basselope
basselope's JournalDecent sized line in West LA.
I was dropping off my mail in ballot and was two pleasant surprises.
First, was a nice long line waiting to vote (about 15 people) and this is at a relevantly small polling station that covers mostly single family homes.
Second, 10:30AM as I put my mail in ballot in the box, I couldn't help but notice it was almost full, as I had to SHOVE it in.
Jeebus.. how much is Hillary spending in California?
The Morgan Freeman spot is on every 5 minutes.
For someone who thinks she has already won, she is certainly pour a TON of money in Los Angeles.
Clinton Supporter Attacks Sanders supporter at registration drive.
Completely sensationalized thread title.. but here is the actual underlying story.
My wife was doing voter registration drive this morning. They had Bernie signs, Bernie flyers, she was wearing Bernie pins, etc..
A Clinton supporter came storming up to her (cell phone in hand) screaming that they were not allowed to do this.
"Not allowed to do what"? My wife asked.
The Clinton supporter explained that they were not allowed to advocate for a particular candidate while doing a registration drive and ordered them to leave before calling the authorities. My wife, knowing the rules (and being married to an ex-lawyer) explained to her... Yes, you can. You are not allowed to change someone's registration or not allow them to register b/c they are not voting for the candidate you support, but you are absolutely allowed to have Bernie Sanders signs and wear pins while collecting voter registrations forms.
The Clinton supporter became louder and louder threatening to "call the authorities", which my wife welcomed her to do.
The Clinton supporter stormed around angry for a little while before stomping off into the distance, while the Bernie supporters continued to register voters.
Hundreds of new voters brought in today.. all going out in today's mail!
YAY!
Interesting demographic report.
My wife was at a "Bernstorm" last night in West LA. (I Had to stay home with the kid).
When she got home I asked her about the make up of the group (There were over 50 people there and the "meeting" was only called a couple of days ago). So... "Mostly millennials?" I asked?
"No" Mostly people in their 40's, 50s, 60s.
"Mostly men, though, right"?
"No, probably more women than men.. I didn't count".
It's funny, maybe at the rallies there are mostly the young, who don't mind standing in line for hours, etc and it is awesome, but don't let anyone tell you that is his only base of support!
THIS is why I hate our current health care system.
And no amount of "tinkering" and "incrementalism" is going to fix it.
Posts like the following... it is a friend's mom, so I have permission to re-post the whole thing.
Hello everyone, sorry that we haven't wrote an update in awhile. During this time we have been pushed both mentally and physically as a family, which has been incredibly tough. From where we left off we were struggling as a family, we had just gotten the awful news that my mom still had cancer, and that the surgery was unsuccessful. From this time we had lost faith in our original doctor who believe it or not .... didn't even come into the room to inform my mom that her cancer was still present in her breast and has become invasive. The doctor decided to send in a nurse with the pathology report with no explanation for what had gone wrong. From that time we consulted a new doctor that we have been working with.
Now as much as this pains me to say, things have just gone completely wrong for us. Her doctor initially seemed great and compassionate, but slowly decided to reveal her true identity. Due to our first surgery not being successful my mom was not going to let herself be misinformed again, and this time she wanted to have all the information to make herself feel comfortable and to make an informed decision. It turns out at Emory doctors seem to have forgotten what bedside manner is. You are only supposed to get 10 to 15 minute max consultations with an alarmed wrist watch that will ring, and continuing to ring to warn the doctor of the overstay. Which is of course, ridiculous. Her Surgical Oncologist and Reconstructive surgeon have completely betrayed our trust in them. They have gone to such lengths as "I don’t have time for this anymore" and walked out of the room leaving my mom confused and helpless. Or the classic "you have taken up too much of our time". The best moment is when her Surgical Oncologist told her that she does not have time to answer any more questions and that the next time was to just sign the consent forms and she would not be seeing her again until the surgery. That is one of the most single handed awful things I have ever heard. To be told that she is not allowed to try and understand, or to get all of her concerns fulfilled prior to a serious surgery is ridiculous.
This brings us to the present, where we have been waiting for her body to heal to be ready for a second surgery. Cancer is tough, as everyone knows it has weakened her immune system and also has really brought on an immense amount of stress. For anyone who knows my mom, you'll know that she has high blood pressure. While it has been managed over the years, the stress and weakness this cancer has brought on has made her blood pressure spiral out of control. Her doctor has increased dosages, added in more medications, I can’t even begin to list how much medicine she is on for her blood pressure on a daily basis as I'm afraid it honestly might scare you guys. Thankfully we have found a good Cardiologist that is helping us through now another very serious medical issue, as some nights I'm more afraid of her having a heart attack or a stroke than her cancer. Her cardiologist even told her on their first appointment that after reading her history he was beyond shocked how she can still come into the meeting with a positive attitude and a head held high. That no one should have to go through all the things she has been though. He then went to compliment her as he was very impressed by how prepared she was.
