The March for Democracy, (99Rise) is a group of mostly young people who are walking from Los Angeles to Sacramento via the Central San Joaquin Valley to call for a Constitutional Amendment reversing the Citizen's United and McCutcheon decisions. I want to continue to call attention to this group as I think what they are trying to do is extremely important. This isn't the only group fighting to reverse Citizen's United and McCutcheon decisions but it's one whose activities I've been monitoring. I'll be hosting them June 6-9 in my small but full-of-laughter-and-love house. Here are some links for those who are interested in following them, joining them, donating to them or just offering your support and encouragement.

Their website:

http://www.marchfordemocracy.org/call_to_action

Their FaceBook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/99Rise

Their Twitter Page:

https://twitter.com/99rise/media

The tea party's honest efforts to be a more effective and calculating force in conservative American politics might be about to blow up in its face. Chris McDaniel, a Republican candidate for US Senate from Mississippi, was supposed to be this year's standard-bearer for a new and smarter tea party movement – a movement that would no longer nominate candidates who excited the conservative base in primaries but imploded in the general election. He was experienced as a state senator, and he was a smooth speaker and politician. Yet less than two weeks from his June 3 primary, his campaign is danger of confirming all the old stereotypes.

So far, no one is accusing him of doing anything wrong. But a scandal of the most unseemly nature is creeping closer to him. Some of McDaniel's staunchest supporters have been arrested in connection with an online attack video that included a secret and likely illegal image taken in a nursing home of the bedridden wife of McDaniel's primary opponent, Sen. Thad Cochran. Mr. McDaniel says he was not involved, and no evidence links him to the video. But regardless, in this instance, optics matter.

The scandal is precisely what tea party groups sought to avoid in focusing their money and efforts on McDaniel. Now, once again, the tea party has to fend off claims that its candidates are not ready for prime time – that the spotlight of a big election will reveal all their shortcomings. And for all the grass-roots enthusiasm the tea party can generate, money still drives politics, and donors might be growing weary of that script.

Moreover, the episode will only confirm to members of the Republican establishment that they are right to try and neuter the tea party – as they have begun to do with increasing success this year. After all, if even the most sensible tea party candidate of the cycle can be caught in the whiff of such scandal, then who among them can be trusted to bear the GOP's hopes?

<more>

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Buzz/2014/0525/Why-Mississippi-video-scandal-could-be-devastating-to-tea-party

on Opensecrets.org:

Individual Contributions $43,303,542 (97%)
PAC Contributions $717,408 (2%)
Candidate self-financing $0 (0%)
Other $441,395 (1%)

https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00033492&newmem=Y

Pretty damned impressive!

8 jars of Blueberry jam
7 jars of Blackberry jam
10 pints and 3 quarts of Blackberries
8 Pints green beans

Already tried the Blueberry jam. Nom nom nom.

Hosts, please don't delete this. Not all Californians go to the California forum and this is extremely important as other states, not just California, are starting movements to get a Constitutional Amendment that overturns the Citizen's United ruling. Here's what it's all about:

Citizens United. The most expensive election in U.S. history. McCutcheon. Big money's corruption of our politics is so complete we can no longer deny: democracy is dead in America. Plutocracy has arrived.

The voices of the 99% don’t matter now: as long as this is true, our needs won’t count and real change won’t come. From the nationwide "march against corruption" protest, to the statewide New Hampshire Rebellion, to civil disobedience in the chamber of the Supreme Court itself -- more and more Americans are stepping-up to the plate for democracy everyday.

It’s time to take the fight to defend our democracy to a new level. It’s time to move the millions of Americans who believe in the rule of one person, one vote to stand up and say enough.

If we arrive in Sacramento, 37 days later, and our demand has not been met we will occupy the Capitol until it is. No matter what happens, we will force the leaders of America’s biggest state, one that has been first on so many things, to focus on what must be the First Issue for our nation to solve. A call for change from California will send a message of hope that change is coming across the country. Join us and help turn the tide.

As a first step, we will demand the California legislature take three urgent actions:
1.Issue a formal call for a federal Constitutional Convention to propose an Amendment outlawing big money corruption by passing Assembly Joint Resolution 1 (AJR1)
2.Give California's voters the chance to formally instruct the US Congress to propose such an Amendment and the California legislature to ratify it by passing Senate Bill 1272 (SB1272)
3.Start reigning in unlimited, anonymous big money in elections by passing the DISCLOSE Act to require the top donors to be prominently revealed in every political ad they fund.

