February 20, 2016

Designer Tees for Hillary!

I kid you not ... (it just gave me a laugh so I thought I'd share!)



https://shop.hillaryclinton.com/collections/made-for-history

February 20, 2016

#AmericaTogether

Social media call to surge for Bernie this afternoon, trending on Twitter: #AmericaTogether

Here is the info from the campaign with a lot of graphics: https://berniesanders.com/AmericaTogether/

February 18, 2016

I early voted in TX this morning

February 17, 2016

Bernie & Animal Issues

Bernie Sanders (DEM): Senator Sanders has the most extensive record of any of the candidates. I was able to obtain his HSLF rating for 11 years. His average rating is 97 out of 100, and there were multiple years he scored 100 and twice when he scored 100+. The only time I can find a vote that can be deemed not to be in an animal’s best interest, is a vote Senator Sanders made to support hunting in the National Parks. As I stated above, Senator Sanders has devoted an entire page on his website to his stand on animal welfare issues.

How a candidate stands on animal welfare issues cannot be the sole measure of who to vote for, but it does allow us a glimpse into what is personally important to each candidate. It is one piece in the puzzle of who should be the next Commander in Chief.

Some day in the future, a candidate might take the unlikely stance that animals should be granted sentient- being status (as opposed to property). The European Union took just that step this past year. Unfortunately, I think we are a few years away from anything that radical here in the US. I won’t be holding my breath.

Hillary's is very good (HSLF avg of 92 vs. Bernie at 97), and Kasich is the best of the repugs.

Here's the story in Bark Post: http://barkpost.com/good/presidential-candidates-animal-issues/
Bernie's senate page with animal achievements: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/legislation/animal-rights

February 17, 2016

CNN's interview with Bernie's brother

I don't know if this is new but it's the first time I've seen it. Bernie's brother: Parents would have been so proud

February 15, 2016

Forgotten Heroes

The hurtful nature of your comments has to do with your erasure of the people who worked outside of the spotlight and the national press to make sure that the Civil Rights Movement touched every corner of black America.

When you use your history as a hero of the movement to disparage others because you never personally knew them, it is a slap in the face to all those people who fought hard and never made it into the history books or into Congress. It is a slap in the face to people like my grandmother.

The Forgotten Heroes: It’s not about Bernie Sanders. John Lewis’s statement denigrates the unknown heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.
by Douglas Williams 2-15-16

Representative Lewis,

On Thursday, you stated the following about Bernie Sanders’s record on fighting for civil rights in the 1960s: I never saw him. I never met him. I was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for three years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved with the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery and directed (the) voter education project for six years. But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President (Bill) Clinton.

I am going to ignore the fact that Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater Girl, or that you once stated to a Clinton biographer that, “[t]he first time I ever heard of Bill Clinton was the 1970s,” or that it has already been well-established that Sanders worked with the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) at the University of Chicago in the 1960s. I am also going to leave aside the fact that every mention of Bill Clinton in your book Walking With The Wind described an instance that he opposed some policy that you cherished.

Instead, I am going to talk about another person that you never saw or met. Dorothy Marie Boone-Anderson was born in Gates County, North Carolina in 1935 as one of seven children. She left formal schooling in the eighth grade to go into the fields and work to support her family.

Times were always hard for the Boones, and the lack of educational prospects for the family meant that times would always be hard. That was a legacy of a segregation that always kept black families at the edge of the American Dream; close enough to be eternally tortured by a success that was constantly visible yet always elusive. In early 1953, Dorothy became pregnant by a man named Douglas Washington Williams. Her son, Luther, would be born on September 21, 1953 ...

Much more here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/civil-rights-movement-johns-lewis-bernie-sanders-segregation-jim-crow/

February 14, 2016

Love and Capital

None of Karl Marx’s major political works would have been possible without Jenny. She believed in her husband, but, more importantly, she believed in the ideas of revolutionary socialism.

The Life of Jenny Marx
by Harrison Fluss & Sam Miller ~ 2/14/16

Jenny Marx, the wife of Karl Marx, was first and foremost a woman with a steadfast commitment to revolutionary socialism. Not a mere cipher for her husband’s views, she genuinely believed in the struggle for working-class emancipation from capital.

Jenny was an active force throughout her difficult life, tirelessly devoting her energies to organizing communist meetings, providing shelter and relief for refugees, and helping her husband produce his philosophical and economic works. She gave up her privileged position as a baroness and made wrenching sacrifices to achieve her vision of a better world.

Born in 1814 to Prussian aristocracy, Jenny von Westphalen was well known in Trier’s social circles. She was expected to fulfill class expectations by grooming herself for marriage to a Prussian officer or a man of high birth. Instead, Jenny pursued her interests in French socialism and German romanticism, a path encouraged by her father, Baron Ludwig von Westphalen, Trier’s government counselor. Though the leading Prussian authority in a town of twelve thousand, Ludwig von Westphalen harbored a deep fascination with French liberalism and socialism.

