As I've mentioned a few times--she IS the MACHINE. "WELL, THAT'S WHAT THEY OFFERED!" Yes, I'm sure they did. I think she'll be the dem -nom no matter what happens. Sanders is digging right into the gut of the oligarchy and that is worrisome to them. I fear for him.
They just gave her that because they wanted to hear her speak. She's amassed a $100 million dollar personal fortune just because she's a people person, and folks just like being around her. It has nothing to do with circumventing bribery and campaign finance laws. Btw, anybody know where I can pay $50,000 a plate for dinner? I'm hungry...
Problem is, we would need to change the Constitution first. Unless you have a genius plan for getting more than half of the electoral votes for a third party, any radical departure from the current system is the same as voting Republican, as long as Paul Ryan is running the House. He's a young man. He would be happy to pick out ultraconservative presidents for us for two decades or more. He's a lucky guy. In the South, being liberal and thinking for yourself can get you in deep trouble with your relatives. My husband and I are extended family black sheep, for that reason; not welcome at any family events. Both of you need to be contacting your elected representatives and letting them know that the superdelegate power play they have in mind is totally unacceptable. Nothing but heavy public pressure will move their position. Once the ruling was made that Bernie could run in the primaries as a Democrat, I think he became fully eligible to receive all the respect and support of any other candidate. Instead, party leaders are acting as if it's obvious that the voters need to get over themselves and fall into line behind the candidate that was selected for us several years ago.
I have many genius plans, but no way to implement them.. Unless I can find a way to travel back in time and become Thomas Jefferson I do see what you mean, the idealist in me just wishes things were different.
I can hear gears and pullys and chains quietly revolving in back rooms and slowly creaking and grinding into place in the way they always have. The 1% maintains the machine juuuuust out of reach.
To anybody who is deeply involved in this election process, I hope you won't miss this weekend's Saturday Night Live. No entertainer is better at channeling Hillary Clinton's anger than Kate McKinnon, and Larry David is the guest host, obviously Bernie Sanders' twin brother in a previous life. I assume a debate parody will be the opening skit. After an intense week like this, we all need a laugh. Campaign offices are full of volunteers who have decided to channel their idealism into pragmatic action, after getting tired of waiting for the world to magically change into what they want it to be. They work their butts off to move things one step closer to what they want. They get results; more than you might imagine. I think you're articulate enough to be highly effective as a campaign volunteer. At the very least, you would meet some like-minded local people with friendship potential. To be perfectly honest, party leaders made the decision eight years ago that Hillary would get her turn next. They're ready to be done with Bernie and move on.
Quinnipiac released a new poll today that says Bernie is now only 2% behind Hillary....nationally! I don't know how they came up with those numbers but if they are true, they are insanely remarkable. It will be interesting to see if other polls show him that much closer than he was last week.
Luckily, we don't live down there. It's kind of funny that he is so much like me but I've never told him I wanted or expected him to be like me. I've always told him to just think for himself. He cracks me up all the time though with how he phrases things and it's almost like I just said it myself. Yesterday, someone was telling him that average people are hypocrites because they feel entitled to their money but criticize the super rich for feeling entitled to keep all of their money. My son said "Well.....I guess it's one thing to feel entitled to have enough money to pay rent and buy food every month and another thing to feel entitled to have enough money to.....LITERALLY FUCKING END WORLD HUNGER! Maybe you had to be there.
Oh no, he's attacking me because he keeps attacking the role wealth plays in politics and I am a politician who takes money from wealthy donors. What a meanie. Did I mention I have a vagina?
I don't see how she accused him of running a smear campaign. A very low blow, and he is certainly no more guilty than she is. If he's smearing her, it's in the classiest and most legitimate way possible.
She's the Cersei Lannister of American politics. Late in the 2008 campaign, she tried to force through the Michigan and Florida votes, even though Obama's name didn't even appear on the ballot. There was at least one recorded incident of an HRC supporter assaulting an Obama supporter at the DNC rules committee meeting that dealt with the issue. According to Politico, a wealthy HRC supporter sent goons to harass and intimidate a journalist who had been critical of HRC at HRC's request. She packed key state department positions with members of her campaign staff, and fired Obama supporters. While in the senate, she sponsored more congressional earmarks than any other senator ever. Then there's the 100 million+ she's raked in in so-called "speaking fees". If she rigged the coin tosses or even the vote count in Iowa, it would be completely in character. A corrupt tyrant through and through.
Looks like Iowa has decided to look at the caucus results again after all. That doesn't mean things will move Bernie's way though. The IDP chairwoman is a huge HRC supporter and I wouldn't be surprised if she agreed just so she can make the "win" look a little more convincing. But....you never know what might happen. I read this today and had a hard time finding a link I could paste so I just copied the text. Thoughts?
Donated $3 to Sanders campaign then $5 more after the Iowa caucus. (I'm broke and saving for a roadtrip) Its just so frustrating because even if he is elected as president the republicans are going to fight him on EVERYTHING. We are so divided by left vs right I am much less enthusiastic as I was when Obama was running in '08, my first time voting. Since then I have become largely jaded by politics. Its not that I don't care its just that whoever wins will fail to deliver on so many promises, to no fault of their own, just like Obama who had the republicans fight him at every turn. That being said I am still very excited to see an anti-elitist candidate take on corporate America and get so far. I'm really routing for him but not going to waste too much of my time on politics.
From what I understand, Sanders is supposed to be in NYC on Saturday. So, we don't know for sure, but there may be a Larry David impersonator in the house
There's plenty of bad things to say about HRC, but I don't think that article is fair. The collapse of health care reform had a lot to do with Bill's infidelity scandals coming out at the same time, and also aggressive action by the insurance industry. That she championed health care reform is probably one of best things on HRC's resume, imho. If her choices for posts were shot down, that has more to do with hyper-partisanship in washington than anything else. They might have turned out to be lousy candidates or not, but the withdrawal of candidates in bill's presidency mostly had to do with partisan cheap shots and dirt-digging than anything else. Reno was likely described as a mistake by Clinton because she appointed Starr as an independent prosecutor. Reno's main flaw was that she was trying to be non-partisan in a hyper-partisan environment. The article doesn't reference Benghazi, but that's another unfair attack that's been made on her. No evidence that she was to blame for it. I also wouldn't say that she is all bad. I would say that she is corrupt, on the take, power hungry, etc.
Oddly enough, they may not be an alone in this polled assessment. Or rather, they aren't alone in that assessment. Reuters has a recent poll putting them at Clinton 48% - Sanders 45%! Granted, that poll was only 500-something people, but still... The trend lines in the Reuters graph are interesting. (Linky poo)
Oh my... that's quite a list of stuff! If I didn't have to go get my kid to sleep, I'd be tempted to do some deep dive research. Not to say that I won't some other time...
