Sanders files suit against Ohio secretary of state in push to allow 17-year-olds to vote

Washington (CNN)Bernie Sanders said Tuesday his campaign has filed suit against Ohio's secretary of state, seeking to allow 17-year-olds to vote in the presidential primary there.

Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver argued Tuesday that state law previously allowed 17-year-olds to vote in presidential primaries, accusing Jon Husted, a Republican, of trying to "disenfranchise" voters.

"The secretary of state has decided to disenfranchise people who are 17 but will be 18 by the day of the general election. Those people have been allowed to vote under the law of Ohio, but the secretary of state of the state of Ohio has decided to disenfranchise those people to forbid them from voting in the primary that is coming up on March 15," Weaver told reporters in Detroit.

The Columbus Dispatch reported Saturday that a state Democratic lawmaker raised the issue last week, claiming that Husted changed the interpretation of the law.

more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/08/politics/bernie-sanders-lawsuit-ohio-teenage-voters/index.html?sr=fbCNN030816bernie-sanders-lawsuit-ohio-teenage-voters1045PMVODtopLink&linkId=22059197

Michigan Election Fraud Hotlines:

'It Never Trickles Down': Scarborough Tells The Truth About The Last 30 Years

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough complained on Tuesday that the Republican Party was fracturing because it had advocated economic policies benefiting the richest Americans for the last 30 years with the promise that the wealth would "trickle down" to others -- but it never did.

"The problem with the Republican Party over the past 30 years is they haven't -- and I'll say, we haven't -- developed a message that appeals to the working class Americans economically in a way that Donald Trump's does," the former Republican lawmaker explained. "We talk about cutting capital gains taxes that the 10,000 people that in the crowd cheering for Donald Trump, they are never going to get a capital gains cut because it doesn't apply."

"We talk about getting rid of the death tax," he continued. "The death tax is not going to impact the 10,000 people in the crowd for Donald Trump. We talk about how great free trade deals are. Those free trade deals never trickle down to those 10,000 people in Donald Trump's rallies."

"You sound like Bernie Sanders," NBC's Chuck Todd pointed out.
More: http://crooksandliars.com/2016/03/it-never-trickles-down-scarborough-tells

Once People Feel the Bern... The Fire Will Not Go Out

Well, today I am supposed to be writing about all sorts of critical issues like opposition to the TPP, ramping up efforts on climate change concerns, and support for the People's Budget in the House that stands as such a great challenge to the terribly damaging budget resolution the Republican majority supports. Any one of those issues is worthy of a great deal of ongoing attention, and I will get back to them in due time. My mind is on being working class or poor in a nation full of economic bullies who make it part of their daily lives to behave themselves as if they are superior and more deserving than all the rest of us.

Bernie Sanders reminds people often that it is expensive to be poor in America, and so it is. Goods and services—especially necessities of life—are much more expensive for those who live paycheck to paycheck. Smaller quantities cost more. Deposits are required and held. Credit is withheld. In every way you could think of and some you may not have, those who don't have healthy bank balances are penalized in advance of actually having reneged on any financial obligation. I know. I've lived it. And I live it still.

Today as I traveled to attend a meeting in DC, I was reminded over and over again about how different the world feels and responds to those without sufficient cash and/or credit cards. I feel blessed to have meaningful work and blessed to be at all a part of the work to elect Bernie Sanders. It makes the trauma of that past several years as my husband and I have fought the healthcare system a lot less painful. But discrimination against the working class is still alive and well—and if I could make only one point this election season to other working class people of all races, ages and cultures, it would be that what separates us most is not the color of our skin or our religion or our age, sexual orientation or gender, it is our wealth or lack thereof. We are being worked and played by so many of the candidates.

Have you seen all the photos of the Trumps, the Clintons, the Bloombergs, and others in their economic classes on the golf courses, at one another's weddings and social gatherings, and doing business together in every way? That is a world in which most of us are not welcomed unless we are sweeping the floors, scrubbing the toilets, serving their hors d'oeuvres, or servicing their many needs. The only time most wealthy people want much to do with the rest of us is when they must. And during the election season, they must. They need us. Because until they can fully and completely own this democracy with their money, our votes are still enough to really screw things up for them as they move in ever increasing numbers into the roles that elevate their own wealth and status and damage ours.

more: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/08/once-people-feel-bern-fire-will-not-go-out

This got good response in the BS group, so I thought I would share with all:

Washington Post Ran 16 Negative Stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 Hours

In what has to be some kind of record, the Washington Post ran 16 negative stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 hours, between roughly 10:20 PM EST Sunday, March 6, to 3:54 PM EST Monday, March 7—a window that includes the crucial Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan, and the next morning’s spin:

