Showing posts with label Primary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Primary. Show all posts

Kauai 2018 Voting Recommendations

SUBHEAD: Island Breath's endorsements for Kauai Primary Election on 11 August 2018.

By Linda Pascatore on 26 July 2018 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2016/07/our-primary-voting-recommendations.html)


http://www.islandbreath.org/2018Year/07/180727councilbig.jpg
Image above: Kauai County Council members 2016-2018. L to R: Mason Chock, Arthur Brun, Mel Rapozo, Joann Yukimura, Ross Kagawa, Derek Kawakami and Arryl Kaneshiro. Mashup image by Juan Wilson. Click image to enlarge.

Register to Vote, Find your Polling Place, or View your Ballot here: https://elections.hawaii.gov/

Primary Voting Schedule
  • Early Walk In Voting for Primary: July 30 to Aug 9 at Historic County Building basement.
  • Last day to request Mail in Ballot: August 4
  • Primary Elections: August 11 - Polls open 7am to 6pm
Island Breath picks are based on general progressive, liberal positions, with an emphasis on sustainability, the environment, peace, equality, and Hawaiian Sovereignty.  We followed some of the  recommendations from the Sierra Club and Pono Hawaii Initiative.

Our recommended candidates are in italics with larger print.

We found information on candidates records and positions on the League of Women Voters (http://www.vote411.org/ballot), Votesmart (https://votesmart.org/), and also in articles profiling individual candidates in Civil Beat and The Garden Island.

On the primary ballot there are two sections: on one you choose a party and vote only for those candidates; the other section is non-partisan--everyone votes for the County Contests and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.  We are choosing from the Democratic candidates on the party affiliated section.

Democratic Party


US Senator:

* Hirono, Mazie
 


US Representative, District II (Kauai)
* Gabbard, Tulsi



Governor:
* Ige, David Y.



Lieutenant Governor:
* Iwamoto, Kim Coco


District 14: 
Nadine Nakamura is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination.  We do not endorse her.



District 15: 
Elaine Daladig is running against incumbent James Tokioka for the Democratic nomination.  We do not endorse either candidate.


District 16:
* Morikawa, Daynette (Dee)



Non-Partisan

Everyone, no matter which party affiliation, can vote for Kauai Mayor and County Council and OHA (Office of Hawaiian affairs) trustees.


Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA): Oahu Resident Trustee

* Kia'aina, Esther


Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA): At-Large Trustee:
(vote for three)

* Aila, William J., Jr.

* Paikai, Landen D.K.K.

* Paris, Makana


Mayor:
* Yukimura, JoAnn A.


Kauai County Council: 
Special Note: Island Breath is recommending voting for no more than the three candidates noted below, even though you are allowed to vote for seven.  If you vote for seven, but really support just three candidates, your #4, 5, 6 and 7 votes could enable those other candidates to win over your top candidates.  Consider voting for fewer--a practice called "plunking".

* Chock, Mason

* Cowden, Felicia

* Roversi, Adam P.
 


See also:
Recommended by Gary Hooser; Executive Director of the Pono Hawaii Initiative
(https://ponohawaiiinitiative.org/endorsements)


.
.

DNC fixed race for Hillary

SUBHEAD: Leaked DNC emails confirm Democrats rigged primary, reveal extensive media collusion.

By Tyler Durden on 24 July 2016 for Zero Hedge -
(http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-23/leaked-dnc-emails-confirm-democrats-rigged-primary-reveal-extensive-media-collusion)


Image above: From (http://opportunitylives.com/bernie-aristotle-and-hillarys-email-oligarchy/).

There are three key findings to emerge from yesterday's dump of leaked DNC emails released by Wikileaks:
  • There had been a plot designed to smear Bernie Sanders and to hand the Democratic nomination to Hillary on a silver platter
  • There has been repeated collusion between the DNC and the media
  • There has been questionable fundraising for both Hillary Clinton and the DNC
First, a quick recap for those who missed the original report, yesterday Wikileaks released over 19,000 emails and more than 8,000 attachments from the Democratic National Committee. This is what the whistleblower organization reported:

WikiLeaks releases 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from the top of the US Democratic National Committee -- part one of our new Hillary Leaks series. The leaks come from the accounts of seven key figures in the DNC: Communications Director Luis Miranda (10770 emails), National Finance Director Jordon Kaplan (3797 emails), Finance Chief of Staff Scott Comer (3095 emails), Finanace Director of Data & Strategic Initiatives Daniel Parrish (1472 emails), Finance Director Allen Zachary (1611 emails), Senior Advisor Andrew Wright (938 emails) and Northern California Finance Director Robert (Erik) Stowe (751 emails). The emails cover the period from January last year until 25 May this year.d
Subsequently, the Romanian hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 (who has denied he works with the Russian government), who has already released hundreds of hacked DNC emails previously, told The Hill he leaked the documents to Wikileaks.

