’s so important you make your voice heard through our campaign today:

Sign my petition if you agree that we cannot move forward with Keystone XL if we're serious about fighting climate change.

It’s no big surprise that in recent years, most major Republican politicians have chosen to deny that climate change even exists. Republicans in Congress have collectively received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from fossil fuel interests who directly profit from stonewalling action on climate, at the expense of the climate and of humanity. Politicians who deny climate change is real, despite an overwhelming scientific consensus, are as morally bankrupt as those who helped Big Tobacco conceal the truth about the health effects of smoking, evading responsibility for years.

But in some ways, it’s even more disappointing to see Democratic politicians, who understand that climate change is real and profess to care about action on climate, equivocate on an issue as clear-cut as Keystone XL.

A study released by the scientific journal Nature just a few months ago found that if we want to keep global warming below the internationally agreed-upon safe upper limit of two degrees Celsius, we need to reduce all production of the Canadian tar sands — the kind of oil that Keystone XL would transport — to “negligible” levels. In other words, there is simply no scenario where we can address climate change in a real way and also allow this pipeline to go forward.

Add your name to mine if you agree that we cannot move forward with Keystone XL if we’re serious about fighting climate change.

Stopping the Keystone XL pipeline is not the only thing we must do to address climate change. Ultimately, we need to leave all fossil fuels in the ground and move to a 100 percent renewable energy economy.

That’s why I also oppose oil drilling in the Arctic, support the fossil fuel divestment movement, and have sponsored legislation in Congress to bring solar energy to ten million rooftops in America. As a result of these positions, and my long record in support of the environment, I was recently honored to receive the endorsement of Friends of the Earth.

To win the important environmental victories we so urgently need, it will take a coordinated grassroots movement fighting to take our country and our climate back from the fossil fuel industry billionaires. It was a grassroots movement — of Nebraska ranchers, Native American communities, and climate change activists — that managed to hold off Keystone XL for years, despite the conventional wisdom that the pipeline was a done deal. I’m proud to have stood with those activists in their fight from the very beginning.

Sign my petition: we cannot move forward with Keystone XL if we’re serious about fighting climate change.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders
 
Janis -

A new poll came out this morning, and I wanted to make sure you saw it right away.

New Hampshire Democratic Primary
Bernie Sanders: 44%
Hillary Clinton: 37%

This is the first poll that shows us in the lead, but it won’t be the last. Last weekend over 65,000 people showed up to see Bernie in Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle, and supporters recently hosted over 3,500 organizing meetings attended by over 100,000 people.

This is a campaign on the move, Janis, and it’s powered by real people, not billionaires and Super PACs.

Your $3 contribution to our campaign funds the political revolution that will win the Democratic Primary, the White House, and take this country back from the billionaire class.

There’s a reason we are doing so well in this campaign, and that’s because Bernie is telling the truth about American life today — about the reality in which almost all the wealth and income is going to the top one percent.

We are going to change that, but only if we continue standing together.

