Bernie Sanders campaign opens office in downtown New Bedford

About 40 people show up on chilly Saturday to canvass, volunteer for fiery Democratic presidential candidate

By Mike Lawrence

Posted Feb. 13, 2016

|

 

Paul Feeney, state director for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, speaks to a crowd of about 40 on Saturday at the campaign's new office in downtown New Bedford. The office will coordinate canvassing, phone calls and other voter-outreach efforts across southeastern Massachusetts, ahead of the state's March 1 primary. MIKE LAWRENCE / THE STANDARD-TIMES / SCMG

NEW BEDFORD — Assonet resident Rick Fetters, standing Saturday morning in the newly opened Bernie Sanders campaign office in downtown New Bedford, said he hadn’t been actively involved in national politics in more than 40 years.

“The last real campaign I wanted to get involved in was Bobby Kennedy,” Fetters said, referring to the 1968 presidential bid by the U.S. senator from New York, who was assassinated in June that year.

Fetters, a retired, 67-year-old folk musician who used to work in hospice care on Cape Cod, said he appreciated Sanders’ push for universal, single-payer health care. Fetters also said Sanders’ “experience and consistency” appealed to him — and stirred a Kennedy-like inspiration that he last felt decades ago.

“It’s that kind of energy that I think he can instill in the country,” Fetters said of Sanders.

Fetters was one of about 40 people who showed up on a chilly Saturday to support the Vermont senator in downtown New Bedford, as campaign staff and volunteers opened a field office that will lead voter-outreach efforts in southeastern Massachusetts.

“I hope you guys are feeling the Bern, because it’s like 6 degrees outside,” Paul Feeney, Massachusetts director for the Sanders campaign, told the enthusiastic crowd gathered at 556 Pleasant Street, near the Union Street intersection.

“How about New Hampshire this week!” Feeney added moments later, earning cheers and referring to Sanders’ resounding victory Tuesday in New Hampshire’s primary, over former First Lady, U.S. senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton got strong support in Massachusetts in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, when she received 56 percent of the vote, compared to 41 percent for Barack Obama.

Polling from November last year gave Clinton an edge of about 25 points over Sanders, according to RealClear Politics, but Sanders supporters gathered Saturday are hoping to change those numbers.

“We’ve got about two weeks before the primary, and we’ve got a lot of work to do,” field organizer Sam Stratton, a 23-year-old Westport resident, told the crowd.

Stratton and Feeney said the New Bedford office will coordinate canvassing, phone calls and other voter-outreach efforts across the region, including Cape Cod and the islands, ahead of the state’s March 1 primary.

Massachusetts voters will be part of “Super Tuesday,” which includes elections or caucuses in 14 states — and American Samoa — that day.

Stratton and 22-year-old Westport resident Morissa Vital, an intern on the Sanders campaign who will be working in the New Bedford office, reflect Sanders’ appeal to young voters.

Joe Caiazzo, state communications director for the Sanders campaign, said staff and interns weren’t able to speak on the record about the senator.

But several local college students and graduates had plenty to say in the office Saturday.

“As millennials, we could be the deciding vote for him,” said Jona Koka, a New Bedford resident studying chemistry at UMass Dartmouth.

Koka said Sanders’ call for sweeping reforms to college tuition and student loans was a top issue for her.

“Debt, debt, debt, debt,” Koka said, pointing, with each word, to herself and then to three friends standing next to her.

“Every month, it takes a little of my soul,” one of those friends, 24-year-old New Bedford resident Penny Cruz, said of her student loan payments.

Cruz said she has a bachelor’s degree in history and criminal justice from UMass Dartmouth, and paid more than $1,000 last year just on interest for her student loans, which she said total about $25,000.

Saturday’s event was briefly disrupted by two men who interrupted Feeney’s initial remarks, and attempted to draw attention with gaudy showmanship that involved no apparent purpose or position statement.

