mardi, juillet 26, 2016

My New Heroine

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Portia Boulger, Sanders delegate and all-around truth-telling badass:






On Truth and Reconciliation

Verbatim from Kossacks for Sanders user Mass_Southpaw because I have no words of my own right now :

"The process known as "truth and reconciliation" has two parts to it, because one must proceed the other. Reconciliation requires truth-telling, always.

Sarah Silverman can stare daggers all she wants, but that will not help defeat Donald Trump. Rachel Maddow can affect bafflement that we are not mollified by a progressive platform, but that will not help defeat Donald Trump.

Given the real and legitimate anger among voters about the rigging of our election, it will not work to simply tell Sanders supporters to STFU and get in line for Hillary.

With the DNC email leak, we now know for sure what had already been clear: that the process was rigged. This is no small thing, no politics as usual. It is a heartbreaking and frightening and infuriating thing for Americans who still believe in the idea of fair elections. It is a very real trauma to our national psyche, on top of other traumas we've suffered in recent years. If we fail to see it and acknowledge it, we make ourselves weaker against the fascist on the other side.

Saying “It’s over, get over it” is dangerous. That is an arrogant, tone-deaf posture, a way of going into deep denial and projecting blame onto the victims of the corruption we’ve witnessed simply for having witnessed and spoken about it.

Clinton, of course, has not helped by immediately giving Wasserman Schultz another position in her campaign. That is a petty move that indicates her utter lack of respect for the process and the voters. We see it for what it is: another "fuck you" from the establishment, another punch in the face to the progressive movement, another political hack rewarded for loyalty to the party, when what was needed was loyalty to the country and to the democratic process.

Yes, Donald Trump is dangerous as hell. But so is election fraud by one of the two major parties — the manipulation of debates, the changing of rules to favor one candidate, the laundering of campaign money to evade legal limits, the lies fed to the complicit media about Sanders and his supporters, the miscounting of votes by party officials in Iowa and elsewhere, and the fraudulent removal of hundreds of thousands of registered voters from the rolls.

This corruption needs to be acknowledged, admitted to, and accounted for before there can be any hope of a united front against Trump. It is equally dangerous to dismiss and mischaracterize the concerns of Sanders supporters as it is to dismiss and mischaracterize the very real concerns of disaffected Americans who are flocking to Trump out of fear and frustration. Either one sets us up for our own version of Brexit — a massive vote of nullification that denounces a system that has been purchased by and for the 1%.

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party sees right into the corrupt core of the party and is disgusted by what it sees. But even if, despite that, we were all to fall in line for Clinton, even if we were all to acknowledge that Trump is worse, that does nothing to win over the independents who will decide the election in November.

Sanders polls extraordinarily well among independents. Clinton is largely despised by them.
The party has known this all along, but insisted on manipulating the outcome to ensure her nomination at all costs. Now progressives are being insulted and intimidated, told to STFU and get in line. Many will, for one reason only: fear of what a Trump presidency might do.

But millions of independents will not. And rather than allow the more popular candidate, the candidate of change in a year of change, a fair chance to win, the Democrats are recklessly, brazenly playing chicken with our country, propping up an establishment candidate despised and mistrusted by independents and large numbers of Democrats.

Toward what end? Two things only. The aspirations of a political dynasty. And fear of the change Sanders (and, more importantly, his millions of followers) would force on our system in order to make it accountable to the people.

In recent days I have had my motives questioned when I’ve called out the Democrats for making this reckless gamble. I’ve been effectively trolled into silence and have now logged off Facebook. My crime is speaking the truth, which is that both parties have abandoned real Americans and that both candidates are deeply dishonest and untrustworthy, and that we are in a position now in which a dangerous demagogue might well become the president.

My comfortable friends, who will be okay no matter who wins, are angered when I speak the truth. They don’t want to hear it. And that refusal puts us in a very dangerous place. We needed them, needed all Americans, to denounce the corruption and insist that the super delegates do their one job, which is to ensure that we don’t run the only candidate capable of losing to Donald Trump.

