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Since theDemocratic Partylost the 2016 presidential election,the partys establishment has suppressed all callsfor reform from progressives.Though thepartyappointed Sen. Bernie Sanders as its head of outreach, most Democrats continue to treat him and his supporters as unwelcome outsiders. In a recent speech, Sanders provided progressives with insight as to how to advance their valuesagainst an inept and increasingly out of touchDemocratic Party.

When you have everybody in theestablishmentagainst you, how do you move a progressive agenda forward? asked Sanders during aspeechat MIT on March 31. The answer is you go to the people. This has beenSandersprimary strategy during Donald Trumps presidency; he has led rallies, held town halls, and delivered speeches across the country to mobilize his supporters.

Our job is not a radical concept. Our job is to organize and educate people around a progressive agenda that demands Congress represent us, not just the one percent. Thats about it. Nothing more complicated than that, Sanders said. But to make that happen, we are going to need radical transformation of theDemocratic Party. I dont want to offend anybody, but theDemocratic Partycannot continue to be just the party of theliberal eliteand people who have money. It has got to be the party of the working class of this country. TheDemocratic Partycannot just be a party that just does well in New England and the west coast, it has got to be a 50-state party.

While Sanders discussed why the Republican Party issuccessful in winning elections across the country, he blamed theDemocratic PartyforTrumps election and Republicans holding a majority in Congress and state legislatures all over the country.

And he also assumes, quite correctly, that theDemocratic Partyis extremely weak and incapable of organizing people, Sanders said in reference to how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is able to push policies that hurt his constituents with impunity.

Sandersnoted that although the knee-jerk reaction from manyDemocratsis to shame, scold, and blame people who voted for Trump, its Democrats fault that thousands of voters who voted for former President BarackObamain 2008 and 2012 voted for Trump in 2016. The problem is these people over the years, many of them wereDemocrats. They looked at the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party made a hell of a lot of promises to them.

But you know what? In many respects, not all, and clearly theDemocratshave been much better than the Republicans. But I dont want anyone here to forget that it was aDemocratic president, not a Republican president, who deregulated Wall Street. It was a Democratic president who made the first major initiatives in disastrous trade policies, Sanders explained in reference to former President Bill Clinton, whoenacted several policies that hurt working, middle class and low income Americans. Lets not forget that either. So, theyre angry, and they look for an alternative.

Rather than understanding this dynamic, manyDemocrats have attackedTrumps voters, reverberating the self-destructive attitude exemplified byHillaryClintons commentduring her campaign that half of all Trump supporters belong in a basket of deplorables. Sanders said, I do not believe in any way shape or form that the vast majority of Trump supporters are racists, sexists, xenophobes and homophobes. I dont believe that. I think if you think thats the issue, you are missing the boat big time.

He also discussed the plight of coal country in rural America, where communities that once thrived with thousands of well paid jobs have been abandoned and these jobs have disappeared with no economic infrastructure to fill the void. These guys were heroes, going down underneath there, the worst work in the world, and many of them die young from black lung diseaseThe world has come and past them. Coal is in decline, said Sanders.

So, how do you feel if you are 50-60 years old you once had a job. And by the way, a job is not just income. People want to work. They want to feel part of society. They want to be productive.Sandersnoted that severe economic issues in many areas of the country combined witha diminishing sense of community throughout nationand globallyprovides opportunities for people like Trump. We have got to create community. We have got to make sure that I care about you and you care about me. That I know you are worried about my seven grandchildren, and I am worried about your mother who is ill. When we are a part of that communitynot left outI think that makes us more human and less likely to picking and start scapegoating minorities, because thats what demagogues feed upon.

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Bernie Sanders Calls Democratic Party 'Weak and Incapable of Organizing' - Observer

The Russian election interference narrative has devolved into Clinton loyalists attempting to rehabilitate theClintonbrand, so it wasinevitable that the narrative would be used to attack Sen.Bernie Sandersand his supporters. These attacks have ranged from baseless allegations that Sanders supporters are Russian stooges to reducing their criticisms of HillaryClintonto being the resultof Russian bot-fueled propaganda.

Months after the election,Clintonsupporters are still re-litigating the argument thatshe was a good candidate, which is, in essence, the effect of their claims that the Russian government hired people to pose as Bernie Bros to inflame progressives criticisms of Clinton. There has not been any evidence to support these claims, yet the allegations have been sustainedthroughout the past several weeks.

A few weeks ago, the Huffington Postpublishedan article speculating that Russian trolls infiltrated Bernie Sanders groups to post fake news and news critical of HillaryClinton. Instead of citing evidence, the authors of the article relied on conjecture and anecdotal evidence from a few people from Bernie Sanders Facebook groups, two of whom complained that their quotes were taken out of context and used to develop the narrative that Russia was manipulating the groups. These administratorscomplaints were more againsthyper-partisanand unreliable news sources that people were sharingmany of which solely dealt pro-HillaryClintonnews, including PoliticusUSA, Addicting Info, and Blue Nation Review, which was funded by pro-Clinton Super PACs. This important nuance was ignored because it didnt fit into the authors narrative.

