There are a few things I really need to rant about today and all of it has to do with the fact that some people just can’t see past privilege and recognize when they’re behaving liked spoiled asses. Well, it’s mostly white people and mostly men, and mostly Christians and mostly straight people, but there’s enough of them and they’ve got the power and the anger to ruin the lives of a whole bunch of people. I am really trying to be gracious to the people who got caught up in the Bernie scam. Sheesh, people, where are your critical thinking skills?
I’ve been watching one thread that started out as a complaint about the possible price tag of an Armani jacket degrade into Hillary took a private jet plane to her speech in NYC. I also had to endure some white dude who hasn’t got enough money explain to me that he has no privilege so take it up with the folks with money. Dude, money is just one aspect where you can achieve favoritism by society. Do some research! Develop some empathy. Oh wait, you’ve listened to Bernie who thinks only your net worth matters as a measure of your integrity.
Much of the criticism of Sanders’s foreign policy stances have come from his left flank. The World Socialist Web Site called Sanders a “silent partner of American militarism.” And Counterpunch, a left-wing magazine, has criticized Sanders on more than one occasion for being insufficiently pacifist.
“He behaves more like a technofascist disguised as a liberal, who backs all of President Obama’s nasty little wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen,” wrote Thomas Naylor in the magazine. “Since he always ‘supports the troops,’ Sanders never opposes any defense spending bill. He stands behind all military contractors who bring much-needed jobs to Vermont.”
Sanders’s support of the Kosovo War led to the resignation of an adviser; when antiwar activists occupied his office, he had them arrested; and Sanders voted to authorize the war in Afghanistan, Howard Lisnoff wrote in the same publication.
[R]eaders ought not to count on him to push back on the militarism and military actions that have become routine under both Democrats and Republicans who occupy the presidency,” Lisnoff added.
The double standards for women and the bull shit people will buy about Hillary is just one set of the things that we knew we’d face this election because the folks who seem like rational liberal democrats suddenly start sounding like they spend time reading every conspiracy possible from InfoWars when it comes to Hillary Clinton. We’ve seen the AP set up emergency lines for Reporters getting threats from Bernie Sanders. Super Delegates have been receiving similar threats and many are being investigated by law enforcement. Every time some one posts for Hillary some really nasty, caps using creep threatens violence and all kinds of things.
Even as some top supporters have started backing down since Tuesday night, when Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic nomination — and as a planned Sanders letter to superdelegates campaigning for them to support him rather than Clinton appears in limbo — frustration is bubbling among those who want the senator to keep the campaign going.
In their view, the president is trying to prematurely end the fight. They warn that it won’t work and that the blowback might show him he’s not as popular with the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party as he might like to think.
“The president is not Sen. Sanders’ boss. We’ve got to get this straight here,” said Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator who’s been traveling the country on behalf of the campaign. “There’s respect that’s for the commander in chief … but Sen. Sanders is duly elected, and he’ll make his own decisions.”
Or else.
“In some ways, even though [the president’s] numbers are good, and good with the Democratic base, he overestimates,” said a Democratic strategist aligned with Sanders. “Much of the activist Bernie movement — I think he overestimates his strength with those people.”
The campaign is hypersensitive to any whiff of being treated as a smaller, protest candidacy, to failures to acknowledge that Sanders won more than 40 percent of the primary vote, or to being dismissed by what they see as the Democratic establishment. And an endorsement of Hillary Clinton by a president who many Sanders supporters believe fell short of his progressive promise has that establishment smell.
“They don’t want to see him shoved to the side,” the Democratic strategist said. “A lot of love is going to be more productive than a lot of pressure. There’s a strain out there that just wants to hit [Sanders] with a 2-by-4 and say, ‘get out.’ The better course is to show appreciation and engagement and show how much the party needs this guy.”
Sanders has never been much interested in what Democratic leaders have had to say about his presidential bid, and every call along the way for him to drop out seems only to have encouraged him to push ahead. That’s left prominent Clinton supporters worried about what the reaction to Obama’s urging will be.