An initial read of the thousands of emails in the data dump reveals top officials at the Democratic National Committee privately plotting to undermine Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, confirming a long-running allegation by the Sanders campaign who has claimed that the DNC and Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz had tipped the scales in favor of Hillary Clinton during the party’s presidential primary. They also reveal instances of media collusion as well as various questionable instances of fundraising.
Plotting Against Bernie Sanders

In an email from early May, DNC CFO Brad Marshall wrote about a plot to question Sanders’s religion. While not naming the Vermont senator directly, it talks about a man of “Jewish heritage” Marshall believes to be an atheist. It makes reference to voters in Kentucky and West Virginia, two states that were holding upcoming primary elections. 

“It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist,” the email says.
“AMEN,” DNC Chief Executive Officer Amy K. Dacey replied.

Marshall did not respond to a request for comment. But he did tell The Intercept, which first noticed the email, “I do not recall this. I can say it would not have been Sanders. It would probably be about a surrogate."

In an email that concerned Sanders out-polling Clinton in Rhode Island, where the state reportedly only had a fraction of voting stations open, one staffer took a contemptuous tone of Sanders’ supporters,  speaking about them more as a nuisance than an arm of the party. “If she outperforms this polling, the Bernie camp will go nuts and allege misconduct,” the staffer writes, “They’ll probably complain regardless, actually.”



Another email shows similar 'us and them' language being directed at Sanders supporters. “We have the Sanders folks admitting that they lost fair and square, not because we 'rigged' anything,” the email said. “Clinton likely to win the state convention with a slim margin and we'll send a release with final delegate numbers.”



An email titled 'Bernie narrative' sent by DNC National Press Secretary Mark Paustenbach to Miranda indicates that top officials in the party were trying to find an angle to disparage the Vermont senator in the media.

“Wondering if there's a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess,” Paustenbach wrote in the May 21 message. “Specifically, [Debbie Wasserman Schultz] had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because they'd either ignored or forgotten to something critical.”
“It's not a DNC conspiracy, it's because they never had their act together,” Paustenbach suggested.



Wasserman Schultz seemed to have already counted Sanders out of the race in a May 21 email, when there were still nine primaries to go. “This is a silly story,” the chairwoman said. “He isn't going to be president.”



In another email, Paustenbach informed her that Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the candidate should continue to the convention, Wasserman Shultz said: “He is an ASS,” referring to Weaver. The chairwoman made her opinion clear about Sanders in an message concerning the candidate alleging that the party hadn’t been fair to him.

“Spoken like someone who has never been a member of the Democratic Party and has no understanding of what we do,” she said.

Collusion with Clinton and the media
A communication from late May laid out the pros and cons of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz accepting an invitation to CBS’s 'Face the Nation', and indicated that the DNC was plotting its moves based on what would be amenable to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Clinton campaign is a mess, they’re afraid of their own shadow and didn’t like that we engaged,” DNC communications director Luis Miranda wrote. “But they’ll be unhappy regardless, so better to get out there and do some strong pivots and land good punches on Trump. They can’t tell us NOT to do TV right now, we shouldn’t pull ourselves out until they actually do.”

“It’s clear that Bernie messed up and that we’re on the right side of history,” Miranda wrote in another bullet point, referring to the Nevada convention.

“Let's take this offline,” Wasserman Schultz said in response. “I basically agree with you."

Wasserman Schultz and Miranda brainstormed ideas to attack Sanders’ position on the Israel/Palestine conflict with her communications team in one thread, with Wasserman Schultz saying that "the Israel stuff is disturbing” in reference to Sanders’ platform committee appointees attempts to include language denouncing the occupation of Palestinian territory in the Democratic platform.

The chairwoman says that the idea “HFA,” or Hillary For America, originally proposed the idea of using Israel/Palestine as “an ideal issue to marginalize Sanders on,” suggesting that the DNC were exchanging communications about anti-Sanders strategies with the Clinton campaign.