March 6, 10:20 PM: Bernie Sanders Pledges the US Won’t Be No. 1 in Incarceration. He’ll Need to Release Lots of Criminals
March 7, 12:39 AM: Clinton Is Running for President. Sanders Is Doing Something Else
March 7, 4:04 AM: This Is Huge: Trump, Sanders Both Using Same Catchphrase
March 7, 4:49 AM: Mental Health Patients to Bernie Sanders: Don’t Compare Us to the GOP Candidates
March 7, 6:00 AM: ‘Excuse Me, I’m Talking’: Bernie Sanders Shuts Down Hillary Clinton, Repeatedly
March 7, 9:24 AM: Bernie Sanders’s Two Big Lies About the Global Economy
March 7, 8:25 AM: Five Reasons Bernie Sanders Lost Last Night’s Democratic Debate
March 7, 8:44 AM: An Awkward Reality for Bernie Sanders: A Strategy Focused on Whiter States
March 7, 8:44 AM: Bernie Sanders Says White People Don’t Know What It’s Like to Live in a ‘Ghetto.’ About That…
March 7, 11:49 AM: The NRA Just Praised Bernie Sanders — and Did Him No Favors in Doing So
March 7, 12:55 PM: Even Bernie Sanders Can Beat Donald Trump
March 7, 1:08 PM: What Bernie Sanders Still Doesn’t Get About Arguing With Hillary Clinton
March 7, 1:44 PM: Why Obama Says Bank Reform Is a Success but Bernie Sanders Says It’s a Failure
March 7, 2:16 PM: Here’s Something Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders Have in Common: And the Piece of the Argument That Bernie Doesn’t Get Quite Right.
March 7, 3:31 PM: ‘Excuse Me!’: Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Know How to Talk About Black People
March 7, 3:54 PM: And the Most Partisan Senator of 2015 Is … Bernie Sanders!

All of these posts paint his candidacy in a negative light, mainly by advancing the narrative that he’s a clueless white man incapable of winning over people of color or speaking to women. Even the one article about Sanders beating Trump implies this is somehow a surprise—despite the fact that Sanders consistently out-polls Hillary Clinton against the New York businessman.

There were two posts in this time frame that one could consider neutral: “These Academics Say Bernie Sanders’ College Plan Will Be a Boon for African-American Students, Will It?” and “Democratic Debate: Clinton, Sanders Spar Over Fracking, Gun Control, Trade and Jobs.” None could be read as positive.

more at link: http://fair.org/home/washington-post-ran-16-negative-stories-on-bernie-sanders-in-16-hours/

Venice Jews work to preserve the world's first ghetto as 500th anniversary nears

On a cold, blue winter's day, Shaul Bassi stood shivering in the main square of an ancient Venetian neighborhood as he tried to explain how this was not just a ghetto, it was the ghetto.

"The concept of the ghetto was born here in Venice," he said. "And that is why we must never forget this place."

Set up by Venice's rulers in 1516 on the site of an old metal foundry, and probably the first community in Europe to be segregated by religious belief, the neighborhood took its name from getar, a word in the Venetian dialect meaning "to smelt."

For the next 300 years, the Jews of Venice, about 5,000 in all, were forced to pay the salaries of the guards who locked them in from midnight to 5 a.m. and patrolled the canal circling the area.

The rest: http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-italy-venice-ghetto-20160307-story.html

The last winner of a brokered convention from either party

who went on to become President was FDR. 😊

I know that these comparisons between Trump and Hitler are tempting, but

"I know that these comparisons between Trump and Hitler are tempting, but in fairness, Hitler never publicly talked about his penis." - Andy Borowitz

Daily Kos Asks Its Community To Moderate Criticisms Of Hillary Clinton Or Face Banishment From Site

‘…Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton may still be duking it out on the campaign trail, but at least one major progressive blog and activism site is already preparing for the general election.

Markos “Kos” Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos, a popular liberal web site, wrote a blogpost on Friday asking the site’s community of writers, readers and commenters to begin moderating their criticism of Clinton starting on March 15, in the likely event that Clinton solidifies her hold on the nomination with additional primary wins.

If Sanders does not turn the tide, Moulitsas wrote, “then on March 15 this site officially transitions to General Election footing. That means, we will focus our attention not just on Donald Trump or his rivals, but also on the Senate, the House, and state-level races.”

“If you want the most liberal government possible, we aren’t going to get that this cycle in the White House, but we can keep building the bench down the ballot so that come 2024, we have lots of great liberals to choose from,” Moulitsas added

more at link: http://theintellectualist.co/daily-kos-asks-its-community-to-moderate-criticisms-of-hillary-clinton-or-face-banishment-from-site/