Tough Love For Berners, Or A New Movement Rising?

What do you expect Bernie to do, wave a magic wand and negate the current primary results in the blink of an eye? Levitate while summoning Hillary in a pentagram made of organic tofu while pixie sprites tickle her into peeing herself on national TV? 

It is going to take long, hard, sustained work to break the control of massive corporations that own everything from news outlets to voting machines. 

Hell, there were still 1.3 million CA ballots left to count as of yesterday. We need to do the ground game work that has been left untouched for the past 40 years!! 

I was an elected Dem precinct rep in IL for two terms, and boy did I ever get an education. HALF the damn precincts had NO ONE to fill them because everyone was too busy forming a thousand little organizations that never did anything but hold meetings. 

A bunch of local offices went to Republicans unopposed because we couldn't find anyone to run for them, and the Republicans ALWAYS could. 

Our main job was to get petition signatures to get Dem candidates names on the ballot for the races where we actually could find candidates to run, because in IL, you can't pay to get on the ballot. You either have enough petition signatures, or you'd best change your name to Blank, because that's what would be on the ballot. 

The DEMOCRATIC voters would be acting like we were beggars asking for crumbs when we knocked on their doors looking for signatures. You'd think we were trying to sell them nuclear waste pills! 

Bernie is exactly effing right! If you want a government that works for you, get out there and BECOME THAT GOVERNMENT, and treat well those that make the effort to do so! 

#StillSanders, dammit!

In a self-governing nation, #YouGetTheGovernmentYouAre. It's long past due that Progressives dive whole-heartedly into #CivilService. (Notice that the first results that come up are in the UK, not the USA?)

Ok, so I'm down off my soap box. I love you Bernie Brigade people. You're my people. Really and truly. All of the above is historical now. I believe over 11,000 people around the country have responded to Bernie's call since last night's live-stream address.  I only wish it were a couple of million of us.

Finally we are getting to the local-level involvement in government that will shift the ground under the feet of the political establishment in an organized fashion.

We have a LOT of catching up to do. The Republicans have been at it for 30 years or more, maybe 40. This is why they have been able to drag the country so far to the right. 

The good news is that a lot of people agree with us. We can do this. We must do this.

Bern on,

Dan

Bernie Sanders calls for American Progressives to step up for Civil Service

Trying To Peer Into A Crystal Ball; Why I Am #StillSanders

I'm still a little bit hopeful that with California starting to flip, Bernie may yet stand a chance at the convention, and so are a lot of Berners.

Some things to consider:

• Bernie only needs to pull HALF of the Stated difference in pledged delegates away from Hillary in the upcoming State conventions and California count completion in order to take the lead in pledged delegates. I think he needs to flip 193 or so, as at this point, every delegate he adds comes off Hillary's total.
• I saw an infographic earlier showing that as of yesterday, 15 CA counties have flipped to Sanders. However, not by yuuuge margins. these are mostly smaller counties. The big, heavily-populated counties will take longer.
• As of today, there are still 1.3+ million ballots un-counted. Source: http://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/statewide-elections/2016-primary/unprocessed-ballots-report.pdf
• Polling Sanders vs. Trump is still waaay better than Clinton vs. Trump
• Poll-after-online-poll is showing that Bernie voters STILL will not vote for Clinton, much less work to get her elected like they were doing for Bernie. They're not scientific polls, but I can tell you that a large segment of Sanders voters will not vote for or back Hillary.
• All of these points may be weighing heavily on any "super delegates" that have any loyalty left to the ideals of the USA, if such persons exist.

As for the FBI investigation and the leaks by hackers, Wikileaks, and Anonymous, I will only credit those as factors should they actually happen prior to the Democratic national convention.

As for what may happen after the Dem convention - and I think this is an important point - I have seen posts online stating that Bernie's campaign has been doing the legwork necessary to put his name on the ballot in all 50 States already, just in case he decides that he needs to run as an independent for one reason or another. I think of this differently than I think the vast majority of Bernie supporters are. What if this is Bernie's insurance policy in the event that Hillary is indicted or otherwise hyper-damaged to the point of non-viability post convention? If Hillary tanks so badly that it looks like Trump will actually get elected, Bernie could put his name on the ballot in 50 States, and the DNC could then back Bernie as a Democratic-leaning independent candidate, which would pull in a large number of Green and independent voters.

Still, with all of the above stated, my hopes aren't too high for the 2016 Presidential election in the US.

