Today's BNR LTE roundup is early on account of Good Friday shutting down county offices early. (To which I say, if they're closing early on Good Friday, I should get Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur off.)

Please note: This is NOT BNR by LieparDespin over at TOP. This is ONLY the Letters to the Editor, a handful of videos and tweets that were posted in comments, mostly by LoneStarMike. Please keep LD tipped and recced over at TOP:

Bernie News Roundup by LieparDestin

Posted by LoneStarMike

Current Facebook stats as of 5:00 a.m. CST

Bernie2016/Hillary2016/Senator Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders 3,547,588 Presidential Campaign Page

Hillary Clinton 3,006,654 Presidential Campaign Page

Bernie Sanders 3,574,668 U. S. Senatorial Page

Yesterday, Bernie had 541,146 more likes than Sec. Clinton

Today, Bernie has 540,934 more likes than Sec. Clinton

(The gap narrows ever so slightly)

Bernie Sanders’ America

The Press Democrat LTE -Santa Rosa, California

This is a letter to proclaim, to herald the many reasons to vote for Bernie Sanders. What’s happening in the Democratic primary marathon is the same old establishment boondoggle that favors its own.

Sanders admits he isn’t part of the establishment and consequently has no standing on which to run the race on equal footing.

Let’s look at the superdelegates. At last count, Hillary Clinton had 461 to Sanders’ 25. Why such a vast disparity? No one wants to buck the big bucks power politics in Washington. Since Clinton is well established within the good-old-boy and collects large sums from Wall Street, she can feel relatively secure.

Sanders is still in the race. Granted it’s not going to be easy; the cards are stacked against him. He has remained outside of the established Democratic cronies. He is ready to lead this country to where it could and should be — a country of compassion, of empathy, where no one goes hungry, where everyone has a place to live, where all people make a livable wage and have access to affordable health care, where free higher education is available to all, where hatred, violence and racism no longer exist.

This is the United States that Bernie Sanders envisions. Give him a chance. Dream big.

I Feel The Bern - Edgar Allan Poets — Duration 2:30

Sanders is the best

Lexington Herald-Leader LTE — Lexington, Kentucky

As a 15-year-old high school sophomore, I have been closely following the presidential campaigns. After watching numerous Republican and Democratic presidential debates, I believe the best candidate for president is Democrat Bernie Sanders.

Sanders is speaking to the middle class like no other presidential candidate we’ve seen before, promising things like universal health care as a right, free college tuition and more.

Some people immediately dismiss him and his ideas solely because he is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist. However, a Democratic socialist is not a Marxist socialist or a communist. A democratic socialist is still a capitalist, just one who seeks to restrain the self-destructive excesses of capitalism and to channel government’s use of our tax money into creating opportunities for everyone. Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet human needs, not simply to make profits for a greedy few.

Even though I am not eligible to vote, I support Sanders and hope that people who are eligible to vote will support him as well.

Your pick for president could change the world

Wausau Daily Herald LTE — Wausau, Wisconsin

The next president’s policies and decisions will affect lives of millions if not billions of human beings globally, and that includes us.

I have to go with who I think will make the ethical decisions based on his or her concern for the well-being of the globe’s population.

I want that individual to be uninfluenced by the personal benefits of outside big private or commercial interests.

Take one of every race, every religion or no religion, every economic level, every culture and place them on the moon and ask them to point to home. It will be the same home we are all from the same big blue ball in space.

That is how big your voting decision is. It’s global.

After all that I have heard and observed I am going with Bernie Sanders.

Bernie’s the one

Chico News & Review LTE — Chico, California

People sense, from their political careers and their word, that Bernie Sanders and John Kasich are honest men who will fight against what’s breaking down the fundamental nature of our democracy. Because of his long, tireless leadership toward economic and social justice, I think Bernie Sanders is the only person, here and now, who can get this country back on the path it needs to follow.