Jenny’s studies taught her to value ideals for their own sake. Commitment to a progressive cause and the dedication to fight for it, regardless of the failures endured, was the highest undertaking. From a young age, she latched onto early feminist views on women’s equality ...

More here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/jenny-karl-marx-mary-gabriel-love-and-capital/


Jenny von Westphalen Marx

February 13, 2016

Tim Canova fighting Debbie Wasserman Schultz

If you are able he is asking for donations.

His letter his morning -

Dear (TBF),

There were 12,554 registered federal lobbyists when President Obama directed the Democratic National Committee to stop accepting contributions from them.

Now, there are thousands more federal lobbyists in the post-Citizens United world — and Debbie Wasserman Schultz has opened the floodgates for them to influence the priorities of the Democratic Party by reversing President’s Obama ban. It’s disappointing and disturbing, and I wish I could say that any of us were shocked by the actions of a corrupt establishment. But I’m not.

Since we blew the whistle on Wasserman Schultz’s reversal of the ban, hundreds of people from across the country have sent a message to the DNC by contributing to our campaign. The average contribution is only $16.21. I’m very proud of that. But I know it will require even more to take back our country and our political party from Wasserman Schultz and her big donors.

Help raise $12,554 — one dollar for every registered lobbyist who now has influence in the Democratic Party thanks to Debbie Wasserman Schultz — by contributing $16.21 today. If you’d like to donate another amount, you can select one of the buttons below:

DONATE $10
DONATE $25
DONATE $50
DONATE $100
DONATE $200

You can’t reform a broken campaign finance system if you benefit from it — and it has become clear that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is too far entrenched in the Democratic establishment and Wall Street cabal to be a part of our reform movement. That’s why we have to shock the establishment, by defeating Wasserman Schultz in the August primary.

It will be difficult to hit this goal. Some would say it’s too lofty. But I believe in the power of this revolution and I have faith that supporters like you will step up for our campaign. Together, we can and will win this election.

Can you join us today?

Make a contribution to my campaign today. Let’s take back our country and our party.

With gratitude,

Tim Canova https://timcanova.com/

February 12, 2016

OK, people it is time to mobilize -

I have had enough of the slander against Bernie and I think we all need to pitch in wherever possible to make this man our candidate for the democratic party.

These are the upcoming primaries: http://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2016-presidential-primary-schedule-calendar/

Here is Bernie's website: https://berniesanders.com/ (when you go in there click on Volunteer so you can submit your info and be contacted)

Lots of primaries coming up. Please post here in the group about your activities because it will keep us all motivated.

My first organizing meeting is on Sunday 2/14 here in the Houston area. It is time for us all to work.

February 12, 2016

Funerals in Bethelehem

TBF Note: Documenting the tragedies while working towards a 2-state solution; like Bernie Sanders I believe peace can be achieved if we keep the lines of communication open and work towards it ---

“We can get shot anytime and anywhere for no reason at all,” observes Fouad, expressing disgust at the PA’s “weakness,” a sentiment that will be echoed by many at the funeral and the three-day wake that follows.

Whether the violence is driven by race hatred, or by messianic fervor, it is ultimately targeted at the steady seizure of Palestinian land and the completion of ethnic cleansing that began in 1948.

A visit to the West Bank reveals the everyday brutality of the Israeli occupation.
by Andrew Ross ~ 2/12/16

Groups of Korean and Indian tourists shuffle across Manger Square, but Nativity tourism is suffering, and, all across town, the stores of Bethlehem are closed to honor the funeral of yet another Palestinian martyr.

Almost inevitably, the young martyr, Srur Abu Srur, is from the Aida refugee camp, which directly abuts the separation wall and lies on the frontline of daily clashes with Israeli soldiers armed with “shoot to kill” orders. The cement has barely been applied to Abu Srur’s grave before clouds of tear gas begin to drift through the cemetery. Clashes between the camp’s militant youth and the occupation forces continue through the evening.

I am here to help with the making of a film, and Fouad, my translator, is assisting me in interviewing workers crossing the Green Line to work in Israel. Fouad is also the cousin of Abu Srur. Shortly after we finished our work at the Qalandiya checkpoint in Ramallah, he learns of the shooting (Israeli soldiers had been raiding houses in Beit Zahour and Beit Jala all morning). High-tailing it back to Bethlehem, we note the stepped-up military presence all along the road ...

Much more here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/palestine-intifada-occupation-israel-settlers-west-bank/

A mural in the Aida refugee camp in the West Bank. Felipe Frozza / Flickr