One of the men danced suggestively, stripped off outer layers of clothing and asked if attendees were really, “feeling the Bern.”

The two men left after a couple of minutes, objecting minimally and not physically, as Caiazzo led them outside.

“Being in New Bedford, I expected a little more rhythm,” Feeney joked to the crowd, upon retaking the microphone. Feeney then referred to the strange things that can happen on campaign trails.

“Welcome to my life,” he said, drawing laughter.

The New Bedford office is Sanders’ fifth in Massachusetts. In addition to state campaign headquarters in Charlestown, the Sanders team has offices in Worcester, Springfield and Lawrence.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20160213/NEWS/160219714/101061/NEWSLETTER100

Fall River for Bernie first meeting - Monday, Jan 18, 2016 3:00 PM, March 1 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, FEB 10 REGISTRATION DEADLINE

THE DETAILS

Fall River For Bernie First Meeting

Fall River and surrounding areas are in dire need for Bernie support. The purpose of this meeting will be to brainstorm for ideas to promote Bernie Sanders. Hopefully I get a decent turnout. I will be collecting contact information for everyone that shows up. I want to pose with signage and host phone banks in the weeks leading up to the Massachusetts primary. If you cant come at the posted time please still contact me and I will try to accomadate you. atripoli06@gmail.com

TIME:

Monday, January 18, 2016 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EST

 ADD TO CALENDAR

HOST:

Alexander Tripoli

LOCATION:

Alex's Apartment (Fall River, MA)

Email for address
Fall River, MA 02721

MAPS: 

• GOOGLE
 
• MAPQUEST
 
• YAHOO!

DIRECTIONS:

Email for directions

VOLUNTEER-LED EVENT

This event is led by one of many groups and individuals who are organizing volunteer-led actions in your area. Please respect your event's hosts, coordinators and attendees. Consider creating your own volunteer event in the future!

https://secure.berniesanders.com/page/event/detail/volunteeractivityormeetings/4rdzf

With just two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the super PAC coordinating with Hillary Clinton’s campaign is reportedly launching one of the most desperate and vile attacks imaginable: they are insinuating Bernie is too old and unhealthy to be our next president.

Let me be very clear with you: Bernie is in excellent health. But this personal attack is another example of a sickness in our democracy when it is so easy for millionaires and billionaires to buy up candidates and elections.

We are just three points behind in Iowa, but closing every day. We can’t let super PAC attacks on Bernie’s health and health care plan scare people away from voting for Bernie.

In spite of these Karl Rove-style attacks, Bernie’s going to stay focused on the real issues impacting working families across the country. While he does that, we can make the millionaires and billionaires coordinating with the Clinton campaign pay a price for their attacks.

In solidarity,

Jeff Weaver
Campaign Manager
Bernie 2016

Paid for by Bernie 2016

PO Box 905 - Burlington VT 05402 United States - (855) 4-BERNIE

Massachusetts voters will go to the polls to choose their party's presidential candidate on March 1, Secretary of State William Galvin announced Thursday.

Based on the current nominating calendar, the March 1 primary would make Massachusetts one of the first states to vote after the traditional early nominating states.

Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are expected to remain as the four early nominating states, which could hold their presidential caucuses or primaries in February. Massachusetts plans to join several other states in holding a primary on March 1, the first day that both the Democratic and Republican parties are opening up the nominating process to all the states.

Other states that could vote March 1, according to a New York Times tracker, are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

In Massachusetts, unenrolled voters can vote in the primary of either party. Those enrolled in a party can vote only in their party's primary.

On the Democratic side, former secretary of state and first lady Hillary Clinton is the current front-runner, though she has challengers, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley.

The presidential primaries are the way in which delegates are chosen to nominate each party's presidential candidate at a nominating convention. The number of delegates a state has relates to that state's representation in Congress and how that party has performed in the state. So Massachusetts will have more delegates to the Democratic convention than to the Republican convention because it is a Democratic-leaning state.

