2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSanders Draws Big Crowds at California Rallies. Aiming to speak to more than 200,000 before June 7th
Press Release
Sanders Draws Big Crowds at Southern California Rallies
May 29, 2016
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday crisscrossed Southern California with rallies at Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and here at the Kern County Fairgrounds.
Aiming to speak to more than 200,000 Californians during the month before the June 7 presidential primary election, Sanders already was more than half-way to that goal after he 6,000 supports sprawled across a lawn at the coastline campus of Santa Barbara City College, 7,500 sat in the blazing sun at the Santa Maria High School football field and 4,100 packed the fairgrounds grandstands in Bakersfield at the southern end of Californias Central Valley.
In a tightening California contest with Hillary Clinton, Sanders already has won primaries and caucuses in 20 states. He said a win in the Golden State with its prize of 475 pledged delegates would give his grassroots campaign a big boost heading into this summers Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Were going to go in with momentum and were going to come out with the Democratic nomination, Sanders said.
He also taunted Donald Trump for his on-again, off-again response to Sanders challenge to debate in California. Trump had twice agreed to debate Sanders but then backed down.
Youre a big macho guy, Sanders said of Trump. If you have any guts come on down and lets debate the issues.
Sanders proposed a televised encounter with the Republican Party presidential nominee after Clinton reneged on her agreement to debate Sanders in California in May.
Before the sunset rally here in Bakersfield, Sanders met with Latino community leaders and residents for a discussion of immigration reform, farmworkers rights and other issues.
It is very clear to me that we have a broken immigration system and we need comprehensive immigration reform and a path toward citizenship, Sanders said at the meeting at the Kern County Fairgrounds. The goal should be to unite families, not divide families.
The Vermont senator also fielded questions about dilapidated housing and the health consequences of pesticide exposure and groundwater contamination.
I dont believe there is any member of the Congress with a stronger pro-labor voting record. Ive been on more picket lines than I can recall, Sanders said.
He also recited his work on behalf of farm workers laboring under deplorable circumstances in Immokalee, Florida. Sanders traveled there in 2008 and based on that first-hand experience he later chaired a Senate hearing into how the agricultural industry was taking advantage of workers who were denied decent wages, decent working conditions and decent housing.
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)senz
(11,945 posts)Rightwingers want to reduce the turnout. Rightwingers don't want people to vote. Rightwingers do not have the best interests of the American people at heart.
Poor rightwingers.
But in California, independents CAN vote for the Democratic candidates by requesting a Democratic ballot from a poll worker at the polling place.
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)vote in the DEM primary. That in way refutes my statement that millions of DEMS vote in the CA presidential primary.
democrattotheend
(11,607 posts)As it allows those who genuinely might prefer a Democrat or a Republican to have a say but minimizes the potential for strategic crossover voting. It's not perfect, but I think it's a fair compromise and wish more states would adopt it.
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)every day in a new venue, packing stadiums all across the country--enthusiasm is not letting up. Go California
democrattotheend
(11,607 posts)Because he raises most of his money online. That gives him more time to do campaign events, as well as giving him a lot more political independence from Big Money. One of the main reasons I support him is because of the way he raises money, and by becoming a serious candidate without doing big high end fundraisers, has paved the way for other Democrats in the future to get elected without spending half their time wooing the elite behind closed doors.
ebayfool
(3,411 posts)He also held a Q&A before the rally, also live streamed, and the people that spoke about the concerns they hoped to bring to his attention were gobsmacking! Sanders himself looked shocked when he heard of some of the local problems. Polluted water, farm worker's abuse, fracking, etc. Grown men were choking back sobs and tears when they spoke.
I live @ 2 miles from this lovely vista:
http://earthjustice.org/blog/2015-december/one-california-countys-fracked-idea
snip/
Which county in America produces the most oil? If you guessed somewhere in Texas, youd be wrong. Alaska? Nope. Pennsylvania? Not even close.
