Response to the Daily Kos.

[JDPriestly]

The Daily Kos has announced a March 15 date as the end of campaigning for Bernie against Hillary. I have two comments to Daily Kos's edict:

1) California doesn't vote until June 7. Have the courtesy to let those of us who have to wait until that date to vote have a meaningful say in this primary. To shut of discussion before everyone in the country has had a chance to vote is undemocratic and makes your website look dictatorial and cheap. It's not our fault that the politicians make us wait until June 7.

2) Bernie's campaign is not just about winning the White House. It is about starting a gentle, political revolution to awaken voters to act to change the political status quo and especially to change the logjam in Congress. Those of us who are rallying to Bernie's campaign expect to continue to join him in that revolution even if Hillary is the candidate for the Democratic Party in 2016 (and that is not sure until the last state primary has been held).

To sum up, don't disenfranchise those of us in late primary states, and don't fool yourself into thinking that the Berniebros (I am a 72-year-old woman) are going to just go gently into the night if Hillary wins the nomination. We are in this reformation or what Bernie calls a revolution until we achieve our goals. We are not going away.

So, as Hillary says, "Stop it." Don't tell us what we can and cannot say. Hillary is a lousy candidate no matter how many fools vote for her. Bernie is a great candidate, and I know because I have seen a lot of candidates.

Also, you never know what will happen in life. (Also something I have learned over the course of my long life.) Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I wish everyone well, but don't knock out a back-up candidate until we have won in November.

I don't actually post on Daily Kos. If anyone wants to repost my post there, thanks. Please do.

Feel the Bern! Way past November.

[tularetom]

1. Good response!

I was going to post something a bit less elegant at Kos but I forgot my user name. And then I realized I haven't even been there for at least two years (my auto fill no longer remembers the URL).

So I doubt that their new policy will inconvenience me a great deal.

[monicaangela]

27. LOL!!!

[chervilant]

2. Like Daily Kos is

so big and bad.

Markos seems to have a bit of the ol' P&C problem. I find his website sophomoric--a big yawn fest.

[roguevalley]

12. I wasn't aware that Kos was King. Off with our heads! What a laugh fest his 'proclamations' are

I don't post there. He can rule his own domain and leave me the hell alone. I'm done with people telling me when I can think and how.

[Sherman A1]

21. Precisely

I agree with the call for civility, however I refuse to be dictated to by the author or anyone else. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, however they are just opinions and nothing more.

I for one will not visit or read anything from DailyKos going forward. They are of no use to me.

[Perogie]

3. Why should we give up trying to change this county because Daily Kos has no backbone to fight for it

This cry for us to join Hillary's ranks is disgusting. Why should I vote for her? She was against all the things I am for.

[Betty Karlson]

17. These shenanigans make me disenlcined to ever vote for her - and even

make me doubt the wisdom of voting for anyone who has endorsed her.

[Merryland]

29. I agree totally

and also about voting for her supporters.

[Dont call me Shirley]

43. Perogies are so yummy! Bernie is a good perogie.

[Perogie]

45. Thanks for the laugh

My favorite is Potato & Cheese

[Dont call me Shirley]

46. Mine too.

[bernbabe]

4. I have to say

I am very impressed with the women here (I am a man), especially the older women who probably have been waiting a long time for a female president, which is overdue, but still will vote for who they feel is the best candidate.

[Rebkeh]

6. I look at it this way

If the first woman is the wrong woman, that hurts feminism more than anything.

I want a woman president but not if I have to settle.

[JDPriestly]

8. Yes. Hillary is too much like Maggie Thatcher. Maggie was terrible for the UK.

[PFunk1]

34. Right on all counts.

At the risks of being flamed lets take Obama for example. What folks wanted was an FDR-type, what we got was basically a corporate democrat who's actions will make anyone think twice about electing a black man again as pres-even if they actually is an FDR type. For that reason alone I've rather wait for the right woman to come along than settle upon the wrong one.

[Peace Patriot]

18. That's me! 70 yrs a woman! Send Clinton back to Arkansas...

...oh, wait, back to 5th Avenue...oh, wait, how bout the Cayman Islands? They like her in India and Mexico, too, where she's trolling for money and where all our jobs went to.

She can't go to Honduras, though, where she destroyed Honduran democracy and where rightwing death squads are encouraged to rape and assassinate WOMEN ACTIVISTS, directly because of who Hillary Clinton put in charge of that country!

I think there are a number of other countries where she would not be welcome because she started disastrous civil wars there with women are getting raped and murdered and bombed and displaced every day.

Does Henry Kissinger have some nice little island she can retreat to when this country implodes? Oh, wait, islands may not do too well with global warming.

Maybe David Brock has some ideas? Or Robert Kagan (of the Project For a New American Century)? (yup) She's going THAT way. And all her women supporters who think she's a feminist are in for a very, very shattering disillusionment.

I haven't wasted my 70 years on this earth. I've learned a thing or two. WAKE UP, SISTERS!