Due to my mother already having her first surgery it will mean that this next surgery will be more dangerous. We have researched, consulted and decided that it would be the correct idea to seek the best possible treatment for her. My mom is an amazing woman, and either my sister Stasi or I are not ready, nor will we ever be ready to lose her as our mother. We have decided to go to MD Anderson which is in Houston Texas. This now means our battle just got a hell of a lot tougher. Making a move up to Houston while she gets everything done is going to take quite a bit of time. Which will mean we will need to temporarily move to Houston over the summer. I know we can get through this as a family, I know we can beat this awful disease. But we need your help in doing so!
These bills are massive, As we mentioned at the start of this all, we were lucky enough to even obtain health insurance, but with that being said we were at zero in terms of reaching the deductible, so we have been covering 100% of the costs. It pains me to ask as I have learned from my mother to always try and do things on your own, but this time it’s just simply not possible. It would mean the world to me and my family if you all could please help us and support us to get us to Houston Texas to get the proper care my mother deserves. What I would like to humbly ask if everyone who is reading this would ask 5 friends or family to donate 25 dollars each and as they ask them if they will in turn ask 5 of their friends or family to do the same donation of 25 dollars and so it will continue. My mother believes in the power of kindness and by doing this act of kindness all of these 25 dollar donations will add up.
We are incredibly grateful with the generosity of all who know my mother and have donated and also for all the people who donated who do not even know her but do it with their compassion just for her situation. We want to thank you all for your emotional and financial support. So please do what you can if you feel that you are able to do more we are so grateful as we are truly struggling to get through this journey of our mothers third cancer.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this, I hope I've explained everything the best that I can. Please support my mother, that’s all we can ask for heart emoticon Stasi would like to express that she has the best mother in the world, who is caring, loving and who puts her first before herself. My mom would do anything for me and anything to help me. It means the world to me to have her in my life, she is my world and there is not anyone else like her or who could replace her.
We have also created a special Facebook page dedicated to my mother in hopes that it will help spread awareness.
https://www.facebook.com/LisasFight/
-Jordan and Stasi.
I SAW BIGFOOT TODAY!!!
For the very VERY first time in So Cal, I saw a Hillary Clinton bumper sticker. The person had 2 on their car... one from her previous run in 2008 (you could tell b/c of the age of the sticker) and a new one that had the "I'm with Her" nonsense.
It was parked and I almost stopped to take a picture of it, but I didn't want anyone thinking for a second I was doing it b/c I was a fan of Clinton.
Some ground reporting from So Cal.
My Wife has been canvasing and participating in voter drives for Bernie in west LA and the response so far has been fantastic. She's dropped off well over 100 registration forms in the last 2 days... mostly new voters and some who switched from "American Independent" to "No party" after they were told what American Independent" really means in CA.
I am doing some highly unscientific polling in the area. (Bumper stickers).
I see (on average) 5 Bernie Sanders bumper stickers per day.
I have seen exactly 0 Hillary Clinton bumper stickers at all.
I see (on average) about 1 Trump sticker per day (or see someone wearing something that indicates they are for Trump).
The best thing is running into someone with a Bernie T-shirt or hat and seeing the huge smile on their face when I say "FEEL THE BERN".
IF Sanders runs 3rd party.. does that help Clinton win???
I have outlined the problem in several posts in what I see as an impossible task for Hillary to beat Trump.
First: The polling has been fairly, consistently WRONG in favor of Hillary and other establishment republicans. If you look at the vast majority of the polls on the democratic side, Bernie has FAR outperformed expectations.. most recently Indiana, where polling said he would lose by 6.8, but he won by 6. Indiana Republican polled Trump up by 10, but it was Trump by 17. PA had Trump by 21, but he won by 36. PA Dem had Hillary by 16, but she won by 12. Maryland had trump by 21, but he won by 36. Yes, there are some that got it right, but the MAJORITY had it very wrong and by large margins.
So why is this happening so often? It is because they are using MOSTLY LIKELY VOTER polls. However, because this election is about establishment vs anti-establishment (in both primaries) it is attracting people who don't qualify as "likely voters". These "unlikely voters" are people voting for the anti-establishment candidates.
