Thoughts of an old California Democratic woman on Sanders vs. Clinton
I've been asked to post several of my comments in threads as OPs. Here they are, re-tooled as one long OP, with identifications at the end of each one, if you want to read the original threads. I've edited to make them more readable and understandable outside of the discussions they were part of.
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It's hard to figure Barbara Boxer's action in Nevada as anything but deliberate provocation.
Of course the Clintonites should have let it go! Only a couple of delegates were at issue. But they didn't. And guess where it went next? All over the Corrupt Media for the edification of the voters voting in KY and OR on May 17!
It was a Rovian-Brockian dirty trick, much like the one that John Lewis is implicated in (--the false caption of the Bernie Sanders civil rights photo, peddled to Time magazine, which had to print a retraction; meanwhile, Lewis is saying he never met Bernie in the civil rights movement; Bernie's activism is in fact very well-documented, as it turns out--and all this happening in the midst of the southern state primaries!). Same type of "swift-boating" operation, this time with Barbara Boxer as the establishment "name" to legitimize the crap that is going down.
No, I don't believe it was innocent on Boxer's part. Nor was John Lewis innocent. It is pathetic to see former heroes stoop to such depths. And I don't know where they fit into the web of Clinton money that has gotten sucked into the Clinton Foundation from sources like the woman-hating Saudis, and then spewed out over the land to net endorsers and super-delegates and surrogates and shills and Clintonbots on the internet, but it would not surprise me in the least if money was the heart of the matter.
We'd have to be super-sleuths numbering in the thousands, to track down every thread of the Clinton money web. It reaches into Haiti, into Honduras, into Russia, throughout the Middle East, and in many other places, as well as throughout this country. So we just have to pick up trends, you know, to figure out who we can trust. Trend no. 1, with the Clintons, is seeking money, laundering money and distributing money for the purposes of gaining more power. Boxer and Lewis are now suspects in the Clinton money game. We already know that Dolores Huerta is bought and paid for ($100,000 from the Clinton Foundation), to pay for her phony shit-fit at the NV caucus, where she LIED that Sanders' supporters shouted her down with "English only!" (It's on vid. She LIED.) She's also been peddling Clinton bullshit in media interviews. Bought. And. Paid. For.
Who else?
And I don't care who they are--nor how much I may have admired them in the past. If they do shit like this, they are heroes no more.
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Based on my comment in
silvershadow's OP
"Barbara Boxer's actions both during the Nevada convention"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511998857
Comment #15
Wed May 18, 2016, 07:10 PM
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Some people don't seem to realize what's happened to the Democratic Party...
...over the last couple of decades (and with roots back to the Reagan junta). We've been bleeding working class Democrats, leftists of all kinds, environmentalists, professionals, Vietnam vets and others to the "independent" non-party, which now comprises over 40% of the electorate.
Democratic Party "closed" primaries measure only what remains, not the full demographic of progressives. Clinton has an even narrower constituency, the half of the reduced party that buys into her worthless, lying bullshit, unthinkingly, in my opinion.
The other half of the current Democratic base are either young and new voters drawn in by Sanders, some returning leftists and others drawn in by Sanders, and old Democrats like me, who remain Democrats only out of loyalty to ideals that this corporatized party has long since abandoned, or out of nostalgia or family feeling. I'm an o-o-o-o-old Democrat who feels loyalty and nostalgia. I remember my mother making all her kids get down on our knees, on election night 1954, to pray the Rosary for Adlai Stevenson to defeat Dwight Eisenhower!
That's the kind of Democrat that the Clintonites have spat upon with virtually every word and action, along with their spitting upon the young.
Our party is NOT "just fine." It is losing Democrats like me, "born" Democrats, people whose parents and grandparents were New Dealers, people who canvassed for JFK, people who joined the civil rights movement though they were white and relatively privileged, people who did things because they were RIGHT and ETHICAL and MORAL, not because of self-interest and greed, but because they belonged to a "big tent" party and, by God, they were going to expand that "tent"!
I don't think Clinton has any clue what the Democratic Party is about. She doesn't want people like me in it, and many of her supporters seem to have the same attitude (unless they are bots, which we've seen some of here, and for those I feel the same compassion I would feel for any workers who have to do things they know are wrong, in order to keep body and soul together).
