Wayne says that at its most fundamental level, free-trade is colonialism. "They're about turning countries into colonies." While wealth inequality is unfair to the less powerful and wealthy within a country, colonialism takes that to an international scale, with rich countries bullying developing ones.

The full story:

https://proudberniesandersdemocrat.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/waynelewis/

Regina Bolton is angry.

"Today's word is 'insult.' Uh! The special magic word is insult. Insulted, insulting... Insult."

The full story:

https://proudberniesandersdemocrat.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/reginabolton/

Dicky Wurfel grew up in Newark, New Jersey and moved to Maine at the age of 21. Six years ago he retired from a career in firefighting. He is also a lifelong activist who, at 13 years old was in Washington DC urging the New Jersey congressional delegation to pass the Civil Rights Act.

The full story:

https://proudberniesandersdemocrat.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/dickywurfel/

A conversation with Charles Ortel, a whistleblower who, during the financial meltdown of 2008, revealed fraud by General Electric to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. As described in one of his earliest articles on the subject, in early 2015, he became suspicious of the Clinton Foundation, and turned his full time attention to investigating it. Starting on September 6, 2016, and for 40 days, Charles will be releasing a series of one article per day on the Clinton Foundation, on his website.

The full story:

https://proudberniesandersdemocrat.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/charlesortel/

Interview with Agnes Marsala, president of Chesterfield, New Jersey's People Over Pipelines, on the chaotic, never started, ultimately postponed permit meeting from August 22, 2016:

https://www.facebook.com/peopleoverpipelines/videos/551168431736785/

The meeting took place at a Ramada Inn, in a conference room having a capacity of 200 people. Approximately 50% was filled by a union, and speculation points to the oil company, Transunion, packing the room in an effort to prevent residents from entering, and to overwhelm genuine comments with "don't take away my union job" comments. According to Agnes, the oil company is under no obligation for the next decade to pay full union wages, as they were grandfathered in with pay related decision. Some of the union personnel were surprised to learn this. There is also speculation that some union people were paid, and that a list of those attending and not attending was recorded for retaliation purposes.

The parking lot and conference room became so full that police had to intervene and start turning people away. The Ramada Inn reportedly refuses to host related meetings in the future.

According to Agnes, the postponement is a setback for the company, not necessarily a delaying tactic. Filling the room with union people, as well as renting a room that could only fit 200 people, despite that even larger turnout a previous meetings, both backfired.

Here is the original, eye-opening interview I did with People Over Pipelines in April:

https://soundcloud.com/peopleconversations/interview-with-people-fighting-the-pipeline-going-through-chesterfield-nj

Conversation with Victor Tiffany, co-founder of the Bernie or Bust movement. Victor and I talk about

- Exactly where the "Bernie or Bust" term came from,

- How the movement began as a potential write in campaign for Bernie Sanders, and morphed into one where vote your conscience (and many are expected to vote Green),

- How Bernie Sanders has never disrespected Bernie or Busters, despite endorsing and supporting Hillary Clinton,

- Why Bernie or Busters do not deserve the blame for a potential Trump presidency, how the Democratic Party left them long ago, they did not leave the Democratic Party,

- How the Democratic Party, through superdelegates, rubber stamp our corrupt system including all of the questionable things occurring throughout the primary,

- "Hillary Clinton is the spoiler.

- Victor's recommendations on voting all the way down the ballot in November,

- "I see the green party winning the popular vote, and then getting robbed five machine who will elect of Hillary Clinton."

- My views on not being a Bernie or Buster, but spending much of my time during the campaign with friends who are.

Here is Victor's speech on the Sunday before the DNC, at Thomas Paine Plaza, directly across the street from City Hall, at the Bernie or Bust rally:

https://youtu.be/IOxTXOF-2sA

My full Bernie or Bust article:

https://proudberniesandersdemocrat.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/jeffs-dnc-bernie-or-bust/

A conversation with Lauren Steiner, Bernie Sanders delegate from California, longtime activist against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the organizer of a large effort in California to observe the vote counting at the end of primary day.