Which is where I turn to an absolutely brilliant move on Bernie's part just this evening:

Bernie Sanders National Live Stream Address 06-16-2016:




While Bernie didn't concede, he also gave his supporters a new direction to channel their energy now that the last primary in DC is over; Working to strengthen the political revolution down-ballot. He is asking his supporters to work hard on down-ballot races and State and local races. He has set up a page on his website ( http://www.berniesanders.com/win ) to help organize exactly that effort.

Also, when I donated on his website just today, this happened:

"NOTE: Your contribution will be divided evenly between Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Tim Canova, Zephyr Teachout, Lucy Flores, Pramila Jayapal, Carol Ammons, Justin Bamberg, Terry Alexander, David Bowen, Joe Salazar, Clara Hart, Jane Kim, Chris Pearson, Eric Kingson, Paul Clements, Tulsi Gabbard, Raul Grijalva, Jeff Merkley, Marcy Kaptur, and Rick Nolan."

This was the response I received when I completed the donation on the Act Blue website.
As I've been thinking, Bernie needs to put his fundraising prowess behind down-ballot Berniecrats.
I have to wonder, just how many election races can these election fraudsters manage to keep up with and rig?

Bernie has given the Berner Brigade something constructive to do, that will help them remain cohesive and focused on the true goal - enacting progressive policy around the country. That is an excellent way to maintain a movement, and strain the Oligarcs.

This is FAR from over.

Dan

Berning On The Eve Of The California Primary...

I have to write this, as my heart is kind of full right now.

I spent two & 1/2 hours this evening phonebanking for the Bernie Sanders campaign at one of the local campaign headquarters. The setting was interesting enough in and of itself. It turns out that the national campaign has been renting vacant houses for their volunteers to stay in - and paying the campaign staffers' travel and living expenses too. This not only gives the campaign volunteers room and board for their trips, it also helps out folk who are trying to rent out vacant houses - local landlords or people who had to move for work and haven't sold their houses yet. That rent money may well be preventing a forclosure and a black mark on someone's credit score. It's certainly good for the local economy.

The volunteers are young folk who have been driving from State to State working for the candidate of their - and our - lifetimes. One young gal was 17 years old, and from Maryland. She is one month and nine days too young to vote in the November general election. So she is doing the only thing she can - volunteering for Bernie's campaign.

These young folk volunteering for the campaign are filling in the gaps that us older folk can't get away from work so much to do. There were several people my age and older also there, volunteering to phonebank. I'm 54, by the way.

I have been to two debate watch parties and one "last bash before the Primary" party. The folk FILLING the restaurant where these events were to capacity were of all ages, both sexes, and every race. It was an extremely diverse crowd.

Speaking of volunteering, I have been to phonebanking events organized completely outside the campaign by local non-affiliated volunteers. They've been using their own equipment at local coffee shops like Starbucks, local restaurants and the like. The comraderie, good will, and hope are amazing. The energy at these events is like none other; It is so positive and uplifting that you can't help walking away knowing that the world is a better place than you ever thought it was.

I spent three years as an elected Democratic Precinct Committeeman in Illionis before moving to California. I was volunteer I.T. and web support for the county party organization where I lived. I was directly involved in that office and technical suport for the county party in Obama's home State during his second run for office. I have NEVER seen volunteerism like what Bernie Sanders campaign is receiving from un-solicited members of the general population. I have never seen a candidate with the honesty and clear-cut Progressive record of one Bernard Sanders in my lifetime.

As to the calls I was making, most of them where I was able to speak to someone were very positive. This, in a heavily-Republican part of California. I got a couple of Hillary supporters who were civil, and one poll worker who was not happy with me, and a lot of voice mail messages.

I left polite messages reminding folk that tomorrow is the California primary, and asking them to come out and vote for Bernie tomorrow. One gal had a full inbox, but her voicemail greeting said it was OK to text her, so I did. I received a text back from her later that evening, thanking me for volunteering for the campaign, and saying that she had already voted for Bernie by mail. I also received a phone call back a little later from another gal I had left a voice message for, with essentially the same message.

In fact, almost every person I reached and actually spoke to in some form had already voted for Bernie by mail. By the way - my wife and I did the same, and when we were pulling up to the big blue mailbox at the post office, so was the gal in the car ahead of us.

One can only hope that the rest of the ones I left messages for had done the same.

When I got home afterward, I found this hanging from my door handle:



Yeah. You can feel the bern in Cali, alright.

Dan

Bern, The Movie