merrily
merrily's JournalWhat happened to Beam Me Up Scottie?
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Love to members of DU's LGBTQ community and their supporters
I hope that the headline of this posts covers all DUers.
We're sending love, that's all.
Exactly how self-defeating have we become?
During a Democratic Presidential primary, we will endlessly debate policies, personalities, etc. as though our very lives and those of our families depend on it--and they well may.
However, as soon as it at least starts looks like we may have a Democratic Presidential nominee, we pivot to "But don't expect anything much good to come after Inauguration Day because Congress."
We'll even accept and defend a Democratic President's nominating a Republican to the Supreme Court. Apparently, we draw the line only at a Republican President nominating a Republican to the Supreme Court.
But...why can we expect nothing much from Congress? Because Congress is not responsive to the will of voters, at least not sufficiently. Why isn't Congress sufficiently responsive to the will of the voters? Most humans seem to enjoy feathering their own nests and those of their relatives, friends and lovers; and politicians seem to love being elected and re-elected. Being elected and re-elected seems to require campaign donations from big business and the very wealthy as much or more than it requires representing more ordinary constituents. A feathered nest during post-public career often involves a lobbying job, sometimes disguised as a law firm job. So, legislators are loathe to annoy their potential future employers, aka big business and various business interest groups.
So, what do the majority of Americans do? We do not insist upon laws that will at least seek to cut into this undesirable pattern. We reject the candidate who talks AND WALKS accepting donations only from ordinary individuals. We condemn primary challenges and defend to the death every law, policy and practice that helps keep incumbents entrenched, thereby insulating them as much as we possibly can from a need to be responsive to voters. We even accept rigged voting machines and other shenanigans, especially if our candidate wins. If shenanigans cause our candidate to lose, we may grouse, but, in the end, we do nothing--at least nothing that requires us to leave our computers. Perhaps, we may send yet another oh, so very effective email or "sign" yet another one of those oh, so very effective internet petitions.
My conclusion: With everything in us, we want absolutely nothing to improve--unless, of course, our fearless leaders tell us something must improve--which they seem to do most when the opposite party is in the majority. When they stop rabble-rousing about that topic, so do we. Oh, and though we call them the "public airwaves," we allow them to be in private, plutocrat hands that only help perpetuate all of the foregoing.
For anyone who assumes this post is about 2016 or Senator Sanders and only about 2016 and Senator Sanders, you are mistaken: Not only do I intend to be alive in 2018 and well beyond, but I assume and hope that our children and other descendants will be alive much longer, environment willing, and the oceans don't rise (too much more).
Interested? Have some time? Links to sources about election fraud
I have posted most of this block of links in replies in GD: P, but I may as well post them here, too
The first link is to a post about a lawsuit filed June 6 that supposedly proves election fraud in more than one state. The others are about a California lawsuit and allegations of massive fraud in Puerto Rico, just in time for an AP declaration that Hillary was the nominee the day before the California primary It's a lot and there is a two hour video at one of the links. Still, if you are interested and have time, here are the links.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280210073
https://kobi5.com/news/local-news/possible-voter-fraud-shadows-california-primary-28826/
http://www.gregpalast.com/placebo-ballots-stealing-california-bernie-using-old-gop-vote-snatching-trick/
https://twitter.com/BernieVolunteer/status/733147225040113664
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141480818
http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/bernie-sanders-california-primary-lawsuit-registration
And studies show that voters tend to prefer to vote for the winning candidate. They feel it makes them seem right and smart. So, the timing of the AP announcement, on the heels of allegations of massive fraud in the Puerto Rico primary,* probably did damage Sanders, despite all the red herrings to the contrary.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/order-declare-hillary-victory-today-dnc-generates-puerto-rico-fraud-top-them-all
http://caucus99percent.com/content/what-happened-puerto-rico-democratic-primary-volunteer%E2%80%99s-open-letter
Will of who now?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280210073https://kobi5.com/news/local-news/possible-voter-fraud-shadows-california-primary-28826/
http://www.gregpalast.com/placebo-ballots-stealing-california-bernie-using-old-gop-vote-snatching-trick/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141480818
http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/bernie-sanders-california-primary-lawsuit-registration
And studies show that voters tend to prefer to vote for the winning candidate. They feel it makes them seem right and smart. So, the timing of the AP announcement, on the heels of allegations of massive fraud in the Puerto Rico primary,* probably did damage Sanders, despite all the red herrings to the contrary.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/order-declare-hillary-victory-today-dnc-generates-puerto-rico-fraud-top-them-all
http://caucus99percent.com/content/what-happened-puerto-rico-democratic-primary-volunteer%E2%80%99s-open-letter
Your post is the campaign meme story of Sanders, not the reality.
Democrats praised him to the skies until he tried to interfere with the DNC coronation and Republicans said they liked working with him. He worked across the aisle with more success than Hillary. The Brookings Institute even made the way he and McCain worked on their veterans' bill a case study in working across the aisle.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/128018753
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/bernie-sanders-is-a-loud-stubborn-socialist-republicans-like-him-anyway/450597/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/128027637
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251803489
trustvote.org reports filing, on June 6, a RICO lawsuit over election fraud
trustvote.org reports that it filed a lawsuit over election fraud. New media are among the defendants. I have been googling, but have not yet found the complaint. I watched most of the shorter video below. The organization claims Bernie won, saying Hillary Clinton was used to make sure Bernie was not the nominee (implied: Hillary was unaware of the fraud.)
