L.A. County Residents Surprised and Enchanted by Three Bernie Sanders Events (video)

L.A. County Residents Surprised and Enchanted by Three Bernie Sanders Events

July 25-26. Los Angeles County, CA. To the surprise and enjoyment of Sanders supporters who were lucky enough to be notified in time to attend, Bernie Sanders hit multiple home runs in Los Angeles County Thursday and Friday. There is some question whether the lack of notice about the events was intentional to limit the crowd size or a public relations faux pas. However, once the starting time for the events occurred and it was realized that only a small percentage of supporters knew about them, people looking at the unfilled venues texted and called friends and filled the theaters and amphitheater to provide Bernie with a rousing welcome.

In downtown Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo’s Aratani Theater on July 25th , Bernie got cheers with a speech of the need for Medicare for All. The theater filled during the final warm-up after people in the audience texted their friends about this almost unknown event. This was followed by Bernie answering more questions audience than any of the other candidates have fielded at their events. Those asking weren’t selected as in the questions weren’t fixed. People lined up at the microphones to ask what they most wanted to know. Each response drew enthusiasm and support from the audience and questioners.

That evening at the Ricardo Montalban Theater on Vine Street in Hollywood, a small donor fundraiser was also a popular event. People were turned away by a dark haired team member named Melissa when the theater was less than half full. The reason for closing attendance long before the theater was far from full was unknown. Later, additional seats were opened up. Apparently someone on the staff realized that filled seats looked better than empty seats. Most of those present said they did not know about the afternoon event or had heard about it that day. As can be expected at a Bernie event, there were shouts and screams of support for Bernie during his speech and lots of applause.

Afterwards, Bernie and Jane posed for pictures with those who lined up. The line for small donor pictures with Bernie and Jane lasted for more than an hour and constituted a form of our-reach unheard of in Presidential races. Some candidates pose for pictures with supporters but this reporter has never seen this happen on such a large scale.

Those who attended all events tended to agree that Bernie’s best was the Santa Monica High School amphitheater event on July 25th. All the major news media was there but much of the audience was missing at the start of the event. Nina Turner came out front and posed for pictures. Interviews had been offered with Nina but she only did one interview with a guy holding a cell phone and some selfies before rushing off backstage. When asked about Bernie’s support for felon prisoner voting rights, she seemed unfamiliar with the subject. Nina’s warm-up speeches for Bernie at all three events were as good as they get. At the fundraiser, she took a dig at Elizabeth Warren for pretending to be a native America and went on to generally hit the majority of candidates as mostly being Bernie Sanders wannabes.

In Santa Monica, Bernie kept hitting the ball out of the park with his positions on mass incarceration, housing as a human right, free college, Medicare for All, reducing the military budget, decriminalizing drugs, and ending income inequality. At all three events, he spoke of his plans to take a group to Canada to purchase insulin for one-tenth the price the drug sells for in America.

Jane Sanders was almost as popular as Bernie, himself. Following chants of “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie,” and amidst frequent enthusiastic applause from the crowd, Jane introduced the candidate everyone had come to see.

”Hello Santa Monica. Are you here to listen to a man who stood up for working people all his life? Are you here to listen to someone with a vision for the future of America that is based on human dignity, racial, environmental and social justice? Well you’re in luck. I brought him with me. Let me introduce you to the man I have loved and admired and worked alongside for many, many years: my husband Bernie Sanders.”

At all locations, people interviewed on the street were surprised that Bernie was in the area as they hadn’t heard anything about the events. There were no signs directing people to the appearances. Greater Los Angeles residents who missed the event were actually upset that they had received no notification of any kind. The press was told that the information went out in some local rag sheets and on local TV stations. However, what Bernie Sanders supporters is actually reading local rag sheets or watching the local TV stations? Unlike the public, the press was notified ten days in advance. So why didn’t the public, especially supporters, have advance notice? The Justice Gazette and other news service photographers got lots of pictures of largely empty audiences at the scheduled time for the three events. However, this publication is not using those out of a concern they will be copied and improperly used by Bernie’s opponents. The mainstream media has no qualms about playing down Bernie’s popularity. The problem with the initial audience size was NOT popularity but rather lack of communication from the campaign staff to the public. (Bernie had tens of thousands at another Los Angeles event four months earlier.) To remedy the situation, supporters in the audience contacted friends who raced to the speaking engagements the moment they learned Bernie was in town. The warm-ups started late and were extended, probably because of the initial sparse crowd-size. By the time Bernie took to the stage, all events were filled.

There was a lot of discussion about sabotage in connection the failure to inform or adequately inform Bernie fans of the engagements. Some people said sabotage is to be expected with Susie Shannon as California Political Director but that was just people speculating as to the reason proper notices did not go out. Sanders supporters are well aware there is no excuse for public Bernie events pulling in less than tens of thousands of attendees in Southern California as those numbers are his typical draws for this area. Some suggested that notices were not sent out and no signs were put up outside the venues to avoid overflowing the event locations. This seemed like a weak excuse to most who expressed an opinion on the given reason. The more commonly ventured opinion involved the suggestion that someone had deliberately sabotaged the events to make it appear Bernie is less popular than he is.

Lots of those present were promoting a joint Bernie/Tulsi ticket. Tulsi is considered the closest candidates to Bernie on the issues . She and Bernie maintain a close relationship. Most supporters of these candidates are expecting the two to combine their delegates before the convention to make sure that one of them receives the Presidential nomination. Berniecrats and Tulsicrats alike will be very disappointed if the winner doesn’t make the other their Vice Presidential running mate. Because of the Sanders’s campaign’s suppression of their candidate’s July crowds, Tulsi is currently receiving fuller attendance with long lines of would-be attendees-not able to get into the events (due to over-crowding) than Bernie received in July in the Greater Los Angeles area. When attending a Tulsi event, arrive very early if you want a seat. However, if Bernie’s events were properly publicized, supporters of both of these popular candidates would expect Bernie’s crowd sizes to return to the tens of thousands (dramatically outdistancing all other campaigns) in the Los Angeles area, instead of what people saw on the 25th and 26th.

Nothing speaks better for Bernie than videos of his speeches. Below are Justice Gazette videos of all three speeches. Notice the enthusiasm. There can be no doubt among honest reporters that Bernie Sanders is the clear front-runner.