Massachusetts voters have until Feb. 10 to register to vote in the March 1 election. Typically, Galvin said Massachusetts has its highest levels of voter registration in presidential years. This will also be the first time that voters can register to vote online through the Secretary of State's office. 

Voters will also cast ballots at the same time for delegates to party state committees and ward and town committees.

Galvin said he will ask the Legislature to allow cities and towns to move their municipal elections up to March 1, if they choose to do so in order to save money. Municipal elections are generally held in April or May.

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/08/massachusetts_presidential_pri.html

Let's find them all homes!

PLEASE!

Celebrate & Support the HEROES that work so hard to save PETS from KILL SHELTERS, TO REHABILITATE, TO FOSTER, AND TO PLACE IN LOVING HOMES!

Contribute what you can.
Volunteer.
Foster.

And above all....support SPAY & NEUTER PROGRAMS IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

Let's work to END the problem!

A Place To Bark

· 

Dogs know, when they are being Rescued!
As you can see in these precious girls faces💕
They have been at animal control for months.
All the kennels at animal control were full & they were out of time.
Saved Now & will have Beautiful Lives ahead!
So many animal controls try so hard, to not euthanize.
But when people don't show up to adopt, when there is no space to house the masses coming in, sadly they are euthanized.
Not just a few here & there, but by the millions each year, across the USA.
So many people say to me, it is too sad to go to an animal control. The saddest reality is, people not showing up because it's too hard.
I can't imagine, it's easier knowing dogs died, because people did not come & they were killed. The power to Save Lives, lies in our hands. To spay/neuter & Adopt!
People ask me all the time how to open a rescue.
I encourage every person that wants to open a rescue to first learn dog training & to foster. Training dogs & Fostering Saves Lives for the long term!!!
By fostering you are Rescuing Lives, without the financial obligations & are able to take breaks when needed. By teaching & training it gives them the very best chances at the long term save, instead of just passing a dog with behavioral issues around.
Which really, will fail the dog in the end.
Having your own rescue is noble, but is not as easy as one would think.
There is so much to learn & is always a struggle to keep funded each year.
Take it from me, fostering is the way to stay balanced & save so many homeless pets!
These girls are SAVED & will have a Merry Christmas!!!

Bye-Bye Death Row...
HELLO LIFE!!!
‪#‎everylifematters‬ ‪#‎aplacetobark‬
‪#‎adoptblackdogs‬

Animal Abuse, Republican Religious Zealotry, Attacking Women's Health Care....

Hector Navarro added 4 new photos — with Tony M Ikonen.

I was not sure about posting these pictures because they are pretty graphic, but i think it is only fair for the dogs.

This is why we do what we do. This is why we are broke and we are willing to throw our hearts into the meat grinder again and again.

I see so many posts about hate and people judging others based on irrelevant stuff.

I happen to believe we are tools intended to fix problems and not create them. I think that kindness works more often than hate. I think that caring for others is not only a matter of empathy but of survival.

If we don't care for others... others will not care for us and at the end we will all be fucked.

This is Canuck. My friend Tony rescued him from the street... Tony knew that taking the dog would be hard at best, but very likely heartbreaking.

We still don't know if Canuck will make it and Tony has been riding an emotional rollercoaster since he brought the little dog home. His heart has been partially broken at least twice and we are still in the race... So why do this?... Why endure so much pain?... Because Tony knows there is a bit less suffering in the world tonight, and that makes his pain worth it.

Rescue, Foster, Volunteer, Donate, Reach out, Adopt, Be kind, Be kind, Be kind...

Occupy Democrats

Hear that, Tea Partiers?

Image by Occupy Democrats, LIKE our page for more!

Hendrick & Co.

Share to save me
►http://hendrickboards.com/s/save-mousie

Mousie was found laying near death in a gutter...barely alive. She couldn't stand, she couldn't walk...nobody thought she would make it. Then something miraculous happened... [read more]

Mousie needs your help TODAY ► http://hendrickboards.com/s/save-mousie

With every shirt sold, you can help save her life!

