RandySF
RandySF's JournalGrievance, Demands, and Tantrums; the Unhappy End of the Sanders Campaign
When Chuck Todd on Meet the Press makes plain that Bernie’s final argument is just not logical, and actually hypocritical, the Inner Bernie can’t hear it. The Inner Bernie doesn’t even see how ridiculous his argument is, depending on the Superdelegates to swing to him, even if Clinton has won more votes and pledged delegates in the primary season, just because they ought to now decide based on polls that Sanders might have an easier time defeating Trump.
The real danger in all of this is the poisonous idea that the Democratic primary process was rigged. These are the taunts of a child, not of a grown up who can actually see reality. But it fits with the theme of “revolution,” which instead of offering a viable set of issues and plans is simply a call for a national temper tantrum.
It’s dangerous to feed young voters such a steady diet of grievance and anger, to raise their hopes for victory long after that victory has gone out of reach. To make them believe that the only way Sanders could have lost is that the system must be rigged. To make them believe that it is easy to give everyone a free college education, that it is easy to give everybody the same kind of health care system that is used in Europe, if only the evil Establishment hadn’t rigged the system against Bernie.
And it is dangerous to continue to fan the flames of grievance by calling out good progressive Democrats like Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress to chair a committee, or Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut, who has waged a courageous battle against the gun lobby, as being somehow “too biased” to be fair at the Convention. That argument, taken to its logical conclusion, makes the entire Democratic National Convention just an exercise in “bias against Bernie.” It is the same childish view that led to violence by Sanders supporters at the Nevada State Democratic Party Convention. It remains telling that Bernie Sanders could not unconditionally condemn that violence, turning to arguments about the imaginary “rigged” system that somehow, in his mind, provoked death threats being sent to the head of the Nevada Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton and the dreaded “establishment” have been too kind to Senator Sanders and his crusade. They have pulled their punches against him all campaign season, which is why he can brag about having low negative ratings in the polls. They have given him concessions in the Convention that no previous loser ever claimed. They do not say in public what they know in private, trying not to antagonize Bernie and his supporters. But you can’t really reason with a child, and Senators Sanders has given his Inner Child, his Inner Bernie, the keys to his emotional car, while his wife and campaign staff cheer this on. At some point, there won’t be enough concessions to appease him, and the Democratic Party is just going to have to wait for the more sensible Sanders supporters to come back and be Democrats. So fasten your seatbelts. There’s nothing short of victory that will make Bernie happy now. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, but this too shall pass.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-bauer/grievance-demands-and-tan_b_10261262.html
Ali v Frazier - 'It was like death. Closest thing to dyin' that I know of'
Ali was in control in the early rounds, but Frazier refused to yield ground, coming on through the champion's punches, bullying him back to the ropes. Ali was impressed. In a clinch, he muttered to Frazier: "Joe, they told me you was all washed up." Frazier growled back: "They lied."
By the fourth round Ali's punches had lost zip. He was tiring. The heat, the bright lights, the muggy, oxygen-deprived atmosphere and Frazier's toughness were wearing him down. The exchanges proceeded with such brutal intensity that questions hung in the air. How much more could Frazier take? How much more did Ali have left? Frazier had trained to go 15 hard rounds if necessary. Ali had expected an early finish. But round six passed and Frazier was still there in front of him and, worse, now coming at him, unleashing damaging hooks to the body.
Ali was to say later: "Man, I hit him with punches that would bring down the walls of a city. Lordy, he's great! Joe Frazier is one hell of a man. If God ever calls me to a holy war, I want Joe Frazier fighting beside me."
Both men continued to batter each other with such relentless savagery that you began to fear for their lives, marvel at their courage, the extent of their will to win. In round 12 Ali regained the initiative, staggering Frazier again. In round 13, a jolting left hand sent Frazier's gumshield spinning into the crowd. He was spitting blood. His left eye was completely closed and his right eye was closing. He could no longer block or evade Ali's blows.
After the end of round 14, Futch stopped the fight. "I was thinking about Joe's family, how much they loved him," Futch told me shortly before his death three years ago. "People still ask me why I pulled Joe out when there were only three minutes left. My answer has never changed. I tell them that I'm not a timekeeper. I'm a handler of fighters."
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/boxing-ali-v-frazier-it-was-like-death-closest-thing-to-dyin-that-i-know-of-316051.html
Bernie Sanders’s Final Few Days of California Dreamin’
But if you’re talking pledged delegates only, 50 percent plus one is 2,026. You never see that number, and I guess I understand why—2,383 is the number, officially. But 2,026 is a majority of pledged delegates—you know, the ones you win by persuading voters to pull the lever with your name on it. I’ve been mystified as to why the Clinton people aren’t pushing more awareness of the 2,026 number. If the situation were reversed, we can be sure that Jeff Weaver would be all over cable denouncing the mere existence of 2,383, that strutting harlot of a number!
So it’s next Tuesday night in California. The state-by-state delegate scenario that I played out above has occurred. Clinton is at 1,939, needing just 87 delegates out of California to hit 2,026. Do you know how badly Sanders would have to beat her to limit her to 86 delegates? No, you don’t. But I do. He’d have to win by 82 to 18 percent. That would net Bernie 309 delegates out of California and would get him to 2,026, while she’d have 2,025.