The reporters failed to acknowledge that the poorly constructed fake news websitesthat either poached articles from other sources or wrote fake news of their ownwere created solely for-profit, not to manufacture negative opinions about Hillary Clinton. In December 2016, NBC News and other news sourcesreportedon a Macedonian teenager who made $60,000 through a fake news website he managed.

The Huffington Posts article was further sensationalized by MSNBCs Rachel Maddow, who summarized the points from the article that best fit into the Russia narrativeshe crafted in her sensationalized segment.

Then, the FBIannouncedthat they were looking into Breitbart and InfoWars. Clinton Watts, a former FBI agent, claimed during a Senate testimony that Sanders supporters were targeted by Russian bots, though he provided no evidence for his opinion. RawStorypublisheda misleading article, using the pejorative term Bernie Bros and claimed that former General Keith Alexander said during a Senate testimony that Sanders supporters were unwitting agents in aRussiandisinformation campaign. Alexander, who left the NSA in 2014, said, I thinkwhat they were trying to do was drive a wedge within the Democratic Party between the Clinton group and the Sanders group, and then in our nation between Republicans and Democrats. Alexander was only speculating that this was the Russians strategy, but RawStory transmogrified it into a smoking gun headline to attack Sanders supporters.

Claims that theRussiangovernment created pro-Bernie bots to spread propaganda diminish the validity ofcriticisms of HillaryClintonand theDemocratic establishment. These claims also distract from similar campaigns conducted on behalf of HillaryClintonduring the election, which there is evidence for.ClintonSuper PAC Correct the Record implemented theirBreaking Barriers campaign, which included spending at least $1 million on internet trolls to correct the record of claims against HillaryClinton.

This false narrative was quickly repeated by ShareBlue, a pro-Clintonmedia outlet owned by David Brock and run by formerClintonstaffer Peter Daou, which didnt offer any evidence to substantiate the claim and resurfaced the Bernie Bros smear campaign as well. The phrase Bernie Bros, despite being coined by awhite male, was used to portray Sanders supporters as sexist white males. The term is still used in disingenuous attacks againstprogressives, who Clinton partisans would rather blame for Trumps victory than taking responsibility themselves.

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'Russians Bots' Is Latest Smear Campaign Against Sanders Progressives - Observer

Democrats.com has learned that Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has fathered multiple children from extra-marital relationships, casting doubt on his honesty and likelihood of serving on the nations highest court.

In our exclusive interview, Gorsuch reluctantly admitted to his sexual transgressions. I know its wrong, he said, but it has taken me years to make peace with this awful affliction. People do not interest me, but corporations totally turn me on. I cant help it. Corporations are beautiful, beautiful people and they have the right to exercise their religious and sexual beliefs.

Gorsuch supports unlimited corporate dirty talk, unconstrained by campaign finance limitations. In any conflict between individual rights and those of huge corporate enterprises, Gorsuch has always favored business interests.

Yes, Gorsuch admitted on his doorstep, accompanied by his wife, I was tempted by some mature, sophisticated corporations and I was seduced. I deeply regret being in bed with corporate powers, but I am a responsible man and I will step up and support the children that have come from these illicit liaisons.

These shocking revelations cast doubt on Gorsuchs impartiality with regard to corporate power. Im a Constitutional originalist, he asserted as his wife looked on, I think that marriage should be between a man and a flesh-and-blood corporation. At a closer look, Democrats.com discovered that his wife was, in fact, a large stack of incorporation papers.

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Democrats.com - The Aggressive Progressives

When the Progressives passed their Immigration Law in fall 2013, they handed the Cayman Islands a ticking time bomb of uncertainty and legal liability.

It is unclear whether the Progressives Cabinets belated tweaks to permanent residence regulations will be enough to defuse this dangerous piece of ordinance, or whether it will detonate and deconstruct Caymans entire immigration system. In the process the countrys Freedom of Information Law may suffer mortal collateral damage.

At the center of this scenario are a pair of rulings by Chief Justice Anthony Smellie.

In August 2015, the chief justice issued a landmark decision regarding two permanent residency applicants. In his ruling, the chief justice included two crucial criticisms that the PR points system (particularly the different weights given to different occupations) was problematic and arbitrary, and that the nearly 10 years the two PR applicants spent waiting for decisions amounted to unconscionably long delays.

Following the ruling, the government commissioned a consultants report from Ritch & Conolly law firm, which was completed in mid-2016, and presumably contains an analysis of weaknesses (and perhaps solutions to those weaknesses) in Caymans immigration system.

On the last day of February this year, the Progressives Cabinet made long-overdue changes to immigration regulations, with the promise that the backlog of 900-plus permanent residence applications would finally be cleared.

More than a month later, the Immigration Department has signaled it is about to begin considering PR applications, albeit with no apparent substantive action, no specific timeline and, most importantly, no actual decisions.

In the meantime, the deleterious effects of the Progressives PR freeze are rippling through the broader legal system and individuals personal lives.