Clinton has contempt, also, for the young. She is rigid that way. Dissent annoys her. She wants to stamp it out. She likes controlled venues with small audiences of vetted people. And when she happens to meet a hard question or opposition, you can see her eyes harden with hatred. She is no kind of Democrat, who relishes discussion and new ideas and grants people leave to oppose her, as anyone who believes in democracy ought to. She reminds me of Nixon. She has a lot of his flaws.
She is no leader for the Democratic Party I was born into. Money and ambition are okay, especially for women who have been denied money and access to power, but they are not everything, or even a tenth of everything, or anything at all, if you don't have a base of ethical principles and generosity.
Clinton does not qualify. She has nothing inside of her but desire for money and power. That is not a leader. That is a cypher, whom our financial overlords and war profiteers will use for their own purposes. I've known a lot of strong, ambitious and even well-heeled women in my lifetime, many of whom were or are real leaders due to their ethics and their generosity. They went far, and I'm very proud of them, but they never regarded power as an end itself. Those are the kinds of women who would make great presidents. Clinton is not one of them. She is already a disgrace to feminism, with her actions in Honduras, Libya, Syria and Iraq, and hers and Bill's policies that have greatly increased poverty here. She's hanging out with Henry Kissinger these days. Jeez.
That's not my Democratic Party. And that is not "just fine." It's awful.
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Based on my comment in
Cali's OP
"No, I don't think Hillary and the dem establishment can put the party back together" againhttp://www.democraticunderground.com/12511999445
Comment #35
Wed May 18, 2016, 08:33 PM
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I respect the long history of an old Democrat. I think it's time to throw Big Money back into...
...the Republican Party where it belongs. But that is not my only objection to Hillary Clinton--the half a billion dollars she took from the financial industry for "speeches."
You say Clinton's "policies are aligned with my beliefs." I would ask, do you really know what Clinton's policies are? She whirls around like one of the old toy tops we used to play with. And just when you think you have her pinned down, she jumps out of the jumping jack box with a surprise, like she did with the Colombia/U.S. "free trade" agreement, and will do with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)--both really, really bad trade agreements that will decimate this country while not doing any good for the poor in the other countries. These agreements are "free trade for the rich."
Or like she did with Honduras and Libya, after apologizing for her vote for Bush's Iraq War. She's done this on "free trade for the rich" agreements, on abortion rights, on gay rights, on the minimum wage, on single payer health care, on almost any issue you can name. For it, then against; against it, then for it, depending on how the wind is blowing, and probably on donations to the Clinton Foundation.
And some of these matters are heartbreakers and tragedies--Honduras, for instance, where Clinton, as Secretary of State, supported a fascist coup that destroyed Honduran democracy (she admits it in one of her emails), and where the women leading the pro-democracy and environmental movements there are being systematically raped and murdered by fascist death squads.
One of these women was murdered in her bed just this March. Her name was Berta Caceras, an indigenous woman activist on the environment, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, and an anti-coup activist, who named Hillary Clinton as the one responsible for the fascist coup in her country before she was murdered. Clinton's strong support for the fascist government, including funding them with our tax dollars, has encouraged and enabled them to commit these atrocities.
Clinton is all apologies over Iraq, then she turns around and does this to Honduras, and then, in an even worse way, to Libya, where we can be sure that thousands of women are being brutalized, raped and murdered in the chaos there, and with the rise of the IS jihadists in the vacuum of power that Clinton helped to create.
Like a spinning top, she wants credit for apologizing for Bush-Cheney's "shock and awe" bombing of tens of thousands of innocent people in Iraq--as if her apologies could erase that horror--but she keeps doing it, inflicting chaos on other lands.
Honduras and Libya are among my main objections to Hillary Clinton. She engineered these disasters. The latter is called "Hillary's War" in Washington DC. But nobody much mentions Honduras. No oil, I guess.
That's why I ask, do you really know what her policies are? I admit it's hard to know, with all her happy talk. But I've gone to some trouble to find out, and it's not good. She now has Henry Kissinger as a friend and advisor (Henry Kissinger!) and Robert Kagan, designer of Cheney-Rumsfeld's blueprint for world domination ("The Project For A New American Century"--the infamous bible of the Neo-Cons).
It may be that you formed your opinion of Clinton early on, before there was much known about her activities as Secretary of State, or about the Clinton Foundation. And I suspect that, whatever you thought Hillary Clinton was, when you first formed an opinion about her, she has changed and changed in a very bad direction. She is a Neo-Con now, a war advocate. And she is basically a Republican now, funded by Big Money and beholden to Big Money.
