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Donkees's JournalFarewell to Erica Garner
#EricaGarner died this morning after suffering a major heart attack several days ago. The 27 year old became a vocal advocate against #police brutality after her father #EricGarner died after he was put in a chokehold by a #NYPD officer.
Bernie Sanders movement changing Democratic politics in Texas
Activists push leftward as candidates hope economic message resonates
By Jeremy Wallace, Houston Chronicle December 28, 2017
Excerpts:
Hightower said the Bernie Sanders movement highlights an economic populism that used to be the way Texas Democrats dominated with working men and women. Access to health care, college education and a healthy distrust of corporate greed are all elements of the Sanders rise to prominence that could be tools for Democrats in Texas to finally win back the state, he said. "We reach out to real working stiffs and farmers," Hightower said. "We can turn people out."
There is no questioning that the Sanders campaign had an impact on Democratic politics, said Lillie Schechter, the leader of the Harris County Democratic Party. "It has brought a lot of young people into the party," Schechter said. "It's also opened a dialogue on a lot of issues."
Kutalik-Couthren said victories in local races has only helped build optimism as the calendar turns to 2018. "We're building a movement, a grassroots movement," he said. "The momentum is just growing as we get closer to the 2018 cycle."
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Bernie-Sanders-movement-changing-Democratic-12460650.php
Flashback Photo: Sen Sanders
http://people.com/celebrity/bernie-sanders-is-fun-grandpa-5-things-we-learned-at-his-home/
''Sanity, Respect, Empathy, and a vision not seen in our government in a generations ...
https://twitter.com/proviewsusa/status/944389958810337281Senator Sanders' Appointees to Unity Reform Commission Urge Passage of Report
22nd December, 2017
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – Our Revolution, the political entity founded by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential election, today urged the Rules and Bylaws Committee of Democratic National Committee (DNC) to adopt the full report of its Unity Reform Commission. The Commission’s report was finalized during a Dec. 8 and 9 meeting in Washington and will be taken up the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee Jan. 19 and 20.
“Ever since the 2016 creation of the Unity Reform Commission, we have worked for these proposals,” said Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen. “We did this by advocating for policies that would expand the base of the Democratic Party. It’s not enough to criticize Republicans for attacking the right to vote; Democrats must examine our own internal policies that may restrict voting as well.”
The Democratic Party created the Unity Reform Commission at the behest of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Democratic Convention. The Commission was envisioned to be a space for the Party to resolve concerns about its nominating process and internal operations. Secretary Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Party Chairman Tom Perez all made appointments to the 21-person Commission. Through four working groups (Caucuses, Primaries, Unpledged delegates, and Party reform) the Commission focused on making recommendations to expand the base of the Democratic Party by making voting more accessible. The recommendations include:
Converting 60 percent of the superdelegates to pledged delegates based on the results of presidential primaries and caucuses.
Electoral reforms including same-day registration, same day party change, and absentee voting in caucus states.
Greater disclosure of Democratic National Committee spending and an Ombudsman Council of elected DNC members to review complaints about Charter and Bylaws violations.
https://ourrevolution.com/press/senator-sanders-appointees-unity-reform-commission-urge-passage-report/
Video: Sen. Sanders: "We're seeing a massive attack on the middle class" - Face The Nation
Published on Dec 17, 2017
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, joins Face the Nation Moderator John Dickerson to discuss the GOP tax bill and what the Senate will prioritize next year.
Bernie Sanders encapsulated an idealism of American Jews
By Rabbi Steven J. Steinberg Updated 5:47 pm, Friday, December 15, 2017
Excerpt:
Sanders represents a classical tradition in the American Jewish community. Before World War II, the dominant cause among American Jews was not Zionism or reform. It was socialism and unionism. The goal was not to make society better for Jews, but for all people, particularly the working classes. Jews might organize as Jews, they might argue from Jewish sources, they might argue in Yiddish, but the goal was to unite with Italians and Hispanics and Irish in the garment industry and everyone else, to give all working people a decent life. In the end, our ethnic and religious differences would not matter.
For some Jews today, Sanders wasn’t Jewish enough. He didn’t emphasize a Jewish identity. Clinton rooted herself in Methodism, Kaine in his Jesuit background, Cruz in his evangelical lineage, Trump in being daemonic. Many Jews were outraged that Sanders didn’t wear Judaism on his sleeve. Why a guy from Brooklyn with his accent, looking the archetypal Jewish grandfather and expressing a passion for social justice would need to say, “Jewish, Jewish” was beyond me. When his brother spoke of their working-class parents’ pride in him, “kvell” (pride) was the only word I heard. Nothing more needed.
Weirdly, some interlocutors couldn’t figure out what Jewish meant. One interviewer wanted to know how he could stand in the way of a ‘first’, a woman president. Basically he had to answer her talmudically, “You don’t know how I’m a first as well?”
So here was Bernie, a remnant of the single great Jewish American movement, one which felt that out their backgrounds they wanted every American to have health care, retirement security, civil rights, educational opportunity, human dignity. He encapsulated an idealism of American Jews. A statue to Bernie would be a statue to more than a century of a particular kind of American Jewish values.
http://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Bernie-Sanders-encapsulated-an-idealism-of-12434593.php
Rabbi Steven J. Steinberg retired after two decades as Coordinator of Jewish Chaplaincy for Yale-New Haven Hospital.
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