Fox Uses TYT Bernie Interview To Attack Hillary Clinton — Duration 6:38

Candidate Choices

The Eugene Weekly LTE — Eugene, Oregon

As a 14-year-old high school student, I don’t have a say in politics when it comes to voting, but I’ve been volunteering for the Bernie Sanders campaign. The main reason I’m backing him should be the most important and most discussed issue in politics: climate. Instead, it gets mentioned occasionally in the Dem debates and almost never in the GOP debates. I even wish Bernie talked about it some more. Climate change is the biggest crisis facing humankind.

The problem is our government and media doesn’t act like it is. The government has been working for large interests (including coal, oil and gas) instead of working for us. If Bernie gets elected, he would first restructure the campaign finance system. This would, hopefully, help politicians and Congress be less influenced by energy and oil interests. Second, Bernie would tax carbon pollution and invest in sustainable energy, creating more jobs. Bernie is the only candidate who wants to ban fracking as well. I truly trust him to stand up to fossil fuel companies. I’m not asking you to vote for him. I just want people to consider climate change more when they are choosing their candidate. Electing someone who doesn’t believe climate change is man-made or serious could risk my generation and many to come.

Bernie Sanders will fight for full loaf

Wisconsin State Journal LTE — Madison, Wisconsin

From vanishing worker rights and flat-lined pay to collapsing infrastructure and outrageous student debt, plus bad wars that blow up in our faces, we see the harm that results when a socially irresponsible elite shapes our national priorities.

It's a situation that partial measures can't remedy.

As presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says, "I believe that if you start your campaign and run on a platform calling for a full loaf, at worst you’re gonna get a half loaf. If you start your campaign talking about a need for a half loaf, you’re going to get crumbs. And the American people today do not want, do not need crumbs. They need the whole loaf."

Dramatic action is essential to keep Wall Street from making Main Street a dead-end alley permanently blocking everyday people's betterment.

Go bold by voting for Sanders on April 5, or go home to mailboxes perpetually brimming with anxiety-generating and unaffordable bills.

Song — I Like Bernie Sanders — Duration 2:00

Look it up

News & Review (2 LTE’s) — Reno, Nevada

#1

“Fascism” is a hard definition for Google but most would agree that it mandates “authoritarianism” and “right-wing.” If that is the takeaway of the Sanders campaign for Brendan Trainor, then I can only slowly step away from that conversation.

Personally, I would love to see the very wealthy have their access to the political process restricted. The manifestation of violence as recreation, without any alternative, reveals itself more and more in the Republican primaries. Bernie Sanders has turned the national Democratic platform well to the left of that. Whether U.S. citizens will finally use the political tools available to them has yet to be determined but antiquated opinions such as Mr. Trainor’s simply do not play as well as they used to. There for a minute I thought we were in a time capsule—“honeymoon in Soviet Union”?

From the outset, Sanders has said that now it is time for a “fundamental decision.” The Republicans have certainly embraced that idea. When you are forced to play see-saw with a 500-lb canary, it doesn’t help a lot if he promises to lose 50 lbs. (or more! much more!—here’s looking at you, Ms. C). You need a new game.

#2

It is regretful that the RN&R editors didn’t check Wikipedia before publishing Brendan Trainor’s screed. Wikipedia states that “Fascism is usually placed on the far-right within the traditional left–right spectrum.” No one with a functioning brain cell places Bernie on the far-right. Trainor clearly doesn’t know what he is talking about, or what the words he uses mean. I urge the RN&R editors to fact check everything he submits at least with Wikipedia.

Sanders is not a Marxist

Wyoming Tribune Eagle LTE — Cheyenne, Wyoming

I think WTE letter writer William White was trying to use semantics to refute columnist Rodger McDaniel’s essay on democratic socialism.

Mr. White says we are a representative republic, not a democracy. My dictionary defines democracy as: “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.” Therefore, the U.S. can be considered a democracy or a representative republic.

Mr. White loudly labels Sanders a Marxist. Marxism’s ultimate goal is a classless society. This is not Mr. Sanders’ goal.

Mr. Sanders believes in capitalism, but a regulated capitalism where the little man will not be downtrodden.