I presume that you have a good heart and an open mind since you are a "born" Democrat. That's almost my definition of a Democrat, born or otherwise. So I just ask that you do some research, and ask yourself if you really know what Clinton's policies are, and whether or not you really agree with them.
Based on my comment in
Cali's OP
"No, I don't think Hillary and the dem establishment can put the party back together" again
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511999445
Comment #87
Thu May 19, 2016, 11:24 PM
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The desperation of the Clinton campaign is obvious. Its cause? I'm not sure.
It could be a number of things. FBI interviews and whatever the hell is going on in the backrooms of Washington DC about it (CIA/NSA pissed off? Obama ambivalent?), and Sanders big win (by a 12 pt margin) in Oregon ('Didn't we say that guy was toast?'). And maybe some other things as well. Wall Street getting nervous about their big investment? Neo-Cons disappointed? (They were assured a ride back into the White House.)
The latter forces gotta be worried about Trump. He may be a billionaire but he is unpredictable, and the one thing Wall Street and banksters hate is an unpredictable and uncontrollable president. As for the Neo-Cons and their plans, Trump may well be an old-fashioned Republican "isolationist" who wants to seal the borders, stay out of trouble in foreign lands and BE the business of "the business of America is business." Too late for that, but Trump is not Bush-Cheney (nor Hillary Clinton) as to Mideast wars, and he may cast a cold eye on "free trade," especially regarding jobs here--the most interesting grievance of many Trump supporters, and probably the most fundamental. Economic hardship has hit us all, including many Trump supporters. They see building "a wall" as the answer. We Sanders supporters see creating a new New Deal as the answer, and that's a much, much better answer. Walls are made to be broken down. But New Deal policies are made to spread the wealth, not to mention spreading good will around the world--the inspiration of rising expectations, the inspiration that democracy can really work for all.
And Clinton does not offer any believable hope in a new New Deal. Only Sanders offers that.
And that is probably why she barely wins and even loses in polls against Trump--while Sanders demolishes Trump. That has got to be aggravating to Camp Hillary, and a cause of desperation. She can't close the nomination deal; and it's a big question whether or not she can beat Trump, and this has to be very worrying to her donors.
It may even be the reason for Clinton's haggard looks and long absences, while Sanders, who is older, is still bouncing around from rally to rally, here, there and everywhere, like he was 25 years old, and only on occasion looks a bit beat. He doesn't look haggard, though. Haggard is different from mere tiredness after three campaign rallies in three states. Clinton looks deeply long term tired, and stiff and awkward, not flexible and resilient. Her face looks like she is constantly calculating her bank balance. Pinched, worried.
What is at the bottom of this desperation, which is so on display here at DU today, so obvious in the Corrupt Media the last couple of days, so painfully obvious in the collusive behavior of people I've previously admired, like Barbara Boxer, John Lewis and Dolores Huerta, and so visible in the malaise in Hillary's face and posture, when she shows herself?
I'm not at all convinced that the FBI will be able to do the right thing, if what they've concluded is that Hillary is indictable. I take as my lessons, 1) Patrick Fitzgerald, who said, of Dick Cheney, that "there is a cloud hanging over the vice president's office," and that THAT is a "political matter," not the venue of the Department of Justice (the issue being Cheney's outing of CIA spies); and 2) Barack Obama, who said, of the massive crimes and massive thievery of the Bush junta, "we must look forward not backward."
In short, justice is only for the little people, not for the rich and the powerful. IF the FBI thinks Clinton should be indicted, it's then up to AG Loretta Lynch, a Clinton supporter and long time ally, to start the legal proceedings and to prosecute. That may be why the FBI's report has been so long coming. Lynch may already be holding it up. (And she wouldn't be, if it exonerated Clinton.) And this may also be why President Obama called a reporter into the White House, a couple of weeks ago, for a personal one-on-one, and to every question about the FBI investigation of Clinton, Obama said, with great emphasis, "There has been NO political influence on the FBI investigation. Full stop!" Then he said it again, those exact same words, and again. NO influence. Full stop. Uh-huh.
Of course, the pressure of all this may be getting to Clinton, even if she isn't going to be indicted. That's a helluva cloud to have hanging over her campaign!
More than this, though--and especially if the CIA and NSA are in a tizzy about Clinton's national security breaches--is Clinton's fitness as President, if our chief law enforcement agency and our visible and not so visible intelligent establishment don't trust her, and would (or should) question even giving her a security clearance. She was, at minimum, cavalier with national security. And her relationship with Sydney Blumenthal, and the emails that were passing back and forth on her private server, and on his server (which we know got hacked), may well have broken national security laws and her own signed agreement with the government. How can she be President?
