Thread by @kgosztola

The kerfuffle over the Culinary Workers Union's flyer is but another in a long line of cynical media-manufactured efforts to make Bernie Sanders seem unpalatable to low-income and working class voters of color. In this instance, Latinx voters.

Thread.

I can't help but note @RalstonReports' @TheNVIndy is behind this bad-faith story. The post is largely press release for the flyer that was created by the Culinary Workers Union. It provides zero context for what "require Medicare For All" means.
thenevadaindependent.com/article/in-new…

Let's go back to 2016. Ralston was involved in pushing a fake story that Sanders supporter(s) threw a chair at a Nevada Democratic Party Convention. MSNBC, CBS, the Associated Press, and New York Times all spread this false claim.
snopes.com/fact-check/did…

Ralston also pushed a narrative around Democratic Senator Harry Reid that went something like Reid made a phone call to head of Culinary Workers Union and ensured workers would be allowed off work to participate in caucuses at six casino sites. usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

Jeff Weaver, Sanders' 2016 campaign manager, wrote in his book, "How Bernie Won, "The problem with Ralston's claim is that increasing the number of participants alone in these locations would not have benefited Clinton, because the number of county convention delegates..."

"...allocated to each site was set prior to the caucus. The only way to ensure victory is to change the proportion of the people in the room who support each candidate. In other words, you would have to pack the room with Clinton supporters. Did that happen?..."

"...Online video did circulate that shows people streaming into at least one casino caucus location without checking in, so it is certainly possible that there were shenanigans. But that is not Ralston's claim. In end, it is difficult to know how accurate Ralston's narrative is."

Weaver offered an assessment of Ralston that is probably instructive at this stage, especially as a lot of Sanders supporters get riled up over this flyer. He wrote, "Ralston is a journalist/talking head held out as a local expert on state politics—your go-to insider."

"...Most states have one. Unlike most, Ralston's view is, shall we say, more 'truthy' than truthful. In fact, he was the source of all the false reporting about chairs being thrown at the May 14, 2016, Nevada state Democratic convention."

I already mentioned this, but what Ralston did in 2016 was an egregious act of journalistic malpractice. So, I'll include Weaver's recap: "Even though he had long left the event, he tweeted that chairs had been thrown by Bernie supporters..."

"...There was no evidence to back him up. No video. Nothing. In terms of fake news in the 2016 campaign season, @RalstonReports was the king..."

In 2014, according to Weaver, Ralston was "exposed by Watchdog.org after continually attacking the Nevada Republican attorney general candidate without disclosing that he was actively working to help elect the Democratic candidate." sayanythingblog.com/entry/top-repo…

Around three weeks before the Nevada Caucuses, Ralston "reported" that "operatives from Bernie Sanders' campaign [had] donned Culinary union pins and secured access to employee areas inside Strip hotels to try to garner votes for the Feb. 20 caucus," according to "sources."

Think Progress picked up this cynical story and ran with it. And @neeratanden gleefully shared it with her colleagues in the Clinton campaign. "See we're not all that bad!"

Jen Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, replied, "It's great."
thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/…

Weaver told CNN that Sanders staffers wore the Culinary Union button "in solidarity with people but they were also wearing Bernie paraphernalia."
cnn.com/2016/01/28/pol…

Emilia Pablo, who was the Sanders campaign's communications director in Nevada, claimed no one from the campaign misrepresented who they were. They wore union buttons. She was "surprised the union came out so strongly against their campaign."

"We have been building a positive relationship with them from the moment that we got to the ground," Pablo said. "We have always thought we have had positive relationship with them and for them to come out so strongly against us and to go to the press first, that surprises me."

The cynical stories published by Jon Ralston worked in 2016. The one he is pushing in 2020 is working as well.

It predictably incited anger & frustration among several lowly Sanders supporters, who lashed out at the union, while garnering notoriety for @TheNVIndy.

The Culinary Workers Union put out a statement reacting to angry phone calls, emails, and Twitter messages. "It's disappointing that Senator Sanders' supporters have viciously attacked the Culinary Union and working families in Nevada..."

Bernie Sanders reacted as best as any candidate could, focusing on Pete Buttigieg who clamped on to this ginned-up controversy like a parasite.

