June 8, 2016

What does Bernie Sanders really want? What he said he wants. Read his speeches. Go to his website

And check his consistent record in Congress going back 25 years if you really don't know.

If anyone on DU doesn't know where Bernie stands on the issues they either haven't been paying attention or they are just using that political line to slam Bernie and his supporters even more! That sure encourages unity against Trump!

June 8, 2016

How California was stolen from Sanders. Massive voter suppression in California documented.

1. The first punch to reduce the turnout of Bernie supporters was the media declaring Clinton the winner of the nomination before a single vote was cast on Tuesday. Why vote for Bernie if Clinton has captured the nomination? That media claim obviously hurt the voter turnout for Sanders in all the Tuesday primary states.

2. The second and more deadly punch against voters is documented in detail by Greg Palast at:

How California is being stolen
from Sanders right now
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Special bulletin from Greg Palast


http://www.gregpalast.com/california-stolen-sanders-right-nowspecial-bulletin-greg-palast/#more-12053

Gregory Allyn "Greg" Palast is a New York Times-bestselling author and a freelance journalist for the BBC as well as the British newspaper The Guardian. His work frequently focuses on corporate malfeasance but has also been known to work with labor unions and consumer advocacy groups.

Notably, he has claimed to have uncovered evidence that Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and Florida Elections Unit Chief Clay Roberts, along with the ChoicePoint corporation, rigged the ballots during the US Presidential Election of 2000 and again in 2004 when, he argued, the problems and machinations from 2000 continued, and that challenger John Kerry actually would have won if not for disproportional "spoilage" of Democratic votes.

June 7, 2016

Defiant Sanders camp: It ain’t over - Blasts out mobilization e-mail urging backers to vote

POLITICO

Defiant Sanders camp: It ain’t over
AP call 'was one of the most appalling things I’ve seen in a long time,' said a top Sanders adviser.
By Gabriel Debenedetti
June 7, 2016


“It was one of the most appalling things I’ve seen in a long time,” senior campaign adviser Mark Longabaugh said of the AP call, noting that the organization had taken weeks to count Sanders’ delegates from Washington state earlier this year, a saga that roiled the Sanders team, but somehow managed to chase down enough undeclared superdelegates to declare Clinton the primary winner on the eve of the campaign’s last big primary day. “Yet here they are haranguing and badgering super delegates before the final votes were cast. On top of the fact that they’re awarding delegates in Puerto Rico when the counting isn’t even finished in Puerto Rico."

"It's scandalous. It's absolutely scandalous and it really feeds into what Sanders supporters believe, and quite frankly probably some people on the right who are sick and tired of the establishment that feeds right into it, that this whole thing was rigged right from the beginning," said prominent Sanders surrogate Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator. "The nominee for Democrats is not called. She does not have the absolute number. The number is set up by the Democratic party. She does not have that number and will not have that number without superdelegates and because superdelegates can not vote until the Wednesday of the convention neither her nor the senator will have it. And what it does is it gets into the heads of people who are yet to vote."

"Let those people vote and decide before the media tells them that the race is over," Jeff Weaver told CNN Tuesday. "What's the point of suppressing voter turnout in six states across the country to have a quick news hit that could easily have been done tonight?"

"They are suppressing the vote in the most vile, vicious way I've seen establishment media do, and the fact that the Clinton campaign is giddy about it because [sic] what they should be doing is be out there saying, 'don't do that, don't call this race. There's still other states that have yet to vote.' Be true to what they have been saying on TV which is she's competing for every last vote," said Turner. "It's obvious that that's not the truth."

Sanders’ camp blasted out a mobilization email at 10:45 P.M. Pacific time urging backers to stick to the plan.

“Tuesday marks the largest set of primaries and caucuses in the Democratic nomination process with six states voting for president and 694 delegates up for grabs. Pundits and the political press want to call this race before every last person votes,” wrote campaign manager Jeff Weaver. “That threatens to suppress voter turnout in New Jersey, California, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and New Mexico. But we’re not going to let that happen."


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-not-over-223996#ixzz4AvdHKmBi
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

June 7, 2016

Connecticut Poll June 7: Sanders Crushes Trump Clinton 45% Trump 38% Sanders 54% Trump 35%

Tuesday, June 7

Connecticut: Trump vs. Clinton Quinnipiac Clinton 45, Trump 38 Clinton +7

Connecticut: Trump vs. Sanders Quinnipiac Sanders 54, Trump 35 Sanders +19

Connecticut: Trump vs. Clinton vs. Johnson vs. Stein Quinnipiac Clinton 41, Trump 36, Johnson 6, Stein 3 Clinton +5

June 7, 2016

‘Enormous Optimism’ for America’s Future, Sanders Tells 10,000 Supporters

Press Release

‘Enormous Optimism’ for America’s Future, Sanders Says
June 6, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO – Capping his California campaign with an upbeat message, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday surveyed 10,500 cheering supporters under a fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge and told them they are his inspiration for a better America.