This question may be causing some of the haggardness in her face. Will they accept her into the inner sanctum or not? What do they want from her in exchange for accepting her as President? We most likely will never know what-all is occurring behind closed doors, but if it is all as dire as I and many others suspect, desperation in Clinton's demeanor and actions, desperation by her campaign and its adjunct, the DNC, and desperation by the Corrupt Media, which has so counted on Trump-Clinton kabuki theater, may be what we're seeing. The old edifice of Clintonism is hanging over a cliff, and ropes and pulleys are being used to try to pull it back onto its foundation: Clinton, the Inevitable.
And Sanders just keeps on keeping on. Ties one primary, wins another by 12 pts. This late in the game. Not decisive as to "the math"--yet. But oh what a show! Franklin and Eleanor must be smiling down on us from Heaven! As our benighted heroes fall off the cliff, one by one, out the windows of Clinton House, new heroes arise. And we even find ourselves to be heroes, once again. How amazing is that, in this benighted democracy?
Based on my comment in
Skwmom's OP
"The Desperation to get Bernie out of the race makes me wonder if something is expected"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511997455
Comment #55
Wed May 18, 2016, 05:09 PM
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I think we have to become a little savvier about how things are decided among the Oligarchs.
For instance, Donald Trump was nothing, politically--a clown, a joke--but the Corrupt Media gave him billions of dollars worth of free political ads from the moment he announced, with 24/7 coverage of his every sneeze for months and months. They CREATED Donald Trump, the candidate.
They meanwhile, of course, tried to bury Bernie Sanders in a black hole of no-coverage for the first six months of his campaign, and have treated him as a footnote to the 'news' that Clinton is 'winning,' even when he has blowout victories. Whatever the victory--no matter how big or surprising--'Sanders, of course, can't win.' And, for his 12 pt. victory in Oregon, they put on the "violent" Bernie show. You want this guy to beat up your grandmother?
It makes sense that the Corrupt Media DON'T WANT SANDERS' IDEAS ON TV, and of course are horrified at the idea that he could be elected. I mean, the Corrupt Media is bad. They're really very, very, very bad. They are a Stalinist-like propaganda machine for the rich. That's why they treat Sanders as they do.
But why would they create Trump?
He would not be an orderly, obedient, predictable servant to other rich people, like Hillary has promised to be. They've paid Hillary well to fill that role. But Trump? He could really fuck things up. He could crash the Stock Market by some dumb thing that he said. He might even investigate them if they annoy him. He might stumble over the "red button" as he falls into bed, drunk from an orgy in the Lincoln Bedroom. It's no end of funny, what he might do. But is that who they really want in charge of their investments?
So, why Trump?
Oh, yeah, he's starting to smell power now and he likes it. But I don't think he took it seriously at first. Now he does, or partly does. They've created a monster.
Why?
Well, if they really want Clinton as prez, to keep their billions out of the hands of the IRS, and other services (all under a "liberal" facade), they can't just declare her president. She has to run against somebody. What better foil, to make her look all "liberal" than a big baffoon who derides women and minorities and wants to build a wall around the country. That wall is a good spoof issue. Hillary can then defend "free trade for the rich." No wall.
I read somewhere that Bill encouraged Trump to run. (Was it Trump who said it? Har.) If so, this could be why. Hillary needed a foil. Someone not interested in the presidency, someone totally non-serious about public policy. Someone who would shoot his mouth off. Someone who is even more despised and distrusted than she is by the American people.
Writing this comment has got me giggling. It's so funny it may be true. They manufactured Trump to run against Hillary and lose!
But now he wants to win. Maybe. Does this partyman really want the responsibility of being president? What does the Pentagon think of this prospect? The CIA? The FBI? The NSA? Bank of America? Canada? The Saudis? Israel? Putin? (Oh, Putin might recognize a kindred spirit--they could have snarling matches.) But, really, the serious war profiteers, et al, don't want a farce, do they? They don't want to look like idiots when they bomb and invade and do their thing. They don't want the world laughing at them! Do they?
So, the Oligarchs were not serious. Trump was just a stepping stone for Queen Hillary.
Then came Bernie Sanders.