The DNC also made a secret “agreement” with Kenneth Vogel, an influential report for Politico. An email from late April with the subject line "per agreement... any thoughts appreciated" shows that Vogel sent an advanced copy of a story about Hillary Clinton’s fundraising to the DNC even before his editor even saw it.



“Vogel gave me his story ahead of time/before it goes to his editors as long as I didn't share it,” DNC press secretary Mark Paustenbach wrote to  Miranda. “Let me know if you see anything that's missing and I'll push back.”

The published version of the story did not appear to have any significant edits from and was not favorable to the Clinton campaign, but the sending of a full, advanced copy to the subject of a story is considered to be a violation of journalistic ethics.

A source with familiar with the interaction between Politico and the DNC told RT America that the message was sent to officials to ensure accuracy in the story, and that it would have been difficult to ask for piecemeal clarifications due to its complexity. The “agreement,” in fact, referred to the DNC promising not to pass the story to a more favorable news outlet who might publish before  Politco.



Another email released in the Friday leak indicates that the DNC was in close contact with news websites on articles related to the Democratic Party. A Real Clear Politics article said that Sanders supporters were causing a lack of unity at the Nevada Democratic Convention.

“This headline needs to be changed,”  Wasserman Schultz wrote to Miranda.

“We need to push back... Patrice, what happened, DNC had nothing to do with this, right?” Miranda replied, referring to DNC Director of Party Affairs Patrice Taylor. Taylor responded saying that the article should be changed the event was run by the state party and the disorder “sounds like internal issues amount [sic] Sanders supporters.”

“Walter, please connect with Stewart and get him to push back,” Miranda wrote. The last email on the thread says: “Done. Article has been updated.”



Further evidence of the DNC's extensive "content control" over mass media was revealed when Wasserman Schultz sent an email to NBC anchor Chuck Todd with the subject line "Chuck, this must stop," and set up a time for the two to talk about MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski calling on Wasserman Schultz to step down.



In another email chain, Miranda said Brzezinski was willing to talk with Wasserman Schultz. "She's already served as a judge and jury without even bothering to talk to me. Not sure why I should trust having a conversation with her would make any difference. Or that she even matters, to be frank," Wasserman Schultz wrote back after a brief exchange.

In response to a New York Times story about Sanders's defiance in the wake May's unruly Democratic state convention in Nevada, Wasserman Schultz wrote: "Every time they get caught doing something wrong, they use the tactic of blaming me. Not working this time."

To be sure, there has been a long trail of instances that confirmed Wasserman Schultz's clear and repeated bias, as noted most recently in "DNC Head Threatened To Kick Michigan Mayor Out Of Debate For Cheering Bernie Sanders", however this is the first time primary sourced evidence has justified such allegations.

There seems to be clear bias in the aggregate as well. Searches of the database shows an apparent bias by DNC officials against Sanders just by how closely either campaign was monitored. A search of “Sanders supporters” yields 306 messages, while a search of “Clinton supporters” shows only 65 results. A search of “his campaign” yields 780 messages, while “her campaign” only brings up a paltry 120 results.

Questionable Fundraising
According to the Daily Beast, the DNC blocked Roy Black from hosting a potential Barack Obama fundraising event. Black is the lawyer of billionaire and level-three sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after reports on Epstein’s trial from The Daily Beast and other outlets. The email states the DNC would still allow Black to donate and attend future events.

In an email thread from May 12th of this year, titled “Host for POTUS in Miami,” DNC finance assistant Karina Marquez originally asked the committee’s vetting team to “vet the following folks for POTUS please.” The list of six possible hosts for the event included Black and his wife Lea, who is a star on Real Housewives of Miami. 

“We were also asked to vet the following for POTUS hosting. The only issue is Roy Black,” DNC Deputy Compliance Officer Kevin Snowden wrote back. “New issues have come up since his last vet in February 2016.”

In a third email, DNC deputy finance director Laura Lopez clarified: “Roy Black has been submitted to potentially attend meetings with (Jim) Messina—there isn’t an event code yet. He and his wife co-hosted a fundraiser for POTUS in 2007, all the stories are new since then.” Messina is the CEO of the Messina Group political strategy firm and led President Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.