“People talk to Bernie. But Bernie marches to his own drum. And that’s true if Clinton talks to him or if Obama talks to him,” said Clinton ally and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. “The president deserves an A for effort, but I’m not sure he’s going to have much of an impact.”
I’ve noticed how many of us are in “secret” and “closed” Hillary Facebook Groups. We have to in order to post our true feelings over there for many reasons not least among them are the tons of angry Bernie Trolls that just dump right wing memes straight out of InfoWars on any thread.
Writer and comedian Joanna Castle Miller wrote a Facebook post that is going viral on Twitter (she took a screenshot of the original). Miller has a lot of insight into the campaign—even though she’s a liberal, her father is Darrell Castle, the real, live third party candidate of the right-wing Constitution Party. Traveling around the country and meeting voters and supporters of all kinds, she noted something unique about Hillary supporters. It maybe explains why you see (and hear) Sanders & Trump supporters all over the Internet but only saw Hillary supporters in vote tallies. Here’s the solution to the mystery of the missing Hillary fans.
Over the last week, I spent time with all of the 3 major campaigns here in CA as part of the show I’ve been working on. Everyone I met was polite, energized, and passionate. But I noticed one big difference between Hillary’s supporters and everyone else.
When I spoke with Trump and Bernie supporters, they were most eager to get in front of the camera. They spoke with a lot of confidence, and they spoke very freely.
Almost all of Hillary’s volunteers (approx the same number as were at Bernie’s office on the same day) were women, of varying age and race. Her supporters did *not* clamor for the camera. It was the opposite. They wanted to be interviewed, but they debate it for what seemed like forever. They got quiet and asked questions like, “Will my name be used?” “Where will this be seen?” and “Can I wear sunglasses?” Some of them thanked me and said no, and they looked really sad about it. When I pressed them, they told me they were terrified of the online threats they might receive, and in some cases had already received. Even lead organizers admitted they hadn’t put up a yard sign or bumper sticker for fear of retaliation. When women walked in to volunteer for the phone bank, they were assured they wouldn’t have to give their names if they were too afraid.
Hillary’s office was tucked away in a dying mall, with little hand-drawn posters taped up, cheerleader-style. It was cheery, but quiet and nearly invisible. A lot like those volunteers.
This is not to generalize all women as Hillary supporters or as timid – of course not! But I personally believe there’s a correlation between her largely female volunteer base (as of now), her unexpected voter turnout, and the fear so many women have expressing themselves online, or on the street, or in the board room.
A lot of people on social media have wondered where all of Hillary’s votes came from, because there was no signage no outpouring of love on Facebook. It shouldn’t surprise us that when we fail to listen to women’s voices well in the public sphere, we mis-calculate what women are actually thinking and doing in private. We didn’t know where Hillary’s votes were coming from because they didn’t feel it was safe for them to tell us in the first place.
So, there you go: they were there, a lot of them were women, and they didn’t trust the general public not to act like general a-holes if they spoke up.
During a Republican district convention in the suburban Twin Cities last month, Ali Jimenez-Hopper helped seal her endorsement as a state House candidate with a speech that attacked her Democratic opponent on the basis of her sexual orientation and race.
Referring to Erin Maye Quade, a staffer for Keith Ellison who has a black dad and is married to a woman, Jimenez-Hopper said “she is really far left [in] her values.”
“She brings up that she is half black and she uses that as a strength. She brings up that she is in support of LGBT and that lifestyle and puts out pictures on Twitter of her and her wife,” Jimenez-Hopper continued. “I believe in the traditional marriage in the sense that it’s between a husband and wife and God and that family is important. We need to have these values so we can go forth and think about your community.”