The full story:

https://proudberniesandersdemocrat.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/laurensteiner/

My 7 and 10-year-old, and a 10-year-old friend, being silly in the car on the way home from camp.

A follow up with Robert Shearer, the California delegate (CA CD-02) standing in line right next to Citizens' Media correspondent, Kitty Snyder, a Pennsylvania delegate from Philadelphia. They were trying to get into the rules committee meeting at the DNC as observers, which began at 1pm this afternoon, but were refused in the room. They got in line at 11, and stayed until 4:30. As of 8:30, the meeting was still on going. Here is the full live stream:

https://www.facebook.com/CitizensMediaTV/videos/1109935585753491/

Robert and I review briefly what happened, then talk about how he and other delegates were approached by Sanders Campaign Director, Jeff Weaver, regarding Monday afternoon's meeting with Bernie Sanders, and the concerns of delegates for making it to the opening gavel (on opening day) on time.

We end with how the Bernie Sanders delegation is attempting to propose changing the superdelegate process, and how the Sanders campaign is not officially supporting the delegates in this effort.

If you will be at DNC, Either inside or out, and would like to help us get the truth out via livestreams, please get in touch!

https://www.facebook.com/CitizensMediaTV/

A conversation with Jeff Kurzon, a NY Berniecrat candidate, and his lawyer Josh Douglass, about a lawsuit that they have just filed in New York against the Democratic National Committee and the New York State Democratic Committee. The lawsuit contends that the Party's Charter, which the binding, legal contract between the Party and its members, is being violated by the superdelegates.

Specifically, their argument is that a superdelegate's vote vastly outweighs that of the average citizen's, and that this contradicts the guiding principle--the heart--of the Democratic Party's Charter. It states that "we acknowledge that a political party which wishes to lead must listen to those who would lead, a party which asks for the people's trust must prove that it trusts the people...".

The lawsuit contends that this is therefore

- a breach of contract, and

- violates Jeff's 14th Amendment right to equal protection, and

- his right of freedom to associate.

(The first two are clear to me, the third I'm not quite understanding yet.)

The relief being sought is for the superdelegates to be forced to conform to the popular vote of their state. For example, if Bernie Sanders won a state by 70-30, then the superdelegates must also vote themselves in the same proportion.

Josh and Jeff hope that other New Yorkers may get involved in this lawsuit, and that perhaps other people (cough Berniecrats cough) around the country mighty consider duplicating this lawsuit in their own states. What if this turned into massive class-action lawsuits in all 50 states and territories...?

In the short-term, the hope is that this lawsuit would be publicized in both the press and on social media to voters in California. So they will not be deceived and discouraged by the media, when they incorrectly declare Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee once the polls close in New Jersey--three hours before California voting is done.

---

Jeff's blog post about the lawsuit:

http://www.jeffkurzon.com/blog/2016/6/2/why-i-just-sued-the-dnc-and-the-nysdc

The full complaint:

http://www.jeffkurzon.com/s/SuperDelegate-Lawsuit-Kurzon-v-DNC.pdf

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From Josh Douglass:

I have filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against the DNC and the NYS Dems on behalf of Jeff Kurzon. Our claim is that the defendants are violating their own Charter by contunuing to implement the super delegate rule. The super delegates comprise fifteen percent of the overall delegation. Thus, an insurgent candidate such as Bernie Sanders starts out several delegates behind.

This rule violates the DNC Charter, as is fully specified in our Complaint, in that the Charter speaks to the Party's guiding principle of listening to the people and following the will of the people. Rule 13 of the "Call to the Convention" further states that the delegation should be in keeping with the "preference of the primary voters." While the courts have held that the Party does have the right to freely associate and thereby establish its own rules...it does NOT have the right to violate its own Charter and, thereby, infringe upon the rights of its own members to freely associate with one another.

We have requested a preliminary injunction from the court and are seeking a remedy which limits the power of the super delegates by having them be consistent with the popular vote in the state and have their votes limited to quarter votes or half votes or what have you in order to reach that end point.