“As I look out and see so many people who love this nation but know that we can be so much more it gives me enormous optimism about our future,” Sanders said.

The rally here at Crissy Field was the last in a weeks-long campaign march up and down California. Since mid-May, more than 227,000 supporters turned out at 39 rallies from San Diego to Sacramento and from Chico to Cloverdale.

image6 image5 image4

As Democrats in the nation’s biggest state head to the polls, Sanders is in a tight contest with Hillary Clinton. A campaign that began more than one year ago with Sanders 60 points behind has now scored victories in 20 states and he led Clinton in California in the last Los Angeles Times poll.

“And tomorrow, in the most important primary in the entire Democratic nominating process, we’re going to win here in California,” the senator said. “And If working people and young people come out in big numbers and demand a government that represents all of us, not the 1 percent, we’re going to win big.”

June 7, 2016

AP claims secret superdelegates who wish to remain anonymous said privately they support Clinton!!!!

Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Super-Delegates Declare Winner Through Media
by Glenn Greenwald
June 7, 2016

Last night, Associated Press – on a day when nobody voted – surprised everyone by abruptly declaring the Democratic Party primary over and Hillary Clinton the victor. The decree, issued the night before the California primary in which polls show Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a very close race, was based on the media organization’s survey of “super-delegates”: the Democratic Party’s 720 insiders, corporate donors and officials whose votes for the presidential nominee count the same as the actually elected delegates. AP claims that super-delegates who had not previously announced their intentions privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive super-delegates who said this.

Although the Sanders campaign rejected the validity of AP’s declaration – on the ground that the super-delegates do not vote until the convention and he intends to try to persuade them to vote for him – most major media outlets followed the projection and declared Clinton the winner.

This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary. The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identity the media organization – incredibly – conceals. The decisive edifice of super-delegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes. But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it’s only fitting that their nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward and undemocratic sputter.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/06/07/perfect-end-democratic-primary-anonymous-super-delegates-declare-winner-through

June 7, 2016

Clinton won't have enough delegates to win nominaton before the Democratic convention. Live With It!

That's just a fact of life and Democratic Party nomination rules and procedures.

However, people can live in denial with blinders on pretending that Hillary Clinton has been nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for President even without enough pledged delegates and before a single vote has been cast for her by convention delegates.

People can also pretend that Hillary Clinton has been elected the President of the United States and defeated Donald Trump before a single vote has been cast in the General Election.

But, I prefer to be a fact based realist, not living in the fantasy world of fawning Hillary supporters.

June 7, 2016

Why Bernie Sanders Is the Best Candidate for Senior Citizens by Dick Van Dyke

Why Bernie Sanders Is the Best Candidate for Senior Citizens
by Dick Van Dyke
June 1, 2016


In America there's always been a tension — a delicate balance — between capitalism and democracy, and when the pendulum swings one way or the other too far, things get sticky. During the '50s and '60s, we were pretty much all in it together as citizens: We got the Civil Rights Act passed; there weren't economic crashes, because regulations were in place; and almost any American who was willing to work could earn a decent living. But in recent years, things have gone too far in the other direction — we're practically an oligarchy now — and we as a society urgently need to stop worrying so much about big banks and big businesses and start worrying more about people.

That's why I'm supporting Bernie Sanders for president.

Bernie, whom I went to Reno to campaign for ahead of the Nevada caucuses and introduced at a rally in Santa Monica on May 23, gets called all sorts of names. "Socialist" is supposedly a bad one, but he isn't any more socialist than the New Deal that enabled America to emerge from the Great Depression and become the world's greatest superpower. The good news is that millennials aren't particularly worried about labels — they're focused on ideas, such as everyone paying their fair share in taxes, and that's why Bernie is doing so well with them. But older people often get frightened by labels, and I'm here to tell them they shouldn't. (I'm 90 years old, and I like to give young politicians like Bernie a hand up!) They're just words.