Adopt.....

RSN: Ending Our Own Racism

The Black Lives Matter protests have been likened to the civil rights movement. (photo: AP)

Ending Our Own Racism

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

03 January 15

have heard many claim they do not have a “racist bone in their body.” Technically that is true, bones can’t be racist – but people who say they are not racist are in denial. Prejudice rooted in fear of what one doesn’t understand is present in us all. The key to ending or not acting on that fear is knowledge drawn from life’s experiences.

Fear itself can be healthy. Fearing someone waving a gun, or threatening people with violent behavior, is healthy. What isn’t healthy is fearing people based on their race or appearance. It is understandable that, when in a new environment, people experience fear based on the stereotypes they have learned watching television or reading stories influenced by the authors’ prejudices.

 

That is why it is so important to diversify your life experiences. If you live your life on your side of the tracks and don’t experience how others live, fear will be present when you encounter the unknown. There are many things you can do to to keep these fears from being expressed in racist, sexist, or bigoted manners.

 

The first is to acknowledge them. I live in a diverse neighborhood in Washington DC. I feel safe when walking home unless I’m confronted by behavior that warrants healthy fear. I have long acknowledged that there are thugs in every race and class, but that was not always the case. There was a time when I feared black men because I thought they were more likely to mug or bully me.

 

I grew up in a very white neighborhood in a small town in upstate New York. My father is Puerto Rican, so I was one of the few minorities in the town, but I never experienced prejudice based on that, since I looked white and was middle class. I went to a public school that was 98% white, and the 2% who weren’t were brought in by a program to give them a better chance to succeed. There was also my best friend Alex. His parents were from Ethiopia. Alex was born in the United States and grew up in our small town. He was one of us. He didn’t act like the blacks we saw in the movies or on television. I never feared Alex or his family.

 

When I was 16, I ran away from home. The reasons for that are for another story. I hitchhiked south, spending my first night on the streets of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The streets late at night were a scary place. I tried to avoid all interactions. It was the early eighties: the only reason a middle-class white boy could be walking the streets late at night was to score pot.

 

Of course, I was scared of anyone who approached me at 3 a.m. It was a healthy fear, but I learned that night that it wasn’t right. One of the dealers even told me where to go to get breakfast and find a place to sleep the next night. Some of my prejudice was chipped away. I was home a few days later, back to white middle-class America. Well, that was about to change.

 

I wasn’t getting along with my father, so at 17 it was off to the Army. My two-year stint in the military was uneventful. The Army life was still segregated. I hung out with white guys, and the blacks hung together. It was the military, very different from interacting as “civilians,” so I don’t think much progress was made. I imagine I became more comfortable around people of color, but no one event stands out to me like the events that would happen on my college campus.

 

It’s 1983, and I’m using my GI bill money to go to college. I’m on the campus of Syracuse University, walking past a divestment rally. On the stage is a young black boy in a wheelchair. As he was describing what it was like to grow up in apartheid South Africa, my life changed forever. I became an activist that day. My work against apartheid, and later other causes, did not make me a non-racist, but it did chip away and make me less racist. I learned about other cultures, I worked with African Americans, and it had an impact on me, but I still was influenced by racist thoughts and fears.

 

After college I moved to Washington DC. I remember walking through Lafayette Park for the first time and a hippie named Sunrise calling out to me. He said my mind was too closed to listen. I turned around and ended up spending my first night at the “Peace Park Anti-Nuclear Vigil.” I was fascinated that people were dedicating their whole lives to rid the world of nuclear weapons. After talking to Sunrise, Philip, Concepcion, Ellen and Thomas, I found myself in a sleeping bag being awakened by a policeman who handed me a ticket for “camping.” I was outraged – with all of the people forced to live on the streets, it was illegal to stay warm in a sleeping bag? I later learned it was the actual sleeping that was illegal. I was hooked, I was a full time activist again. I was mentored by people like Phil Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Roger Newell, and Lisa Fithian, to name a few.