“All the stories” refer to, in part, a 2011 Daily Beast investigation called “Behind Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Sweetheart Deal” which was cited in a follow-up story in the New York Daily News, and other articles that are later embedded into the email thread. To close off the chain, White House political advisor Bobby Schmuck responded that he agreed with DNC compliance director Alan Reed. “No hosting, fine to attend,” he wrote.

President Obama attended a Miami fundraiser at the home of Robert Rubenstein, one of the five other names listed in the vetting email, on the weekend of June 3rd, and Black was allowed to attend.
Black’s client Epstein was convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl in 2008 and paid out settlements to “scores of alleged victims who said he serially molested them."  President Bill Clinton was said to have flown on Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” up to 26 times, sometimes eschewing Secret Service protection.



There were further revelations.
An internal email from DNC spokesman Eric Walker mocked a Buzzfeed news report analyzing the DNC and the Republican National Committee’s potentially weak cybersecurity.

Another email shows DNC staffers’ fake craigslist job posting made for women who wish to apply to jobs at one of Trump’s organizations. The fake position, titled a Honey Bunny, requires the prospective applicant to, among other tasks, refrain from gaining weight, be open to public humiliation and be alright with groping or kissing by her boss.

Another email between DNC national finance director Jordan Kaplan and DNC’s Northern California finance director Erik Stowe has Kaplan coarsely describing a conference call with President Barack Obama on National Small Business Week as related to “small business sh*t.”



With the leaks coming just days before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia it may reignite controversy over the DNC's handling of Sanders as well as media "objectivity" and Democrat fundraising, three of the most sensitive issue plaguing the Democratic party, and could potentially lead to an exodus of disappointed Bernie supporters into Trump's camp.


.

Clinton breaks debate promise

SUBHEAD: Sanders calls it an insult to the people of California - others consider it a promise broken.

By Jon Queally on 24 May 2106 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/24/clintons-broken-promise-california-debate-called-insult-voters)


Image above: Still image from  CNN debate between Sanders and Clinton in Brooklyn NY in April. From ().

Bernie Sanders said he was 'disappointed but not surprised by Secretary Clinton’s unwillingness to debate' ahead of 'most important primary' of this year's nominating process.

Bernie Sanders calls it an "insult" to the people of California while many others consider it a promise broken.

With no apparent upside for her campaign and despite an agreement earlier this year, Hillary Clinton has said she will not participate in a debate with Sanders in California ahead of that state's crucial primary next month.

"We believe that Hillary Clinton's time is best spent campaigning and meeting directly with voters across California and preparing for a general election campaign that will ensure the White House remains in Democratic hands," Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, said in a statement.

Despite not yet securing the nomination, Clinton irked many of her rival's supporters, especially those in states who have not yet voted in the primary, by claiming the nominating process was essentially "already done." Voters in California—in addition to those in Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota—head to the polls on Tuesday, June 7.

The San Francisco Chronicle, which had offered to co-host a debate in the state, described Clinton's decision as a "broken promise" while a spokesperson for Fox News, which had hoped to produce the event, said the network was "disappointed that Secretary Clinton has declined our debate invitation, especially given that the race is still contested and she had previously agreed to a final debate before the California primary."

In response, Sanders issued a statement saying he was "disappointed but not surprised by Secretary Clinton's unwillingness to debate before the largest primary and most important primary in the presidential nominating process."

Sanders continued: "The state of California and the United States face some enormous crises. Democracy, and respect for the voters of California, would suggest that there should be a vigorous debate in which the voters may determine whose ideas they support. I hope Secretary Clinton reconsiders her unfortunate decision to back away from her commitment to debate."

Subsequently, during a rally at a high school in southern California, Sanders went further by calling Clinton's refusal to debate an affront to California voters.

"I think it's a little insulting to the people of California—the largest state," Sanders told thousands of people during a rally at Santa Monica High School. "She is not prepared to have a discussion with me about how she is going to help California address the major crises we face."

According to the Los Angeles Times, the crowd responded by chanting: "She's scared! She's scared!"
For Sanders' part, he suggested to the crowd—given his recent string of wins, Clinton's slippage in national standings, and poll after poll showing him doing much better head-to-head against Donald Trump—that Clinton might be getting a "little nervous" about how the primary race will conclude.

And, as he said in his statement, "Secretary Clinton may want to be not quite so presumptuous about thinking that she is a certain winner. In the last several weeks, the people of Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon have suggested otherwise."

On Twitter, many expressed dismay that Clinton had decided to deprive the people of California (and the other states yet to vote) the opportunity to hear the candidates address the issues one final time.