All my best,

Jeff Weaver
Campaign Manager
Bernie 2016
 
Immigration Activists Accuse Bernie Sanders Of Using GOP Talking Points

[background=transparent]WASHINGTON -- When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said this week that he opposes open borders -- more a hypothetical than an actual policy proposal -- no one was shocked. The Democratic presidential candidate supported comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 and favors a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but he's long been skeptical of guest worker programs and other legal immigration that could squeeze out American workers.[/background][background=transparent]
Some immigration advocates, however, said they were surprised Sanders quickly went from talking about open borders to saying he doesn't want immigrants to take American jobs. [/background][background=transparent]
Sanders has insisted he was speaking about open borders, something no candidate is pushing, but also repeated his concern that businesses want to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to take American jobs.[/background][background=transparent]
"Those are the talking points that Republicans use to drive a wedge between Latinos and the African-American vote, saying, 'They're coming to take your jobs.' That at its core does not resonate and does not set him apart from the Republican Party," said Greisa Martinez, advocacy coordinator for United We Dream, a group led by undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. [/background][background=transparent]
Sanders' immigration policy stances are generally in step with advocacy groups. But as he struggles to win over minority voters, his tone matters. Some advocates said they have concerns that his opposition to new immigrant workers disrespects immigrants as a whole.[/background][background=transparent]
FWD.us, the Mark Zuckerberg-backed group that advocates for immigration reform, was the first organization to criticize Sanders for his remarks to Vox. Todd Schulte, the group's executive director, wrote Wednesday that Sanders "falsely pits immigrants as an obstacle to tackling unemployment." He called that view "troubling," and noted that studies have found immigration boosts the economy.[/background][background=transparent]
Sanders often says giving undocumented immigrants legal status would aid the economy, but his comments on new immigrants tend to hinge more on the idea of Americans losing their jobs -- to the chagrin of some advocates.[/background]
[background=transparent]"There's just overwhelming information about how immigrants contribute to our economy and to our communities, and that's something that should be part of the conversation instead of the frame of mind that immigrants can take jobs, which is incorrect," said Lizet Ocampo, associate director for immigration at the Center for American Progress, which has [/background]analyzed economic benefits of immigration reform[background=transparent].[/background]
Click to expand...

Sanders is a nationalist who calls himself a socialist.
 
Janis -

Wall Street's greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior drove this country into the worst recession since the Great Depression. For too long, this billionaire class has corrupted our political system. We must act decisively to make our economy fair again.

Wall Street's dangerous manipulation of our economy has helped divert most of all new income to the top one percent, contributing to the most unequal level of wealth and income distribution of any major country on earth.

Today, we live in the richest country in the history of the world, but that reality means little because much of that wealth is controlled by a tiny handful of individuals. The skyrocketing level of income and wealth inequality is not only grotesque and immoral, it is economically unsustainable.

The reality is that for the past 40 years, Wall Street and the billionaire class have rigged the rules to redistribute wealth and income to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country. As a result, Wall Street exists as an island unto itself, benefiting only the extremely wealthy while using our money to get rich.

That ends when I am president. Let me tell you what I'm going to do, then sign on to endorse my plan to take on Wall Street.

Tax Wall Street Speculation to Make College Tuition Free

Too many firms on Wall Street using high-speed trading to try to make a quick buck. But it's risky and unproductive. Banks can execute thousands of stock trades a second thanks to sophisticated computer algorithms.

Wall Street can keep doing this if it wants—but they'll have to pay a tax on every one of those trades. And this tax on Wall Street speculation would be enough to pay for my plan to make tuition free at every public college or university.

Break Up Banks that are Too Big to Fail

In the midst of all of this grotesque inequality in our country sits a handful of financial institutions that are still so large, the failure of any one would cause catastrophic risk to millions of Americans and send the world economy into crisis.

Most of the major Wall Street financial institutions that we bailed out because they were "too big to fail" are now bigger than they used to be. The six largest financial institutions now have assets equivalent to nearly 60% of our GDP, issue 35% of the mortgages, and oversee 65% of credit cards.

My view: If it's too big to fail, it's too big to exist. That's the bottom line. As president, I will break up the big banks and restore some sanity to our banking system.

Make Banking Boring: Reign in the Recklessness

Banking should be boring. It shouldn't be about making as much profit as possible by gambling on esoteric financial products. The goal of banking should be to provide affordable loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the productive economy, and to Americans who need to purchase homes and cars.

That is not what these huge financial institutions are doing. They're instead creating an economy which is not sustainable from a moral, economic, or political perspective. It's a rigged economy that must be changed in fundamental ways.

We need banks that invest in the job-creating productive economy. We do not need more speculation with the American economy hanging in the balance.

Unrig the Tax System

Our tax system is wildly unfair — rigged to benefit the very rich. Major corporations that earn billions in profits stash their money in tax havens and pay nothing in federal income taxes, while billionaire hedge fund managers pay a lower effective tax rate than nurses or teachers.