 

Of course, they taught me that racism was wrong, but that knowledge does not erase the prejudice and fear engrained within us. I was mugged twice during those years in Washington, but my eyes were opening. It wasn’t that the young black men who mugged me were black that caused them to act, it was that they were poor and victims of their environment. I was making lots of black friends, many of them homeless and with reason to be angry. But like me, they chose a different path. My time with the antinuclear vigil and later working and living at the largest homeless shelter in the country taught me that it wasn’t race that led to a life of crime, it was one’s environment.

 

On the streets, in the shelter, and later in jail, I realized that violent behavior was for survival. Racists equate behavior with race, while it is clear from my experiences that behavior is taught and influenced by one’s experiences. People are not born gang-bangers. People are not born racists.

 

Racism is taught, and develops from ignorance and fear. It is the same with the behavior that makes us fear others. What we fear is a by-product of the environment we grew up in. When we acknowledge this, we achieve the first step toward ending racism, sexism, and bigotry.

 

It will still be there. I still catch myself fearing people based on their appearance, including skin color. I am less likely to fear a white person that approaches me than some black people. But my life experiences have lessened that fear and made me less prejudiced. So here are some steps you can take to become less racist.

1. Volunteer at a homeless shelter. During my time living in community at the Community for Creative Nonviolence shelter in Washington DC, I saw the other side of those who thought they had to be a thug to survive. Don’t just serve the soup but talk to people who you would otherwise avoid contact with. You will find they are not any different than you or me.


2. Volunteer at an inner city school. You will learn that kids are victims of their surroundings. As I’ve said, people are not born violent, violence is a product of the environment they are raised in.


3. Don’t avoid neighborhoods of color. Diversity will do more to end racism than any laws or programs. Understanding each other will break down the walls that divide us.


4. Travel. Visiting other cultures is another way to eliminate the fear we have of what we don’t understand.


5. Education. Take classes that teach from a non-Eurocentric viewpoint. Learn foreign languages so you can better understand people from other ethnic groups.

I hear some of you saying, “What about reverse racism?” Well, my response is simple. Any race can take my advice, but the bottom line is: ending racism begins in your own heart.

---

Scott Galindez was formerly the co-founder of Truthout.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

 

 

 

 

Caution: Graphic Animal Abuse, Second Chance Rescue NYC Dogs

Second Chance Rescue NYC Dogs shared Griffin's return to Glory's photo.

 

Griffin, you are our hero! It's been 3 long weeks since your rescue and you have won the hearts of 40,000 people!! What happened to you is inexcusable and we wish we could take your pain away. While we cannot change your past, we can and will do everything in our power to find out everything wrong with you and get you healthy again. Thank you for hanging in there and believing in us!! We you so much!!!!

Griffin's return to Glory

So vulnerable & precious! Love him!!

Second Chance Rescue NYC Dogs added 4 new photos.

 

***WARNING: Photos of Jade's injures are GRAPHIC***

Jade's burns are second degree and chemical in nature. She has been put under general anesthesia twice already to clean and treat these horrific burns. Please keep this sweet girl in your thoughts and prayers.

We are getting inquiries about placement for jade, but that is premature for now. She will be hospitalized and treated for the forseeable future and she cannot have any type of behavior evaluation, so we have no idea how she is w other animals or kids.

 

If you can help out w her medical costs, please do so at www.nycsecondchancerescue.org/donate/ thank you!

 

See More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Chance Rescue NYC Dogs added 5 new photos.

 

Another happy before and after! Luke was one of our biggest medical cases of 2014. He spent 2 months at a SC vet before being healthy enough to travel up north to his forever home. Luke had been dragged and was a mess. His pads of his paws were all burnt thru and took many months to heal.

It is so rewarding to see him in a home where he is loved and cherished! We love you Luke!!