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Based on my comment (#9) in
Jilian's OP
Interesting conversation I had yesterday at a meeting.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1280198654
Comment #9
Thu May 19, 2016, 12:46 AM
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"Sanders is playing with fire"? No, he IS fire!
FEEL THE BERNE!
His fire is igniting the hearts of millions of people, whose hearts had been dead, dead, dead, killed by demoralization, disempowerment and disenfranchisement. Killed by the Corrupt Media. Killed by the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines which gave us an 8%-approval-rating Congress and really, really, really bad governors in many states. Killed by endless war. Killed by increasing poverty. Killed by the death of the American Dream, that your children will do better than you did. Killed by all the homeless misery they see all around them. Killed by the insurance companies. Killed by Big Pharma. Killed by Big Oil. Killed by "free trade for the rich." Killed by Reagan. Killed by Clinton. Killed by Bush. Maybe a heartbeat or two under Obama. Then, slam-bang, killed by the prospect of a Clinton vs. Trump kabuki show that will reduce voter participation to an even more disgraceful level than in 2012.
The dead heart of America has been touched by fire! One million people have been newly registering to vote in California!** The Sanders campaign has won amazing victories all over the country, as recently as this week in Oregon by a 12 pt. margin. With all the handicaps placed on this campaign from the outside (hostile media, hostile Democratic Party moguls, lies and dirty tricks, voter purges, David Brock)--and internal handicaps like no superpac and no corporate/billionaire money--the campaign should have withered on the vine, as a noble fringe effort to reform the unreformable.
But it didn't die. The flame grew and grew and grew until it is now a blaze in many hearts throughout the land, and an inspiration to people around the world, that U.S. democracy is still alive.
The cold panic and hysteria of those with money-soiled hands and souls couldn't be more evident than in the last few days with the "swift-boating" of Sanders as "violent" by the Corrupt Media, at the instigation of the corrupt Clinton campaign, and by cold-fingered knifings like this article, which trot out every nasty little thing that the author (or his mentor) could think of, to ridicule the best thing that has happened in our country in about 50 years: The Bern.
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**(It was 850,000 new registered voters in California as of March. It will likely reach one million by the May 23 deadline. Most of these are Democrats. Most are young voters.)
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Based on my comment in
Albertoo's OP
Washington Post: Sanders Is Playing With Fire
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512011717
Comment #47
Fri May 20, 2016, 12:09 AM
= new reply since forum marked as read
K & R
Thank you Peace Patriot for the great read. This is just what I needed to start my day.
Your collection of posts made me think of important opinion pieces I USED to read in the New York Times and other papers. This type of honesty rarely appears in their pages anymore. The villagers in Washington and others who believed in the ideals of the Democratic Party are mostly gone. The leaders we have now are mostly those who sold out their principles and ideals ages ago to advance their careers and add to their bank accounts. Our current "leaders" now stand shoulder to shoulder blocking the door to the corridors of power from the people who want to come in and clean it out and reclaim it for their own. They're terrified that the career they sold their souls to get will be at risk when honesty and fair play comes to town.
In this campaign we have seen many of the heroes we once admired, who have now apparently sold themselves to help the status quo perpetuate their ruinous vision for America. Whether this was out of vanity or for promises of power, money or influence we will never know. We only know that we are saddened to see it. We feel duped and disheartened that they could sell out what they fought their entire lives to achieve for so little in return. This rejection of integrity more than anything is what really informs us just how bad it is in our country.
I'm so happy that Bernie chose to run. Because he is a man of great moral integrity he is the perfect spokesperson for our revolution. His perseverance throughout his entire career is a lesson that I hope the young people in this campaign take to heart. They will have many challenges throughout their lives. They will be tempted many times to abandon their ideals & ethics by people who have long since given up their own. They will be told that to be smart you have to go along to get along. I hope when those moments of conscience come that they remember Bernie and choose wisely for themselves. Bernie was steadfast in holding onto what he believed was right. He's lived a modest life. He's had some successes and some failures. He wasn't a household name for most of his life. For a Senator he worked and lived in relative obscurity. He refused to sell out his beliefs to enrich himself. But I would bet Bernie Sanders is a lot happier with his life than most of those people who gave up their ideals for power and money. And in the end he will be remembered in the hearts and minds of more citizens of this country when he's gone than all of the sell-outs combined.
I didn't mean to write a book on this post but Peace Patriot you just inspired me too much. 
I am in awe of your eloquence!
and stay there. 
Fookin' awesome!
his stripes is the apex of delusion.
Thanks for the thread and peace to you. 