In order to reverse the massive transfer of wealth and income from the middle class to the very rich that we have seen in recent years, we need real tax reform which makes the wealthy and profitable corporations begin to pay their fair share of taxes. It is fiscally irresponsible that the U.S. Treasury loses about $100 billion a year because corporations and the rich stash their profits in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and other tax havens.

We need a tax system which is fair and progressive. Children should not go hungry in this country while profitable corporations and the wealthy avoid their tax responsibilities.

We Can Do This

The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time.

I can understand how this might feel daunting. We are up against a billionaire class that has bought our political system to enrich itself, and is now faced with the breakup of their oligarchy.

Know this: when people come together to organize, we can beat any amount of money thrown around by the Koch Brothers, Goldman Sachs executives, or anyone else.

Our political revolution is underway, and when it is built, we will win not just against Wall Street, but we will win the White House.

Add your name to endorse my plan to take on Wall Street and the billionaire class.

We can do this, Janis. Thank you for standing with us.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders
 
Dear Janis,

Over the weekend, another positive poll came out for our campaign — one that showed us within single digits of Hillary Clinton in Iowa for the first time.

I want you to read this note I received from a supporter last week. It speaks to some of the reasons we are doing so well in Iowa, New Hampshire, and states across the country:

"I am unemployed. I am uninsured. I am a recent college graduate who graduated with a 3.75 GPA. I am going through a difficult divorce and I have $27 dollars in my bank account. I donated 10 of my remaining 27 dollars because I believe if Bernie is elected I will not have days like this. Days where I stress about where my next meal will come from. Days where I cannot go look for a job because I do not have the gas money to pound the pavement. Days where I cry when thinking about the unpaid medical bills and student loans in my name. I believe things will change. I am making an investment in a person I believe in with the hope that he will change my homeland for the better."

Our campaign is doing so well because we are telling the truth about the reality of American life today. We are talking about a reality in which most of the new wealth and income in this country are going to the top one percent while working families are struggling more than at any point since the Great Depression.

Our success is also because over 400,000 people have contributed to this campaign, even though some, like the author of the note I shared, can hardly afford it. Through our campaign, the American people are finally telling the billionaire class: "ENOUGH is ENOUGH, this great nation and its government belong to all of the people, not just a wealthy few."

But we still have a long way to go.

Janis, make a $3 contribution to our campaign today, and not only will we win Iowa and New Hampshire, but we’ll win the presidential election and take the White House back from the billionaire class.

Let me tell you another thing. This campaign doesn’t have a Super PAC, and I don’t spend a lot of time asking rich people to contribute to our campaign. And even if I did, it would probably be a tremendous waste of time.

We will sink or swim based on what we get from the working families of this country. And I could not be more proud of the way we’ve funded our political revolution.

Here are two more stories I received from campaign contributors last week. I want you to read them — they are important:

"I lost my job in 2012 and my house in 2015. I am currently unemployed and looking for work. I don't have a lot of money and barely surviving on food stamps. Despite all of that, I am compelled to donate because I feel that Bernie Sanders will help bring America back to the middle class. A small donation now in exchange for a better future is a no-brainer. The inequality gap must be fixed!"

And:

"I am broke. I was a proud union electrician. I have never donated money to a politician before however, as broke as I am, I trust Bernie and want to say that I am a part of this revolution. God bless him!"

When we started this campaign, the word "fringe" was tossed around a few times. No one is using that word any more.

Every day, thousands of people are joining our political revolution. It’s why we are leading in New Hampshire, within single digits in Iowa, and closing the gap nationally with each passing day. If we continue to stand together, we’re going to win.

Make a $3 contribution to our campaign today, and together we’ll take our country back from the billionaire class.

We will win in 2016. Not just the White House, but the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and statehouses across the country because we are creating an unprecedented grassroots movement which taps into the American people’s desire for real change in this country.

Our success wouldn’t be possible without you.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders
 
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