In a Feb. 7 judgment in a family court case, Justice Richard Williams described the PR situation as a regrettable current state of affairs and a deficient part of the immigration process. In that case, the delays in processing PR applications from a couple who had since filed for separation introduced complexities in the division of assets and custody of their children.

Law firm HSM Chambers has described Cabinets changes as largely cosmetic tweaks that would give nearly all applicants more points on their applications but do not address more fundamental issues. HSM is leading two high-profile court challenges concerning the governments PR delays, which are still pending before the courts and are likely not be decided before the May 24 elections, but which represent real financial threats to Caymans public treasury.

The changes Cabinet made to the Immigration Law in February were probably informed by the 2016 report from Ritch & Conolly. In regard to statements about the Ritch Report, we employ qualifiers such as presumably and probably out of necessity because neither we, nor anyone else outside of Premier Alden McLaughlin and a small circle of officials, knows what the report actually says.

In late January, Chief Justice Smellie issued a ruling that accepted as an assumption the premiers argument that the Ritch Report constituted legally privileged advice, and then determined that, as such, it would not be appropriate to compel the government to turn the report over to Information Commissioner Jan Liebaers who had sought the document precisely in order to determine if it contained legal advice.

Mr. Liebaers is now seeking to challenge that ruling in the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal.

If the chief justices decision stands, in our view it opens up a gaping loophole in Caymans FOI Law. Any time a government minister wishes to keep a public record from going public, he could simply label it legal advice and refuse to allow anyone, even the information commissioner, from verifying if that assertion is correct.

Further, as we reported Friday, Mr. Liebaers said since the chief justices ruling was made public, a number of government entities have been attempting to deny the information commissioners office access to records, even without a ministerial certificate of exemption similar to the one issued by Premier McLaughlin.

Its too early to tell, but depending on various outcomes in court, Cayman could soon be welcoming many hundreds of new permanent residents, parting ways with millions of tax dollars in legal fees, and waving goodbye to FOI.

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EDITORIAL Permanent residence: The Progressives' explosive legacy - Cayman Compass

AMHERST Two Democratic congressmen urged a crowd of more than 1,000 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on the evening of March 25 to organize in their communities to fight the Republican agenda on local, state and national levels and to do it now.

This isnt checkers its chess, said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee. We cant wait until 2018 to start organizing these streets. Weve got to organize right here, right now.

Ellison was joined by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, to speak on Progressive Politics in the Era of Trump at Bowker Auditorium. Ellison is co-chairman of the Progressive Caucus in Congress, of which McGovern is a member.

The congressmen called for people to invest time and money in things like education, infrastructure, healthcare, food and shelter for all, and reducing the defense budget.

In response to a question from the audience about an overwhelming number of action alerts for protests and rallies, Ellison suggested that community organizers make priority lists for the policies they need to represent the most, and to work with other community groups to be active for the rest.

Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something, Ellison said.

He stressed the importance of local and state elections for winning back the more than 900 seats Democrats have lost in state legislatures nationwide since 2008.

On another note, Ellison also underlined the importance of Democrats and progressives meeting somewhere in the middle to move forward against those policies of President Trumps administration that most Americans can disagree with, such as cutting care for the elderly.

Disunity can kill us, Ellison said. Look at the circular firing squad (Republicans) have created, shooting each other dead.

Referring to voters who are leaving the Democratic Party for third parties, Ellison suggested the DNC adjust itself to bring in the support of progressives.

I fear the energy wont dissipate, it will migrate, Ellison said.

McGovern talked about winning back the Obama-to-Trump voters, who voted for Trump because they wanted something different. Some of those voters regret their ballot choice, he said, and are even working to reverse Trumps policy decisions.

Even though there are 320 million people in America, they still feel alone sometimes, and thats what makes a good person vote for Trump, he said.

Ellison encouraged progressives who feel disenfranchised from the Democratic Party to get involved to make the change they want to see, and for Democrats inside the party to meet on things like higher minimum wages, environmental protection, and Medicaid and Medicare.

McGovern and Ellison also stressed the importance of quality education for all, and affordable higher education.

If you want to know why millennials are pissed, it may be all the student debt theyre humping, Ellison said.

The Trump administration is not likely to help, he said.

Trumps position on higher education is Trump University, Ellison said to a chuckling crowd.

Hes trying to tell you to be more worried about Muslims and Mexicans than higher education, he continued. If Sweden, Germany and France can have free higher education, the richest country in the history of the world can do it, too.

In regards to Trumps frequent attacks on the media and threats to the freedom of press, Ellison said these attacks go beyond journalists.

They are attacking (the peoples) right to know, he said.

McGovern, for his part, said Trump worries him.

I lose sleep at night thinking about these wacky and erratic behaviors, he said. This is not normal behavior.

He also questioned the White Houses ties to Russia.

I want to know if our president is a Manchurian candidate, he said. The only way were going to find that out is through an independent, non-partisan investigation.

The event was organized by Progressive Democrats of America, and moderated by UMass Democrats Casey Pease and UMass Progressives Julia Pelletier.

Morgan Hughes can be reached at mahughes@umass.edu.

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McGovern, Ellison urge progressives to organize now - Amherst Bulletin