.

Media rigged against Bernie

SUBHEAD: Mainstream headlines decry Sanders supporters for disrupting events in outrage.

By Claire Bernish on 18 May 2016 for Anti-Media -
(http://theantimedia.org/media-rigged-elections-your-fault/)


Image above: Roberta Lange at the podium running the Nevada Democratic Convention. From (http://www.inquisitr.com/3096404/the-nevada-convention-where-democracy-went-to-die/).

Mainstream headlines constantly decry Bernie Sanders supporters for disrupting events in outrage, as if their protests and demonstrations somehow illustrate the devolution of the elections.

But that focus by the corporate media utterly negates the consistent and continual reports of fraud and disenfranchisement fueling their ire.
And it’s getting ridiculous.

Newsweek, though far from alone, offered a prime example of the obfuscation of the election fraud and questionable campaign tactics by Hillary Clinton in its skewering of Sanders’ supporters.

Get Control, Senator Sanders, or Get Out,” Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald titled his op-ed — which thoroughly blasts the Vermont senator — as if he were somehow responsible for both the electoral chaos and the actions of an irate voting public. Eichenwald writes [with emphasis added]:
“So, Senator Sanders, either get control of what is becoming your increasingly unhinged cult, or get out of the race. Whatever respect sane liberals had for you is rapidly dwindling, and the damage being inflicted on your reputation may be unfixable. If you can’t even manage the vicious thugs who act in your name, you can’t be trusted to run a convenience store, much less the country.”
Really?

Because what Eichenwald obviates most readily in his attack is the inability to understand why those protests might be occurring in the first place. Judging by the timing of his article, it’s likely Eichenwald wrote it after chaos broke out at the Nevada Democratic Convention on Saturday — chaos that transpired after the party took it upon itself to ignore thousands who rightly believed Sanders delegates had been excluded unfairly from the caucus proceedings.

Despite the call for a recount, party officials refused to follow necessary procedure and abruptly adjourned the convention, leaving thousands of voters in the lurch — and hotel security and local law enforcement to deal with the aftermath. When things seem suspicious, apparently Eichenwald feels voters should not only have no recourse, they should be happy about it. He continues:
 “Sanders has increasingly signaled that he is in this race for Sanders and day after day shows himself to be a whining crybaby with little interest in a broader movement.”

It would be nice if Eichenwald’s hit piece were as much a joke as it comes across, but clearly he’s missed the point — and the vast movement supporting not only Sanders, but electoral justice. Worse, he didn’t stop there:
“Signs are emerging that the Sanders campaign is transmogrifying into the type of movement through which tyrants are born.
“The ugly was on display” at the aforementioned Nevada convention, Eichenwald adds, “where Hillary Clinton won more delegates than Sanders.”

No kidding. That would be precisely the issue that “cult” expressed fury about — Clinton managed to put yet another state under her belt under highly questionable circumstances.

In fact, suspect happenings at nearly every primary and caucus so far oddly favor the former secretary of state — and Nevada stood as further testament to why voters are practically up in arms over what appears to be electoral favoritism.

But Eichenwald wasn’t alone in overlooking those concerns — or in blatantly mischaracterizing both that bias and its consequential thwarting of the wishes of a hefty segment of the voting public.

In the New York Times, Alan Rappeport also took the chance to strike at Sanders’ followers by citing Roberta Lange, Nevada State Democratic Party Chairwoman, who adjourned the convention early — earning the wrath of Nevada’s voters.
“‘It’s been vile,’ said Ms. Lange, who riled Sanders supporters by refusing their requests for rule changes at the event in Las Vegas,” Rappeport notes, adding, “The vicious response comes as millions of new voters, many of whom felt excluded by establishment politicians, have flocked to the insurgent campaigns of Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump.”
Though he at least presented that aspect of the elections fairly, his description of what Lange actually did in Nevada misses the mark — that rules change had originally occurred prior to the convention, and Lange’s hasty and subjective decision on a contentious voice vote to permanently install the change arguably created the eruption of anger.

But a number of Times staff have contributed sizeable amounts to Hillary’s campaign — and a Clinton family organization also donated $100,000 to the Times’ charitable organization the same year it endorsed her. Funny how bias thus peppers its reporting.

.

Clinton's NY lead drops 30%

SUBHEAD: New poll shows Clinton with 18-point lead over Sanders, compared to 48-point lead in mid-March.