We NEED your support. If you live in California, please consider joining us in the March. If you don't live in California, please consider supporting us in other ways OR, consider starting your own movement in your own state. This is vitally important for all of us. Please, GET INVOLVED. Thank you.

http://www.marchfordemocracy.org/call_to_action

this year. The berries are in as are the stone fruit (nectarines, peaches, apricots and plums). The reason I'm passing this on is that now is probably the time to buy as all will be at it's cheapest and freshest much earlier than usual. We've had an unusually warm spring and everything is kicking in early. If you wait later in the season, most likely, California veggies will either a) be unavailable and/or b) be much more expensive due to the drought.

Personally, my canning is at a fever pitch at the moment. Today: green beans and boysenberries. Yummmmm!

To the people who declare that she absolutely, positively WILL NOT RUN!11!1! I want to remind them that Warren was RECRUITED to run for the Senate. She had grave doubts. Her family urged her not to do it. But for decades she'd been gathering evidence of how the vultures in the banking industry preyed on the middle class and the poor. She'd been listening to the stories of real people for decades. When she was putting out feelers, exploring whether or not to run for the Senate, as so many had urged her to do, she talked to one middle-aged unemployed lady who walked 3 miles to see her speak (the woman no longer had a car). She told Warren her very heartbreaking story and asked Warren to make a commitment, right then and there, to run for the Senate so we could have SOMEONE representing real people. That's when she made the commitment.

Warren hasn't stopped listening and she'll never stop fighting. She has an innate sense of doing the right thing and I think if enough people call for her to run for the presidency, she will. She will because the people need her. She will because the country needs her.

I just read a column that E.J. Dionne wrote about her and, although I think Dionne is somewhat of a hack most of the time he's right on one point in the article. Hillary Clinton, and, by extension, the Third Way Democrats, will be facing a new electorate in 2016. There's a new populism in the air with the likes of people like Warren and Sanders that eludes the current crop of corporate-friendly cheeseballs who are now "representing" us -- in BOTH parties.

If she will continue to listen to the people, continue to do the right thing, she'll run. And she'll win the nomination and she'll win the presidency. I also predict that she'll be one of our greatest presidents at a time when this country desperately needs a voice for the people. She is that voice.

He was bred and raised in Central California on Harris Ranch. Race time is about 3:30 PST I believe. Here's some other information about him:

Based in anonymity at Los Alamitos Race Course near Los Angeles, the Orange County track best known for quarterhorse racing, the modestly bred colt burst onto the racing scene this year with four consecutive impressive victories capped by a 1 ¾-length triumph in the Kentucky Derby on May 3.

The 140th Derby was the fifth straight win for California Chrome, who ended his 2-year-old season with a victory in the six-furlong King Glorious Stakes over the all-weather track at former Hollywood Park.

In 2014, the California-bred colt won the California Cup Derby, Grade 2 San Felipe and Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby by a combined 18 lengths before heading to Churchill Downs. Favored at 5-2, he settled comfortably just off the pace and took over at the top of the stretch, leading by as many as five lengths down the lane and hitting the wire in 2:03.66 for 1 ¼ miles.

Making the first start outside his native state, California Chrome became the first California-bred to win the Kentucky Derby since Decidedly in 1962. Only four California-bred horses have ever won the Preakness, and none since Snow Chief in 1986.

http://www.preakness.com/race-info/contenders/3/California%20Chrome

Go California!

Here's a story about a small, local, hand-dyed yarn business that I thought might interest to you yarn crafters:

http://abc30.com/news/made-in-the-valley-anzula-luxury-fibers-%7C-1-of-2/63045/

and

http://abc30.com/news/made-in-the-valley-anzula-luxury-fibers-%7C-2-of-2/63061/

Just a heads up.

Source: The Fresno Bee

The California High-Speed Rail Authority approved the Fresno-to-Bakersfield section of its controversial bullet-train program -- the second section of what is planned to become the backbone of a statewide passenger train system.

The agency's board, meeting Wednesday in Fresno, voted to approve two separate actions for the 114-mile route.

Board members first certified the final 20,000-page version of its environmental impact report, intended to analyze how building and operating the rail system would affect homes, businesses, farms and wildlife habitat in the region between proposed stations in downtown Fresno and downtown Bakersfield, and detail how the agency will make up for those effects.

EARLIER STORY: High-speed rail plan attracts foes, supporters at Fresno hearing

Moments later, the board took a second vote, this time to approve the rail project and the preferred route from downtown Fresno to the northern outskirts of Bakersfield. That route generally runs near the existing BNSF Railway freight tracks, now shared by Amtrak passenger grains, between Fresno and Bakersfield.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/07/3914799/high-speed-rail-board-approves.html?sp=/99/406/#storylink=cpy


Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/05/07/3914799/high-speed-rail-board-approves.html?sp=/99/406/

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WooHoo!!!!!!!!