Friday, June 17, 2016

The primaries are not over. Not even close. #feelthebern!

John Laurits is normally a poet and fiction writer, but lately, he's been doing the math for the Democratic primaries. He's shown us that although it looks like Clinton has a 385 delegate lead among pledged delegates, he's demonstrated that we really only need 193 delegates to take the lead. That's because every delegate remaining that is added to the Sanders column must be taken from the Clinton column. Read about the the details in his article The Math of the Convention. If you're looking for hope, you will find it there. The math doesn't lie.

If you've taken refuge in your bed with your tablet to watch Tayo the Little Bus, come on out. There is work to do. There are still 29 states that have not certified their results due to "irregularities". There are still 16 state Democratic conventions to do. It's also worth noting that 5 million votes were mailed in California alone and the counting process is not complete. The final numbers will be certified by July 8th. Yes, dear reader, the race has tightened somewhat as the votes are counted, but it's not over.

And there are superdelegates to lobby. Bernie is going to the convention, no ifs, ands or buts. Those who are #stillsanders want to see him there, bringing the fight for the people to the convention.

Just as an aside, you gotta read this article on Naked Capitalism. I know, it's about Trump, but its a great analysis of one his speeches. Trump is actually starting to look and act like a candidate for president. In this speech, for the most part, he actually keeps his feet out of his mouth. Naked Capitalism compares the language of the "victory speeches" by both Clinton and Trump. We see very interesting and real differences between them of course, but what I really like about Trump (no, this is not an endorsement, just a review of his speech), is how overt he is about calling the Democratic primaries rigged. And he invites Sanders supporters with open arms, something Hillary can't bring herself to do.

He goes on to talk about how corrupt the Clintons are and how they've built a cottage industry selling access and favors. Hey, how else can we explain the way Chelsea Clinton earns $600k at NBC for a job that normally pays much less? Hey, Chelsea, want a position on the board of directors at a company owned by noted investor, Barry Diller? Ka-ching! $300k. Don't worry, she's donated much of that money to a good cause at the Clinton Foundation.

Trump seems to be more serious than he let on at the beginning. At first, I thought he just liked to be bombastic and flippant. But since he's won the GOP nomination, he's really toned it down. Yes, he still puts his foot in his mouth from time to time, but that last speech was a real turnaround from the way he's done speeches before. He has a laser focus on Hillary's weaknesses, namely the corruption of her and her political network.

Remember how the Democratic National Committee was supposed to be a neutral party to ensure that anyone who wanted to run as a Democrat for president would have a fair shot at it? There really are people old enough to remember. Unfortunately, some people at the DNC have had trouble remembering what they stood for. So, the DNC might be letting Debbie Wasserman Schultz go. That might be the fallout from an email snatched and released by some dude who calls himself "Guccifer".

What's in that email? Well, it's dated from early 2015 and shows, rather conclusively, that the DNC and Hillary Clinton were already planning on Hillary to be the nominee. That might explain all the "irregularities" at many of the primary elections across the land. They really just wanted to stay on track and needed to subvert the will of the people to do it.

Remember how 126,000 people were dropped from the voter rolls by "accident" just before the New York primaries? Well, guess what? The New York City Board of Elections just decided to put them back. You know, so that they can vote for Hillary Clinton in November.

This primary election season is far from over. Bernie will be at the convention with more delegates than before (he's still flipping counties in California), and there are likely to be hundreds of thousands of people there in support of Bernie. Some are calling for a million to march in Philly. Remember, whatever the press is doing, it's doing it to take the focus away from Bernie and to put it on Trump, a mass shooting, or some terrorist event, anything to keep you off of Bernie.

If you're #stillsanders, keep your eyes on the ball. It's still rolling.

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