By Andrea Germanos on 8 April 2016 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/08/sanders-takes-30-point-bite-out-clinton-lead-ny)


Image above: Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign rally in the South Bronx on March 31, 2016. Photo by Michael Vadon. From original article.

A poll released Friday shows that Bernie Sanders has significantly narrowed the lead Hillary Clinton once claimed in New York.

The new Emerson College poll (pdf) shows Clinton leading Sanders among Democratic primary voters in the state by 18 points—56 percent to 38 percent. That marks a significant drop in support for the former secretary of state since the same poll was taken less than one month ago.

The mid-March Emerson poll showed Sanders trailing Clinton by 48 percent; she claimed 71 percent compared to his 23 percent.

The new results also show Sanders having gained 6 points with African Americans and 23 points with Hispanics since the previous poll. The one group Sanders claims a lead over is young voters, having 60 percent of support from those aged 18-34 compared to Clinton's 36 percent.
The new poll was conducted April 6 and 7 and has a margin of error of +/ - 5.4 percent.

Referring to the April 19 primary in New York, CNN political commentator and former green jobs adviser to President Barack Obama Van Jones told Democracy Now! on Wednesday, "this is the war to settle the score." Jones also cautioned against assuming Clinton would win in what he called her "third declared home state" after Arkansas and Illinois.

New reporting by the New York Times looks at what's at stake in the state as well. "The state has 291 delegates, including 247 pledged delegates up for grabs. (There are also 44 superdelegates.)

Even with his recent wins in Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii and Wisconsin, Mr. Sanders would need an estimated 56 percent of the remaining pledged delegates nationwide to overtake Mrs. Clinton, who maintains a lead of 219. A win for Mr. Sanders in New York would not only buoy his candidacy, but it would also be an embarrassment to the former senator from New York."

Days ahead of the state's primary, the two Democratic candidates will square off for a debate in Brooklyn.>

.

Bernie sweeps Paciific Primaries

SUBHEAD: Massive margins in Washington, Alaska & Hawaii make Saturday super for Sanders.

By Staff on 27 March 2016 for Common Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/26/massive-margins-pacific-states-make-saturday-super-sanders)


Image above: Still frame of Bernie Sanders and Portland crowd as they are amazed by bird landing on podium. An omen? See video below.

[IB Publisher's note: Everybody I know voted for Bernie yesterday in Hawaii. We did not hear final results till very late. When I woke to a National Public Radio (NPR) review of the voting results in Hawaii, Alaska and Washington there was no characterization of the 75% vote for Bernie in all three states as a landslide. The smarmy announcer acknowledged that Sanders had won more delegates than Clinton, but noted that it hardly put a dent in her delegate lead. The announcer also failed to mention that much of Hillary's lead is in party picked "super delegates" who can turn on a candidate with the changing winds of politics. Don't trust NPR to be neutral when it comes to this election process. Or for anything else either.]

Bernie Sanders claimed three resounding victories on Saturday as caucus-goers in Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington overwhelmingly backed the Vermont senator, proving that his campaign has the "momentum" to battle Democratic rival Hillary Clinton all the way to the convention.

While Sanders was predicted to win in Alaska and Washington, as CNN reports, "the real news is in the sheer size of his victory."

Indeed, Sanders bested Clinton by more than sixty points in Alaska, where he took 81.6 percent to her 18.4 percent. In Hawaii, he won 70.6 percent to 29.2 percent and in the delegate-heavy Washington, Sanders beat Clinton 72.7 percent to 27.1 percent.

During his victory speech in Madison, Wisconsin, which holds its primary on April 5, Sanders took direct aim at the state's notorious Republican Governor Scott Walker.

"Democracy means one person and one vote and whether Gov. Scott Walker likes it or not that is exactly what we are going to bring to every state in this country, including Wisconsin," Sanders told the estimated crowd of 8,000. "And I say to Gov. Walker and all of the other cowardly Republican governors if you can not win or participate in a free and fair election where everybody votes, get out of politics and get a new job."

"I know that our Republican friends and elected officials tremble at the idea of large numbers of Americans participating in the political process," Sanders continued. "I’ve got bad news for them. That is exactly what is going to happen in this country."

Bernie Sanders did exactly what his campaign said he could do on Saturday if voter turnout was high: win and win big.