I hoped to see a woman in the White House before I die. That may not be in the cards. BUT I DON'T CARE. It will happen--and when it does, I want it to be a woman we can be proud of for her honesty, integrity and humanity.

I'm with Bernie Sanders all the way to the convention, all the way to the General Election and all the way to the White House, and, by Goddess, I hope to be alive and kicking for THAT Presidential administration!

[LiberalArkie]

26. We really do not want them here. They cause way too much traffic trouble. They are

more suited to the NYC.

[Ivan Kaputski]

30. ^ this ^

[arikara]

35. She could go to Haiti

Didn't Clinton Foundation build a luxury hotel in Haiti?

But those poor people don't deserve her either.

[kas125]

19. I'm 62 and I've waited my whole life to vote FOR someone instead of

voting against someone worse. As much as I'd love to have a woman president, or actually, women running the entire world since men have screwed it up so badly, it has to be the right woman. And so far, that right woman isn't in the running. I am so looking forward to voting for Bernie, someone I've admired and wished was representing me in DC for years. I don't get to vote in the primary until May and I am sickened by people who want to take that away from me.

[Rebkeh]

5. I just glanced at their recommended diaries

It appears many share your sentiment. I think I read that they are are much like DU in that most of the members are Bernie supporters but the admin are not.

Same story with unions and other liberal/progressive groups. Even msnbc stopped listening to their base. Just like the parties, both of them.

It's a pattern - and is undemocratic.

[Sherman A1]

22. Well Said

The organizations are certainly avoiding the opinions of their memberships and viewers. Seems to me the fix is in.....

[deepestblue]

7. Bernie

Bernie Sanders will be the 45th Prez. Just like with Barack in 2008, it will take some time and electoral results for this to sink in with many. Let's let the campaign play out.

As to the first woman President, Tulsi 2024.

[RobertEarl]

9. Very Well said, JD

I think KOS is making a big mistake. Partly because it isn't along the lines of free speech and partly, kinda you said, "It ain't over until it's over".

I get the frustration of the owner in that they have a preferred candidate, and it's got to be tough to read all the non-positive response to the candidacy of the one they favor.

But gosh, there must be something to the feelings and desires of all the members, right? Like here on DU 80% or more are for Bernie.

I know if I was an admin and was in that position, I'd have to really constrain myself to keep the banning finger in check.

I can see making an attempt to constrain some of the more insidious comments --- it can get nasty -- but then both sides do it, so one has to have the wisdom of Solomon, or just say, heck, let it ride, let the members decide.

Come the convention it will all be settled and whoever is still standing we'll all get behind or be gone, and that's fair. Seems fair is pretty wise and works best for everyone.

[SciDude]

10. I was a long time Daily Kos member and I quit 6 months ago after it seemed quite

obvious to me that the site administration was in the bag for Clinton and undermining Bernie. There was a lot of cognitive dissonance resonating over there and it sounds as though it has reached the breaking point and the whole thing is about to shatter.

So glad I left and was saved watching it get to this point...

[Pauldg47]

15. I've been thinking of quitting them too! I don't read their spew any more.

[Docreed2003]

28. Kos has been outspoken for Hillary from the outset

Back before the Netroots controversy, Kos was putting out diaries that claimed that Bernie wouldn't get more than 20% of the vote and pushed the idea that Bernie had problems with POC, the first time I heard that meme. He's been a shill for HRC since she announced and anytime he either prints an editorial piece or appears on XM/cable he comes across as a sanctimonious asshole. I spent a long time on DKos as a lurker going back to 08 before joining. This year I've spent less and less time there

[a2liberal]

11. The March 15th date is telling

Kos himself has always been for Hillary (this time around). So he conveniently picks the date after which most of the more Bernie-friendly states are voting, and tries to make it sound like he's being reasonable.

I went ahead and unsubscribed from their e-mails, not interested in supporting such disingenuous behavior.

[dchill]

13. Iron fists have never been popular...

With real democrats.

[silvershadow]

14. I am sick of being disenfranchised. It is bad enough in a normal year.

We vote here in May, which is quite late.

These staggered primaries are nothing more than disenfranchisement. I am calling for a nationwide same-day primary, going forward, and I call on others to do the same.

[MisterP]

25. the late-state factor is partiuclarly big: Clinton relies on low-turnout states

where the Dems have been out of office since the Reagan years (especially when the national party gave up on pushing any populists in the South); she relies on fewer people having heard of any challenger, on people being too broke to donate, too busy looking good for their third job to stand in the caucus line

brazenly declaring the election over one-third of the way through is exactly the entitled shit they pull: there are no "late states" for the Sanders campaign, there are no "Red States" (the Upper Midwest is a strong point for him), there are no "taker states" since he outlines exactly how they rely on Washington and how Washington's an important part of their economy (just disguised by capitalist guilt and GOP demagoguery where it's not well far if YOU'RE the one getting it)

[SheilaT]

16. The campaign will NOT be over on March 15.

While I'm a Bernie supporter, and sincerely hope he gets the nomination, even if he loses it will NOT BE OVER on March 15th.

Got that?