Following that speech, Jimenez-Hopper was officially endorsed as the GOP candidate for the House seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Tara Mack. Neither Jimenez-Hopper or Maye Quade face primary challengers, meaning they’re set to face off in the general election this November
Reached for comment, Maye Quade said that like many people, she first heard audio of Jimenez-Hopper’s remarks when they were detailed in a thecolu.mn report published Wednesday. She said she came across the article this morning while in bed with her wife Alyse.
“This isn’t a Republican or Democrat thing, it’s basic human respect and it’s shocking to hear from anyone,” Maye Quade told ThinkProgress, adding that she’s never met Jimenez-Hopper. “That’s not the tone I want for this election — at least for me.”
Maye Quade, a longtime community organizer and Apple Valley resident, said she’s completely unaccustomed to experiencing racism or homophobia in her suburban community. As news of Jimenez-Hopper’s remarks circulated, Maye Quade said she’s experienced an “outpouring of love” from people on both sides of the aisle.
Despite the fact that the seat Maye Quade is running for is currently held by a Republican, she pointed out that the “purple” district was carried by Barack Obama in 2012 and Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton two years later. She said she intends for her campaign to be focused on issues like ameliorating childhood hunger, investing in transportation, enacting statewide paid family leave, and providing people with better mental health resources.
“We can’t afford to focus on dividing people and spewing hate,” she said.
Dividing people and spewing hate–especially towards women and minorities of all flavors–is the tagline of the 2016 elections.
Bernie Sanders on Thursday emerged from a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and vowed to work together with Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump in November.
Warning that Trump would make a “disaster” leader of the country, the Vermont senator — who has pledged to continue his White House bid even after Clinton became the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee — said he would “work as hard as I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the Untied States.”
“I look forward to meeting with (Clinton) in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent,” Sanders said.
The senator thanked both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for showing “impartiality” during the course of the Democratic campaign.
“They said in the beginning is that they would not put their thumb on the scales and they kept their word and I appreciate that very, very much,” Sanders said.
He added that he will monitor a “full counting of the votes” in California, where Clinton won the Democratic primary contest on Tuesday. The results will show “a much closer vote,” Sanders predicted.
Sanders’ high-profile meeting with Obama and his public remarks after come just days after Sanders declared that he intends to continue his White House campaign. At a campaign rally Tuesday night, Sanders had declined to acknowledge that Clinton had secured the necessary delegates to win her party’s nomination. At the tail end of the primary season, Sanders had vowed to forge ahead to the District of Columbia’s primary next week, and then on to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
You can see the presser at the CNN link above.
We shall see Bernie. We shall see. As my Irish Grandmother used to say, “the proof is in the pudding”.
Other Female Firsts Covered Like Hillary’s Historic Nomination
Hillary Clinton has made history by becoming the first female presumptive presidential nominee of a major U.S. party. In doing so, she joins a long line of celebrated female firsts…
MAY 20, 1932
DERRY, Northern Ireland — “Amelia Earhart completed her solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic yesterday afternoon. Her landing was met with skepticism by aviation enthusiasts who claimed her aircraft gave her an ‘unfair advantage.’”
SEPT 20, 1973
HOUSTON, Texas — “Billie Jean King has crushed her male opponent Bobby Riggs in a highly anticipated tennis match. This raises the question: do the rules of tennis need to be changed?”
DEC, 1903
OSLO, Norway — “Ignoring voice vote, rigged Nobel Prize committee hands award to Marie Curie.”
There are more of them and they are very very funny.
My headline today includes the beginning of a quote from one of my local sheroes Chef Leah Chase. She’s called the Queen of Creole Cuisine and had to fight to be taken seriously as a chef. She owns a very successful restaurant here and has achieved many prestigious awards. You have no idea how significant this is for a Black American woman to hold so many accolades. She was born in 1923 which is exactly the year my parents were born. You can read the full quote on the painted power box picture.
The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
I’ve noticed how many of us are in “secret” and “closed” Hillary Facebook Groups. We have to in order to post our true feelings over there for many reasons not least among them are the tons of angry Bernie Trolls that just dump right wing memes straight out of InfoWars on any thread.
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