While voting was still ongoing in Hawaii, Sanders was able to claim landslide victories in both the Washington state and Alaska caucuses. As of this writing, with approximately 75 percent of precincts reporting in both those states, Sanders was leading rival Hillary Clinton 72% to 28% in Washington and by 79% to 21% in Alaska.

At a victory speech to supporters inside a packed arena at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Sanders said that though the establishment media and political class continue to count his campaign out, it would be "hard for anybody [tonight] to deny that our campaign has the momentum" in the Democratic primary race.

"We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton’s lead," Sanders told the more than 8,000 people in the crowd. "We have a path toward victory."

As Scott Bixby, national political reporter for the Guardian, pointed out, Sanders' victories on Saturday show him outperforming Barack Obama’s 2008 victories in what is sometimes called the "Pacific Primary".


Video above: Bernie Sanders and omen delivered by a bird. From (https://youtu.be/Jc2TVLoxsDA).



Video above: Complete Bernie Sanders Madison Wisconsin Rally. From (https://youtu.be/h-lPBU_KhTY).
.

Arizona Voter Supression

SUBHEAD: Allegations of voter suppression aimed at Sanders emerge from the Arizona Democratic primary.

By Michael Kreiger on 23 March 2016 for Liberty Blitzkrieg -
(http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/03/23/american-democracy-allegations-of-voter-suppression-emerge-from-the-arizona-primary/)


Image above: Debbie Wasserman Schultz (r.) campaigning for Hillary Clinton (l.) during 2008 presidential campaign. Schultz, the Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, may have handed Hillary the 2016 nomination. From (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3273404/Democratic-National-Committeewoman-says-party-clearing-path-Hillary-women-charge-want-way.html).

[IB Publisher's note: The Daily Mail says "Democratic National Committeewoman says her party is 'clearing a path' for Hillary because 'the women in charge' want it that way.]

The following is extremely disturbing. If I were a Bernie Sanders supporter in Arizona, I’d be absolutely apoplectic.

The AZCentral reports:
By a combination of misjudgment, misplaced priorities and old-fashioned voter suppression, Tuesday’s primary was a disaster.

As reported by The Arizona Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl, Maricopa County reduced the number of polling places from more than the 200 available for the 2012 presidential election to … 60.

Sixty? Are you kidding me.

The fact that a voter could go to any polling place didn’t matter much when the lines were so long that many people were forced to abandon the line.

I’ve heard from a number of those who stood outside and waited, and waited, and waited.
And if that isn’t bad enough, Arizona law already effectively disenfranchises 36 percent of registered voters.

These would be voters who are unaffiliated with any political party. Independent. The only way those individuals can vote in a presidential primary is to re-register with a political party. And they have to do so 29 days before the election.

It’s ridiculous to think that 36 percent of Arizona voters — can’t vote.
They represent a constituency that is larger than the state’s Democrats.
They represent a constituency that is larger than the state’s Republicans.

It should be more and more clear to everyone that Arizona needs to institute an open primary system. Otherwise a plurality of Arizona voters is, essentially, permanently disenfranchised.
That’s bad enough, but it gets worse. After waiting in line for hours, some registered Democrats were then told they weren’t registered as Democrats and therefore couldn’t vote.

The  Phoenix New Times reports:
Polling places in Maricopa County were swamped with enthusiastic voters today, spurring gripes and a possible election complaint over party identification problems.
The state Democratic Party sent an e-mail to constituents asking them to send their election-day stories for a complaint that would be submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. Enrique Gutierrez, Arizona Democratic Party spokesman, said some Democrats waited in long lines — then were told they weren’t really Democrats when they tried to obtain a ballot.

“We’ve received complaints throughout the whole day of lifelong Democrats showing up to the polls and being told they are either independent or have no party affiliations,” Gutierrez said. No official election complaint will be submitted — yet, he says. But the party will continue to gather information. A message left for county Elections wasn’t immediately returned.
The Washington Post also covered the story:
All day Tuesday, voters in Maricopa County reported waiting in lines that stretched around the block, sometimes for hours. County officials told local news the long lines were in part to blame on independent voters showing up without realizing they couldn’t vote in Arizona’s closed Democratic and Republican primaries.

But at least one voter who contacted The Washington Post said she was turned away even though she’s a registered Democrat and that election officials blamed a computer glitch that rendered many Democrats as independents in the eyes of the system.
Somehow I don’t think this will encourage Bernie supporters to vote Hillary.

.