For those of you who don't remember 2008, Hillary stayed in until the bitter end. And just in case you don't remember, I'll tell you about the PUMAs. Party Unity My Ass. Those were the die hard Hillary supporters who didn't give a flying fuck about the party, who hung in there to the very last end, who didn't care at all that their intransigence might lead to a Republican victory. I have not forgotten them. And I will NOT be told that Bernie has lost when only a tiny percentage of voters have spoken.

[Peace Patriot]

20. HELL NO! Daily Kos abandoned us on the 2004 Stolen Election fight!

I will never forget it. That's how I found DU. And I will never forgive it!

What Markos Moulitsas and his ilk don't understand is that we are fighting for the very soul of our country now. We've lost EVERYTHING. We've lost the New Deal. We've lost "the Commons." We've lost any sense of decent public life. We've suffered a real, true JUNTA that slaughtered a hundred thousand innocent people in Iraq, destroyed that country, besmirched our name throughout the world, engaged in torture for fun and profit, made torture okay, ripped up the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations Charter and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and sent thousands of our young people to their deaths as "cannon fodder" for their Corporate Resource Wars and World Domination.

We've lost the Voting Rights Act. We've lost all right to privacy with the Patriot Act. We've lost SECULARISM in our government and in our public discourse--the very foundation of our democracy!

Now the police feel free to shoot black citizens dead for standing in the street!

Now police forces of various kinds feel free to raid our homes, confiscate our property and destroy our lives for a handful of marijuana!

We've lost our integrity as citizens.

We've even lost the right to SEE HOW OUR VOTES ARE COUNTED! We've lost it to electronic vote counting with 'TRADE SECRET' code, all over this country. The very counting of our votes has been PRIVATIZED!

We've lost our very sovereignty as a people--to the WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, et al, and now TPP--not just millions of jobs--we've lost the right to regulate big business, to demand good wages, benefits and working conditions, to protect the planet's environment, to keep our food safe and improve its quality, to ban pollutants using the "cautionary" principle or any principle, to control toxic imports or imports made with slave labor...

When I say we've lost "everything," I am not exaggerating.

And we've lost our Democratic Party. Its leaders are bought-and-paid-for COWARDS who let all of the above and more happen!

ONE MAN has stood out as these things went down. ONE MAN is saying NO to Corporate Rule, and has been saying it for decades!

That man is Bernie Sanders!

He has energized the people of this country for one last fight for our democracy! It's up to us to stand with him and to become American citizens again!

It's going to be a long and difficult fight. It's not likely to achieve victory in my lifetime, even if we can overcome the mountainous obstacles put in our way and get ourselves a President who will fight for us.

But it starts here. Now. And nobody--NOBODY--calendarizes this fight. Nobody gets to say, "Stop! You're interfering with my career as a bought--and-paid-for Corporate Democrat!"

[haikugal]

31. Woo Hoo!! Beautiful! Together, the people, will never be defeated!!

[Blus4u]

32. One of the most compelling posts I have ever read on this site.

Thank you for this!

Peace

[SoapBox]

33. Righteous!

I can't specifically remember...but xxx years ago read a whole thing on him...hell, he sold his soul and/or sold all of us out.

That's when I thought, I'm never going to that fucking site again.

[JDPriestly]

36. Fantastic post! Please post it as an OP and start a new thread. Send me an e-mail on DU

so that I can kick and recommend it. Thanks.

[Peace Patriot]

40. The trouble is that I work (hard, tiring job) and have a lot of home responsibilities as well.

So I pop in here where I can and have my say. But I don't have continual chunks of time to mount an OP and monitor replies and reply to them if needed. And with these 'bots' roaming the site looking for "hit and run" opportunities, I worry that an unmonitored OP will quickly deteriorate into their snark and sneer and will get derailed into grade school playground fights.

But I do have some things to say, and I thank you for your suggestion--and will try to follow up on it. Can't do it immediately but in the next few weeks perhaps.

Thanks for your praise! I rely on you as one of the stalwart posters of the truth at DU. Do know that you are winning friends and influencing people big time. You are great! Many thanks to YOU!

[JDPriestly]

41. Thanks. I enjoy your posts. They are always readable and intelligent.

[DI Freighter Watcher]

42. Thanks

For taking the time to share your thoughts. I usually read and recommend, commenting only when I get riled or have to applaud brilliance. I may never go beyond that, maybe lazy, insecure or just too busy getting by.
Who said ...I would never join a club that would have me as a member.

[Enthusiast]

23. Kicked and recommended! Well done, JD!

[Mbrow]

24. K&R

[riderinthestorm]

37. I've been on DKos a lot in the past couple months and his statement is causing a riot!

I'll be interested if he walks it back. Pretty significant backlash

[Pharaoh]

38. Just like networks should not call a race till the polls are closed

It's unAmerican and undemocratic to try and sway a race while the polls are still open.

[leftcoastmountains]

39. Apparently KOS is like everybody else.

It has to do with the bucks. I won't read that website again.

[Dont call me Shirley]

44. I deleted kos from my email list a couple years ago.