Its Kern County, California with around 42,000 active wells . California is the third largest oil producing state, behind Texas and North Dakota. The epicenter of the states oil boom is Kern County, which lies about 100 miles north of Los Angeles in the rural Central Valley. Kern is home to approximately 75 percent of California's oil drilling and 95 percent of the states fracking, and regulators hope to keep the black gold flowing.
Last month, the county board of supervisors approved a new ordinance that would purportedly allow oil and gas companies to fast track drilling permits for tens of thousands of new wells in the next two decades with no environmental review and no public notice or participation. On Thursday, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against Kern County on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in coordination with the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment and the Center for Biological Diversity. The Earthjustice suit challenges the countys claim that a single environmental review conducted before the ordinance was passed is sufficient to authorize up to 3,647 new oil and gas wells a year for the next 20 years or longer, for a total of 72,000 new wells.
NRDC found that 14 percent of Californians5.4 million peoplelive within one mile of an oil or gas well. Of that group, 69 percent are people of color, most Hispanic or Latino. Low-income communities of color typically face disproportionate financial and health burdens from heavy industry, including oil and gas production. The new wells authorized by the Kern County plan would be built in an area that already has some of the nations worst air quality. According to the American Lung Association, Bakersfield, the largest city in Kern County, is the second worst city in the country for air pollution, both short-term and year-round.
Air pollution from oil and gas wells can exacerbate illnesses like asthma and high blood pressure, and fracking, specifically, has been linked to water pollution, which can occur when massive amounts of fracking wastewater laced with chemicals are injected deep underground. Just one barrel of fracked oil produces 10 barrels of contaminated waste water that must be disposed of.
Yeah. We have water pollution problems. Sky-high asthma and birth defect rates. And I saw some here criticizing about why Sanders would come to a red area like this. Tell you what - he's the only politician I've seen that gave a shit about people like us enough to show up and listen to these issues. The GOPers like Romney, Trump and Bush come here. But they don't hold events in the free fairgrounds for the hoi polloi, they have them in fabulously decorated and catered event tents for high dollar patrons. Bernie didn't care about the farm signs around the rodeo arena (where he spoke).
I'll take him. Any day, any time. He doesn't worry about getting cooties from us. He gives a shit.
on edit: Shout out to DUer Donkees for providing the live stream links. TY!
senz
(11,945 posts)I thank God for this good man, Bernie Sanders.
Samantha
(9,314 posts)In this Country, no one should be treated like this. It is indeed shocking. I hope Bernie prevails and starts looking at these situations and finding ways to improve the quality of lives there. This is no way for a human being to have to live.
Take care,
Sam
hopemountain
(3,919 posts)one would think that things may have improved in kern county for the people who work and live there....but noooo.
incidently, the oil spill this winter just north of santa barbara was from a leaking pipe filled with oil headed to kern county for storage.
all of the work we did in california to protect the coast - environmental impact report requirements and the callifornia coastal commission - following the catastrophic santa barbara oil spill of 1969 has been by local, state and federal policy changes.
the oil companies are having a field day storing oil to sell to china.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)ebayfool
(3,411 posts)I encourage everyone to read it for themselves. Meanwhile, you gonna claim you were at this rally as well? Didja take some stealthy pix of another fence where the rally wasn't occurring? Do you have so little self control that you just can't resist squatting and taking a public dump?
Well, then. You just go ahead and drop trou if that's what it takes to make you happy.
#GoodGawdAlmighty
anotherproletariat
(1,446 posts)That is 5 one-thousandth of a percent, as the population of the state is estimated to be 40 million. So it would take 200 times as many people to equal just 1% of the population.
imagine2015
(2,054 posts)anotherproletariat
(1,446 posts)Hillary needs to do. The funny thing is that the Sanders folks think that a large rally somehow translates to winning an election. Sure, it's better than a small rally, but it's not a winning strategy.
imagine2015
(2,054 posts)Eric J in MN
(35,619 posts)NT
Tarc
(10,476 posts)Why do his large rallies never translate to the large win margins he needs, though?
B Calm
(28,762 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)The difference in scale seems to elude some