The website: http://trustvote.org/
I don't mean to discourage anyone, but RICO civil lawsuits get dismissed a lot. I believe, but am not certain, that one by this group over the 2004 Presidential was filed and dismissed. One against the Clintons (didn't check what the suit was about ) was filed and dismissed last year. Some info on RICO lawsuit, if you're interested https://tollefsenlaw.com/civil-actions-under-rico/
Long video from the website-neighborhood of two hours
shorter, but not very enlightening video
Original DU thread about this http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280210008
Other videos are at trustvote.org
The Press Release of trustvote.org (for dissemination--no copyright issue)
Bob Fitrakis, Cliff Arnebeck and Lori Grace
7:30-10:00 pm, Wednesday May 25, and Friday May 27, 2016, (video above is of Friday’s presentation)
Sunrise Center, 645 Tamalpais, Corte Madera, CA
A Summary of the Evening of May 27th: This evening covered the issues we are all facing as voters in the 2016 election. Lori Grace, on behalf of the Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity (www.trustvote.org), presented Bob Fitrakis, PhD, JD, and Cliff Arnebeck, JD, two election lawyers she has worked with since 2004. They talked about past challenges to election integrity in our presidential elections, the challenges we face in the current presidential election, and the opportunities we have as voters to create a more honest election.
They showed videos from past presidential elections that point to the problems from those years and discussed what was done about those problems at that time. Then they discussed what problems exist for the upcoming election and what can be done to address them. Overall, our best protection to have a trustworthy election is to be an informed public that will demand more public oversight of elections and exit polling and to have the patience and persistence to deal with a system that currently does not give us the reliability and transparency we need.
A Look at the Upcoming 2016 Election: 2016 is, of course, a presidential election year and problems with voting in the primary elections have already been showing up. Not a good sign for the general election!
In watching the video above, you will learn Learn why the integrity of this November’s election may be of serious concern. Here in the United States, all of our votes are counted by private corporations with proprietary software which they do not want people to examine if there is a problem with the election. These problems could include unwarranted purging of voters, apparent flipping of votes, disappearing of a candidate(s) while voting and disappearing of votes. An examination of Scytl/SOE and ES&S, two vote-counting companies, shows many negative reviews regarding their management of elections. (You can read numerous such reviews by doing a web search for the company name and “reviews.”) In addition, some people may have concerns that companies like Scytl/SOE and ES&S which managed the votes in Kentucky, New York and Arizona, have directors who are also on the boards of other companies involved in wire-tapping, the defense industry and military interrogations. Additional concerns are that some American votes may actually be counted in Toronto, Canada and in Barcelona, Spain.
Still another hurdle also exists when election results appear to be inaccurate and that is at least in California, the election must be certified before ballots can be inspected. That takes in California thirty days so by the time, the apparent winner has already proclaimed and celebrated his or her victory- a difficult situation to reverse or re-examine.
With more states’ primary elections coming up on June 7th, including one in California, which is a potentially decisive state for the two Democratic candidates, The Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity is concerned that The Media Consortium has cancelled all remaining exit polls for the remaining primaries. Thus, the Institute, a division of Sunrise Center,a nonprofit registered in California, is calling for an exit poll to be held on election day. All raw data will be released immediately for inspection. If an exit poll is funded by a nonprofit, contributions to the exit poll are tax-deductible. Results will give people true knowledge about whether questionable results have occurred in the election. Then audits would be much easier to organize. Happily, California is mostly a paper ballot state. Additionally, a new kind of audit is being launched by Democracy Counts. This will occur on Election Day as well.
Concern has been expressed that the exit polls of the Democratic Primaries for this year, when compared to electronic voting machine totals, seem to show a pattern that might suggest that the electronic vote totals in about ten states may have been shifted from apparently votes from Sanders to Clinton.. In contrast to other nations, exit polls used currently by the Federal Government to assess election fraud in other countries are adjusted continuously on election day to match electronic voting machine totals, rather than to determine whether the electronic vote is accurate. Edison Research which has done all the prior exit polls in this primary has refused to release the raw data, as it has routinely refused since 2004. A lawsuit is being submitted in Ohio about the refusal of both the Media Consortium and Edison Research to release the raw data which would show much more accurately who people really voted for.
Judging by the OP's, the Party Unity Plan (aka PUP) of DUers is not brilliant.
What's a Bernie supporter to do?
Bernie Sanders Politics
Leading in greater social Justice and greater economic justice
More democracy-no super delegates, time off from work to vote, etc.
People participating in the social contract together for the greater good
War as a last resort
Politicians working for voters as a whole, not big donors and lobbyists
OASDI
Free tuition for public institutions of learning beyond high school (as California once had, I believe)
Greater fairness in the tax system
Sea changes in U.S. politics, thanks to Bernie Sanders and his supporters http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280109865
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