Some people say Bernie's platform is unachievable in a divided government — that universal healthcare and free college are things that President Obama would have seen through if he could have, but he could not. Bernie, however, is actually very realistic: He acknowledges that he cannot achieve these things without the support of a movement behind him — a "revolution" — that compels Congress to support these sorts of changes. And he has found tremendous support in response to that call to action. Inevitably, any of the candidates' major initiatives would be watered down by Congress — which is why it's all the more important to support the guy who's swinging for the fences.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-bernie-sanders-is-best-898479

June 7, 2016

"For the Clintons, politics is a family business, which is about accumulating wealth and power"

SALON
The Clintons’ arrogance might be their undoing: Hillary has a serious image problem — and blood-thirsty Republicans aren’t to blame
For the Clintons, politics is a family business, which on its face is about accumulating wealth and gaining power
by Conor Lynch
June 3, 2016

Donald Trump is not a man who needs any kind of assistance when it comes to coining insulting epithets or finding effective lines of attack on his political opponents. He has a vulgar, shameless, and sophomoric style that seems better suited for professional wrestling than presidential politics, and resembles a troll who gets off on provoking people, all to satisfy his desperate craving for attention. This unorthodox and brazen approach is unpredictable, and it could prove to be very potent against a conventional politician like Hillary Clinton, who has plenty of political and personal baggage for Trump to work with (which — it should be noted — her current opponent has refused to exploit).

Once you dig through the right-wing garbage heap — e.g. Vince Foster, Whitewater, Benghazi — there is still ample reason to distrust Hillary Clinton. On a purely political level, it’s hard to take anything Clinton says during a campaign as genuine; she has altered her positions time and again for political benefit, and there is no reason to think this will change. For most Bernie Sanders supporters, this seems to be the major turnoff. Compared to Sanders, who has remained committed to progressive principles throughout his career, Clinton is a political chameleon.

But even if you ignore the political opportunism and inconsistency, there are very real ethical concerns that must be considered. And it goes way beyond Clinton getting big contributions from Wall Street executives or billionaires to fund her campaigns (after all, she is not unique in this respect: most D.C. politicians are equally dependent on wealthy donors in the current system).

For the Clintons, politics is a family business, and it seems to be as much about accumulating wealth as it is garnering power. Hillary has often questioned why she has received so much flak for something like paid speeches — which many other former public officials give as well (read: former public officials) — but there is quite simply no power couple even remotely comparable to the Clintons and the political/business/philanthropic apparatus that they have created over the past twenty years. And if the Clinton’s were Republicans, there is no doubt that partisan Democrats would be more than a little suspicious.

A large share of Bill Clinton’s post-presidency speaking gigs were for special interests that benefited greatly from his administrations policies (e.g. Wall Street and deregulation), or special interests that stood to benefit from Hillary’s current or future political power. Consider one disquieting fact: out of the 13 speeches that Bill Clinton has been paid over $500,000 for during his speaking career, eleven of them came a decade after he left office, while Hillary was secretary of state — and all of these were sponsored by foreign companies, NGO’s, or governments. Hillary has obviously earned big paydays for speeches as well, once again from interests who stand to benefit from being on the good side of a future president, like Goldman Sachs. Finally, the Clinton Foundation itself has received millions in donations from individuals, corporations, and governments that have had something to gain — whether Canada’s mining billionaire Frank Giustra or the oil corporation Chevron or the autocratic regime of Saudi Arabia, which donated some 10 million to the Foundation and then saw a boost in arms sales approved by Clinton’s State Department.

On Friday, after taking well-deserved heat for bringing up the Vince Foster conspiracy theory (which is probably the craziest of them all), Trump said that he may just stick to some of Bernie Sanders’ criticisms of Clinton, because the media says his own are “not nice” (of course, it’s not that his talking points are mean, it’s that they’re batshit crazy). “He’s given me a lot of my best lines. I mean, he has given me such great lines on her,” said the billionaire on Sanders. If this is Donald’s strategy — to stick to the substantive criticisms and refrain from conspiracy theories and personal attacks — team Clinton should be worried.

Of course, Clintonites will undoubtedly blame Sanders for putting things into Donald’s head if he continues to climb in the polls and starts asking Clinton to release her Goldman Sachs speeches; but the only people who deserve blame are Hillary and Bill. As Sanders recently said in an interview with The Young Turk’s Cenk Uygur: “Many of my supporters think I have not been hard enough on [Clinton]…And believe me, Trump will be coming from a very different direction. They have 50 people doing opposition research, and everybody knows what’s out there. So to say that we have been too hard — scorched earth — is totally absurd.”


Read the full article at:
http://www.salon.com/2016/06/03/the_clintons_arrogance_might_be_their_undoing_hillary_has_a_serious_image_problem_and_blood_thirsty_republicans_arent_to_blame/

June 7, 2016

Sanders condemns media "rush to judgement" for counting the votes of superdelegates before they vote

Press Release

Sanders Campaign Statement
June 6, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ spokesman, Michael Briggs, on Monday issued the following statement:

“It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer.

“Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination. She will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 and who can change their minds between now and then. They include more than 400 superdelegates who endorsed Secretary Clinton 10 months before the first caucuses and primaries and long before any other candidate was in the race.

“Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”