That isn’t going to happen. What’s going to happen, even if Sanders wins the state by, say, three or four points, is that he will net about 20 delegates, but she will still have won around 225 or 230, meaning she will exceed 2,026 by about 150 delegates, and Sanders will be short of the magic number by about the same amount. And then there’ll be a little cherry placed on the sundae the following Tuesday when the District of Columbia votes and Clinton wins big and nets another 10 or so delegates.
So that’s the unfuzzy math. It has nothing at all to do with the superdelegates Sanders and Weaver have spent months traducing. It’s pledged delegates, earned in the voting booth (or at the caucus hall). Superdelegates will never, ever, ever undo such an outcome, and they never, ever, ever should. In a season when Sanders people have alleged a rigged system and sometimes outright theft, that would be the only actual case of theft in this season—for superdelegates to tell the voters sorry, you made the wrong choice when you chose your candidate, who is (incidentally) the first woman nominee in our party’s history.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/03/bernie-sanders-s-final-few-days-of-california-dreamin.html
Former Anchorage mayor files for primary run against Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Former Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan filed to face U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary moments before the candidate deadline Wednesday.
Sullivan, who faced a term limit when he left the top city office after six years last year, was a surprise candidate when he showed up at the state elections office about 10 minutes before the doors closed at 5 p.m, wearing jeans, a polo and blazer.
If he wins, Alaska would have the odd distinction of having two Dan Sullivans serving in the U.S. Senate. The other Dan Sullivan, also a Republican, beat Democrat Mark Begich in 2014. Begich was also a former Anchorage mayor.
Ex-Mayor Sullivan finished filling out his paperwork at the office counter while joking with reporters about lifting Sen. Dan Sullivan's old campaign signs.
http://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2016/06/01/former-anchorage-mayor-files-for-primary-run-against-lisa-murkowski/
Susan Sarandon: Hillary Clinton “more dangerous” than Donald Trump
Speaking with The Young Turks Politics Reporter Jordan Chariton in California, Sarandon made clear that she believed because of the lack of media scrutiny placed on Clinton’s record, she viewed Clinton as actually more dangerous than the blustery strong-man running on the Republican ticket.
“I believe in a way she is more dangerous,” Sarandon suggested without mentioning Trump’s name, after Chariton asked her why Clinton’s foreign policy went largely unchallenged during the Democratic primary.
http://www.salon.com/2016/06/03/susan_sarandon_hillary_clinton_more_dangerous_than_donald_trump/
Vox: Hillary Clinton just made her best case against Donald Trump
What makes this speech so strong — and so much better than the kind of weak attacks the Clinton camp has floated recently — is that Clinton has really put her finger on the reasons people around the country are worried about Trump.
It's true that Trump knows nothing about foreign affairs. It's true he has blithely proposed dangerous ideas, like conquering Iraq and stealing its oil. It's true he says bigoted things. It's true he is a volatile person, that he's demonstrated over and over again that he acts wildly based on petty grievances.
These are the things that make Trump qualitatively different from any past presidents, who at least had a kind of experience that made them into known and somewhat predictable quantities. They're why Trump has the highest unfavorable ratings of any major party candidate for the presidency, and why the Economist ranks a Trump presidency as one of its top 10 risks to the world this year.
Clinton wants to highlight this: to make the core of her message that Trump isn't a normal Republican, but rather someone who's the most dangerous presidential nominee in recent memory. It's a very strong choice.
http://www.vox.com/2016/6/2/11843114/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-speech-transcript-foreign-policy
Protesters attack Donald Trump supporters outside San Jose rally
There are more scuffles outside the San Jose venue where Trump was speaking earlier. With police continuing to stand back there have been reports now of several attacks on supporters of the Republican presidential candidate.
The video below from our reporter Nicky Woolf shows some of what that descent into disorder.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/jun/02/donald-trump-san-jose-rally-protesters-clash-supporters
‘Namor’ Has Returned To Marvel Studios According To Joe Quesada
On the latest installment of Kevin Smith’s Fat Man on Batman podcast, Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada revealed that the film rights for Namor are finally back at Marvel Studios.
When the hosts of the show, Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, asked Quesada directly regarding the current home of the Sub Mariner, he replied
“We do, he’s in the comics.”
But quickly Smith asked further:
“no, what studio. How come you guys aren’t diving into the water. Do the same people who have Iron Man have Sub Mariner?”
Quesada responded:
“Yes, as far as I know yes we do. Yeah, it’s not at Fox, it’s not at Sony.”
In the past Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had stated that the current status of the characters rights were indeed with Marvel, but that they were “slightly more complicated than that” to which he said that there were contracts still in place that prohibited them from using the character, but in seems that to the best of his knowledge, Joe Quesada seems to think Marvel now has them 100% without issue.
http://heroichollywood.com/namor-returned-marvel-studios-according-joe-quesada/
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit Area, MI
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Current location: San Francisco, CA
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