Second: The GOP has spent the last 8 years making voting EXTREMELY DIFFICULT for democrats in some very key states (Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, etc..) They have perfected a strategy for suppressing the democratic vote (by reducing polling locations in urban areas, meaning long lines... voter ID laws, etc..) However, these conditions are friendly towards GOP voting areas (Suburbs or urban) where you don't have large crowds.
This means that for a democratic nominee to win, they need to inspire OVERWHELMING turnout. Not Obama 2012 numbers.. but Obama 2008 numbers. I think we can ALL agree that Clinton will be VERY VERY lucky if she even comes close to Obama 2012 numbers.
When you combine those two points, you realize these polls showing Clinton winning in states like Florida (RCP average of 5) Ohio (Clinton RCP average of + 3.5) North Carolina (RCP average of Clinton +3.3) Even Pennsylvania (an average of Clinton +7 ) aren't very safe numbers at all.
Combine the complete unreliability of the polls tilted against anti-establishment candidates (meaning Trump iis a hell of a lot closer than those polls show) along with voter suppression tactics which is sure to shave 2-3% off the democratic totals.. and you have a pretty clear Trump victory.
So, let's ponder something....
IF Bernie ran as a 3rd party candidate, thereby SPLITTING the anti-establishment vote. He would increase overall turnout significantly, likely tilting critical house and senate races towards the democrats. Further, he would keep critical anti-establishment votes from Trump and yes there are a significant number of Bernie people who would vote for Trump BECAUSE he is anti-establishment. You don't need LARGE numbers, just a few % of them to swing the election.
However, if Bernie is in the race, Clinton would likely win, either A) because she get a plurality in enough states OR if Bernie managed to capture a few states and kept anyone from reaching 270, the race would get thrown to the NEW HOUSE, which would likely be democratic because of the increased turnout.
This is JUST A QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION.. not an endorsement of 3rd party candidacy.
The level of hypocrisy is INCREDIBLE.
So this is an EXAMPLE of the posts I am seeing today: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1251&pid=1916426
All about how these horrible, evil "BernieBros" protested at a Clinton Rally and women and children had to hear them chanting "Bernie".
So, I posted this http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027679017 back in march when protesters shut down Trump's rally.
As you can see many of the comments were that I didn't understand, that this is what people said about Nazi's, blah blah blah.
Now, I have the SAME POSITION as I did back in March. I think it is poor form to protest/disrupt someone else's rally.
Yet somehow, what seemed okay to do to Trump is NOT okay to do to Clinton? Doing it to Trump was stopping Hitler.. doing it to Clinton is "scaring little children".
So which is it? Is okay to protest and/or disrupt someone else's rally?
It's like the entire media is blinded...
They keep talking about the GOP 24 hour implosion. They look at Paul Ryan like his endorsement is something that will matter.
It's like they have all been asleep for the last 8 months and have no comprehension of what Trump is doing or how it is happening.
Let's start with some realities that they don't understand. The VAST majority of people disapprove of congress and the establishment. The reason they keep voting for the people is because they feel they don't have a choice. They are given (sometimes) a D and a R and (let's just talk about republicans here) they vote for the R just because.. but when they look at what congress is doing/not doing, what their priorities are.. they get frustrated and angry.
SO I read headlines today OMG, Trump attacked Lindsay Graham, and see comments from people like "now south carolina may be in play." No, it isn't.
Paul Ryan thinks he has power over Trump... but it is exactly the opposite.
Worse, the democratic party appears to be taking the bait, as I read stories of how they are going after moderate republicans.. those "disenfranchised" by Trump. That couldn't possibly backfire. 
This isn't about D vs R anymore. In both parties people who were from outside the party came into the primaries and wreaked such havoc that it SHOULD have shown anyone paying attention what was going on. On the GOP side, "the establishment" was so fractured that it allowed Trump to get early wins and "the establishment" never recovered b/c all of their candidates left and for some reason they refused to even get behind Kasich (who was the one person who ACTUALLY could have beaten Trump if they backed him early). On the Dem side it was a very simple "establishment" vs "anti-establishment" and it has been fought to a near tie. If there more establishment candidates "anti-establishment" probably would have won b/c establishment (like the GOP) would have been fractured.
This election in November isn't going to be about D v R. It is going to be about establishment vs anti-establishment. Trump is framing and controlling that debate and for some reason no one is paying attention.
Profile Information
Name: Never HillaryGender: Male
Hometown: Santa Monica
Home country: USA
Current location: Cyberspace
Member since: Sat Jan 30, 2016, 07:51 PM
Number of posts: 2,565