I am frightened by the very real prospect of a Trump presidency, which ought to be unthinkable. But it’s no longer unthinkable, because the party that used to be for and of the people has turned its backs on us and supported the oligarchy.

When this is over, when the historically unpopular candidate loses, those of us on the left will be blamed, even as the party has effectively shown the door to millions of voters who felt real hope for the first time in years.

No matter what, we must leave the party behind and create one that will speak the truth."

Jill Not Hill!

mercredi, juillet 13, 2016

Q&A from Bernie Delegate Conference Call

This puts yesterday into better perspective for me.  I found it on the addictive Sanders for President Reddit sub.



From a delegate call earlier tonight.
Copied from Laura Weaver, wife of Jeff Weaver Bernie's campaign manager.
FAQ time:
Q. Why did Bernie endorse Hillary now?
A. They threatened to completey shut him out of the convention if he didn't.
Q. Couldn't he have said screw them and go and fight at the convention anyway?
A. No. Hillary has more delegates, Superdelegates, and supporters on the DNC rules committee. They would have voted down every one of our platforms, denied Bernie the opportunity to speak, and basically shut him out of the entire process. All the leverage he has gained up to this point would be gone.
Q. So wait, Bernie DIDN'T quit today?
A. No. He had to say she won the primary, he endorses her and will help the party defeat Trump, yadda yadda but he DID NOT concede. There is a very big and important difference. Had he conceded, all of his delegates would go to Hillary and he would no longer be an option for nominee.
Q. So Bernie can actually still win??
A. YES. And if he wasn't still TRYING to win, he would have conceded. The ONLY option he had to get to the convention with his delegates behind him and have a chance to still win was to do what he did today. He is not a traitor. He didn't sell us out. He did the only possible thing he could have done to keep fighting for the nomination.
Q. So how can Bernie still win if he's losing the delegate count and he just said he will help Hillary win the election?
A. By far the most important thing to the DNC, even more important than making sure Hillary beats Bernie, is making sure the Democratic nominee beats the Republicans in November. They scrutinize every poll, every opinion of the public, every event to judge whether a candidate is strong enough to win in November. There are A LOT of things going on right now that show how weak of a general election candidate Hillary Clinton is:
-66% of the country sees her as untrustworthy
-60% thinks she should have been indicted for the email scandal
-A lot of Bernie supporters won't vote for her
-Congress has requested the Department of Justice investigate her for lying under oath about the email scandal
-There's a possibility more emails will be leaked by wikileaks or hackers further proving her guilt
-Many believe the FBI is secretly investigating the Clinton Foundation
-Her "wins" during the primary havr been tainted with accusations of fraud, suppression, lawsuits, and investigations
And then there's Bernie. An honest candidate people trust and whose approval rating and trustworthy rating crushes Clinton's. This is the argument Bernie will make at the convention. With all his 1,900 delegates inside arguing this case and 100,000 supporters outside arguing this case, we hope the DNC realizes he's the only choice. He CAN win the convention, but he has to get there first. That's why he endorsed her today.
Q. So it's still important that all of his delegates go to the convention and we all still March on it like we planned?
A. It's more important now than it ever was before.
Q. What if the DNC still refuses to nominate him at the convention? Can he still run third party now that he endorsed her?
A. Yes. In fact, running third party has never been an option until AFTER the convention. We need to stick with Bernie and see this through to the convention. He's led us this far. Do not abandon him now

I Couldn't Agree More



From Caucus99percent's recent caption contest.  Hee!!




First time I've been able to laugh about the whole thing since yesterday's begrudging endorsement.

Bernie has NOT conceded.  But he has managed to radically shift the Democratic platform.


On to Philly!

And hey, Comey, wanna step on it with that Clinton Foundation investigation, please?  And the one about perjury before Congress would be great,too.  

Thanks.


mercredi, juillet 06, 2016

Comey's Statements vs. The Crook's





July 5th, 2016 : the day Justice officially died in America.

Never Hillary.

Never in a million years.

I'm either writing in Bernie or voting Jill Stein.

Because fuck this shit.