Raising the minimum wage, closing tax loopholes on the rich and corporations to fund programs like universal health care and free college is what Mr. Sanders espouses. These goals will not lead to a classless society, but they will lead to a fairer playing field for all Americans.

[...]

Yes, the liberals have their billionaires who back liberal causes just as the conservatives have billionaires who back their causes. But in all my research I have been unable to find any proof that Mr. Sanders has received money from liberal billionaires – Hillary, yes, but not Mr. Sanders.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution states, “The Congress shall have power to ... provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.”

General welfare could be interpreted to mean both health care and education.

Conviction | Bernie Sanders — Duration 0:30

This is the 30-second version of the Tulsi Gabbard ad. I’m hoping the 90-second version will be a Web Ad and perhaps this 30-second one will be aired on tv.

In Wyoming, Sanders' supporters rally behind long odds

Casper Star-Tribune — Casper Wyoming

Bernie Sanders isn’t here.

Neither are the actors from the millennial TV shows “Teen Wolf” and “Gossip Girl” that his campaign has recruited to get out the youth vote. The weather kept them away from the state Wednesday, just days before the deadline to register to vote in the April 9 Democratic caucus.

But even without the pomp and circumstance of fundraisers and candidate events, in a deep red state where unemployment is on the rise and discontent seems to grow each time an energy company announces layoffs, the senator’s message has resonated with a handful of supporters in Casper.

[...]

Sanders supporters have concerns about the Democrats’ nominating process. Wyoming’s four superdelegates, who can choose whoever they want, announced shortly before the Iowa Caucus that they would be supporting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Their decision drew the ire of a group of Sanders’ supporters at the University of Wyoming, who wrote to the state Democratic Party to protest the early sign of support. State Democratic leaders said the attention shows that turnout could be high come caucus day.

Posted by Zeitgeistus

Letter: Don't count out Bernie Sanders, the best choice

Dubuque

In spite of what mainline media may be saying, Sen. Bernie Sanders is still in the race and has a very good chance of going all the way to the Democratic Convention. I support Bernie Sanders for president for several reasons.

Our young grandchildren live in Ireland. When their parents consider moving to the United States, they face a dilemma regarding affordable health insurance. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who would work to move to universal/single-payer with everyone covered for less cost than most of us are paying for health insurance now. No co-pays, donut holes, deductibles and would include dental and nursing home care.

Unless we join together and elect Bernie Sanders, along with a supportive Congress, single-payer will never happen.

What about college education? Our grandchildren could attend college in Germany and graduate with little, if any, debt. Sanders’ plan to make attending public colleges and universities tuition-free would provide an option for our grandchildren to come to the U.S. for their college education.

Bernie Sanders’ background, his many accomplishments and his sense of morality are impressive: “What I believe in and what my spirituality is about is that we are all in this together. We are one world and one people.”

I urge Wisconsin voters to support Bernie Sanders on April 5 and join the “revolution” for needed change. Now is the time! We may not have another opportunity like this.

Posted by LieparDestin

I didnt post this in the main diary for some reasons you will find apparent within (probably), but it is worth a read:

http://fortune.com/2016/03/24/bernie-sanders-wisconsin-primary/

No one would have thought even just a few months ago that the 2016 presidential contest would develop as it has. And with the general election still more than seven months away, there are almost assuredly more surprises in store for the candidates—and the voters. The left-wing social movement hasn’t flamed out yet—quite the opposite—so if you are Bernie Sanders, and still have the resources to stay in the race to the end, why not hang in and see what happens?

Posted by LieparDestin

This will shock noone:

http://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/survey-shows-wisconsin-k-12-students...

They may not be old enough to vote in an election, but Wisconsin students are still making their voices heard in the upcoming election.

A survey conducted by Rock the Vote and Newsela determined that Wisconsin K-12 students favored Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as the nominees for their respective parties.

The survey polled 3,346 students from across the state in the survey.

Sanders won 62 percent of the vote, followed by Hillary Clinton with 38 percent on the Democratic side.

Donald Trump won 49 percent of the Republican vote, followed by Ted Cruz with 37 percent and John Kasich with 14 percent.