"I have a lot more union support than Pete Buttigieg has or I think ever will have."
msnbc.com/all-in/watch/b…

Sanders continued, "Many, many unions throughout this country, including some in UNITE HERE, and the Culinary Union is part of UNITE HERE, absolutely understand that we must move to Medicare For All..."

"...And the reason is if you talk to union negotiators they will tell you they spend half of their time arguing against the cutbacks for the health care that they have. They're losing wage increases because the cost of health care is soaring...."

"...When everybody in America has comprehensive health care & when we join rest of industrialized world by guaranteeing health care to all people, unions can then negotiate for higher wages, better working conditions, better pensions." Future for unions is thru Medicare For All.

The Culinary Workers Union in Nevada refused to endorse any Democratic presidential candidate. That may be further indication that leadership was trying to suppress support for Bernie Sanders among the rank-and-file, and it backfired.

More here:

shadowproof.com/2020/02/13/the…

Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) will be one of moderators for NBC News/MSNBC debate on Feb. 19.

He was on MSNBC Live, which airs at 11 am ET.

Predictably, he misrepresented the amount of tension between Culinary Workers Union and Bernie Sanders over Medicare For All.

Ralston: “The union has basically said to members, listen, this is leadership, of course. We have your best interests at heart. We have gotten you this Cadillac plan. Bernie Sanders wants to take that away. Whether you agree w/ that characterization or not, that is messaging.”

Ralston added, “Bernie Sanders and the other candidates went and did town halls with the Culinary members. The issue was brought up, and it was not pretty for Bernie Sanders.”

Charitably, this is a less than accurate representation, and there’s video that proves this.

At the Culinary Workers Union town hall, Bernie Sanders was told by a member, who was part of the Frontier Hotel and Casino worker strike, one of the longest labor strikes in history, that she wanted to keep her Culinary health plan. She was very concerned about losing it.

Bernie shared part of stump speech with culinary workers. "Number one, we're going to expand Medicare to cover dental care. Because dental care is health care."

[applause]

"We're going to make sure everyone in America who need it has hearing aids, has eye glasses."

[applause]

Bernie Sanders: "And the other thing that we are going to do is have Medicare cover home health care so that elderly people are not pushed out of their homes." [applause, cheering]

Bernie Sanders: "We are going to have Medicare For All because we are going to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower drug prices significantly. Nobody will pay more than $200/year for prescription drugs." [applause]

There was a small group of workers who chanted "Union health care! Union health care!" Bernie Sanders never lost control of the room. He directly addressed the chief concern.

"Because we spend so much on health care, your employer is spending a lot on your health care."

Bernie: "If we end profiteering of insurance companies and the drug companies, who made $100 billion last year, because we end the bureaucratic nightmare of thousands of separate health programs that have to be administered, we save money, many hundreds of billions of dollars."

Bernie: "That means that your employer will not have to pay $15,000 a year for your health care. Your employer will pay $3,000. That’s a $12,000 differential. You know who gets the $12,000? You get the $12,000." [cheers, applause]

Was it "not pretty," as @RalstonReports suggested?

Bernie Sanders made it all the way through his answer. It ended with applause. As he concluded, there was no chanting or disruptions.

D. Taylor, who once led and grew Culinary Workers Union, took microphone and said, "I believe in town hall meetings, but we're going to let candidates speak without any sort of heckling. And if you want to heckle, go outside."

Did workers boo that? No, you hear no objections.

D. Taylor added, "This union stands very strongly that every single American, just like Senator Sanders has said, deserves to have good quality health care. It is a right. It should never be a privilege in this country."

That line was met with cheers and applause.

Like during the 2016 primary, @RalstonReports makes claims without any evidence. He speaks like he may have witnessed this stuff because he is in close proximity. But he has no proof, and it doesn’t take much to expose the fraud he is pushing on voters or media consumers.

@RalstonReports Employer trustees for Culinary Health Fund.

Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, The Mirage, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, & Tishman Hotel Corporation have interest in opposing Medicare For All so labor can't focus on demanding higher wages, better workplace conditions, etc.

@RalstonReports Ralston's Nevada Independent has received $957,500, from MGM Resorts International, which owns The Mirage, $145,000 from Caesars Enterprise Services LLC, $31,500 from Boyd Gaming, and $7,500 from Caesars Entertainment.

These are donors Ralston and the Nevada Independent should disclose or list when reporting on Culinary Workers Union, Culinary Health Fund, and the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, especially as it relates to debate around Medicare For All. But they don't.