SunSeeker
SunSeeker's JournalMy Pictures from Hillary's Joyful Westminster CA Rally Yesterday!
I have never attended a political really before. I have been involved politically for decades, attending tons of protests and been an abortion clinic escort, but this is the first time I have gone to a rally just to hear a politician speak. I live in Southern California, national politicians rarely come to a blue state whose voting outcome is usually no mystery, and since I live in red Orange County, if they do come, it is Republicans to fund-raise. But then I heard about Hillary coming to Westminster, CA. It had been announced on short notice Thursday night as an added stop via text message to supporters in the area. I live only 10 minutes away so I decided to skip out of work early and go.
In the parking lot I saw this colorful Hillary supporter with her Hillarymobile:
Everyone was buzzing about her game-changing foreign policy speech the day before that eviscerated Trump. People had lined up for hours in the hot sun, waiting patiently single file. When I got there the line was winding way down the street and as it grew, people feared they'd never get in because it was a small venue, the Westminster Rose Center. Once they opened the doors, it took about an hour to get in because of having to go through bag search and metal detectors. I was happy I finally got in and was enjoying the air conditioning, even though it was standing room only. The crowd was very diverse. This venue was in an area called Little Saigon, with a large Vietnamese-American population.
Before Hillary started to speak, we were entertained by an amazing traditional Vietnamese drum quartet from a local high school, and several celebrities spoke, including gold medal figure skater Michelle Kwan. Sorry about the picture quality, but it was hard to hold my phone steady in all the excitement and moving crowds.
It was surreal seeing Hillary in person. I have never seen Hillary so relaxed and energized. They took away the podium the other speakers had been using so that she had room to move around the stage; all she had was a wireless microphone, no teleprompter or notes. At one point her mic went out and she joked that "I know I shouldn't shout..." (hearkening back when Bernie suggested she was shouting when talking about gun control!) Her Trump U comments ("he is gonna Trump U!"
brought a roar of laughter. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic and repeatedly cheered and clapped. After she finished her speech (she spoke for about 30 minutes) she went down into the audience and shook hands and took selfies for people as the crowd surged forward to all try to get near her. She took a lot of time to do this and looked like she was really enjoying herself. The people loved it, but the Secret Service agents clearly were not happy with this part, as you can see from the pictures. Even though I was about three rows of people back, I reached my hand through their heads (I'm pretty tall with long arms) and shouted her name. Hillary heard me and reached through the heads, smiled at me and shook my hand! So cool!!
Thank you BootinUp for finding the full video of the rally! 
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1107&pid=154313 (Hillary does her hilarious Trump U bit at about 19:30)
Clinton: ‘It Took A Reporter To Shame’ Trump Into Coughing Up Donation To Vets
“He's bragged for months about raising $6 million for veterans and donating a million dollars himself,” Clinton told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But it took a reporter to shame him into actually making his contribution and getting the money to veterans. So look, I'm glad he finally did but I don't know that he should get much credit for that.”
Trump skipped out on a January GOP debate in order to raise money for veterans’ charities but never announced how much the fundraiser took in or where the funds were going until The Washington Post published a story questioning his claims last week. The Associated Press reported that about half of the 41 organizations to which Trump’s campaign donated received checks in the past week, typically dated May 24, the day the Post’s story was published.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-took-reporter-shame-trump-delivering-funds-veterans
The strange saga of the Sanders-Trump debate that was, then wasn't
So Bernie über-supporter Cenk Uygur was the first to suggest the gimmick to end all gimmicks. ... Jill Stein wanted in! Because if this horror show was going to happen, every fringe candidate needed to be in on it.
...
But alas, Sanders fell into the trap everyone falls into (and I mean everyone) when they assume that Trump means anything he says. Remember, the stuff out of his mouth are just “suggestions.” So when he said “I’ve been saying that should happen,” he actually didn’t mean that he’d been saying that it should happen. He was merely suggesting that he’d been saying that. Because today, Sanders’ hopes and dreams were dashed.
But given that his entire campaign at this point is “get the superdelegates to undemocratically nullify the will of the Democratic primary electorate, because fuck democracy,” let’s take stock of how many superdelegates were impressed by this stunt:
Zero.
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/1531254
CNN: In Trump attacks, Clinton finds her voice
But that changed this week in California when she turned her full attention to Donald Trump. With the brash real estate magnate as her full-time foil, Clinton finally seemed to find her voice.
...
In speech after speech across the Golden State, Clinton delivered a fiery, point-by-point takedown of the real estate magnate, casting him as a greedy bully who was eager to profit from the financial woes of the middle class Americans who lost homes and jobs in the 2008 economic crash.
...
Why on earth would we elect somebody president who actually rooted for the collapse of the market?" she said with indignation in Riverside as the crowd roared their approval and chanted her name. "The fact is Donald Trump thought he could make money off of people's misery."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-attacks/index.html
Go Hillary!!
Great Piece in the Sacramento Bee About Sanders' Playing the Victim
...
Bernie Sanders was supposed to be above the usual pettiness of politics. So much for that.
In the past few of weeks, Sanders has gone from someone seemingly capable of walking on water to someone diving headfirst into the political muck. His campaign has engaged in one ego-stroking, victim-baiting, politically calculated act after another – none of which serve the greater good of uniting the Democratic Party long enough to defeat Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
...
There’s a real danger in Sanders casting himself, his campaign and, by extension, his legion of mostly white supporters as victims.
People who falsely believe they are victims get caught up in their victimhood. They lose track of who the real victims are and often end up fighting for themselves instead. Politics at its finest.
...
Anyone who is really a victim of a rigged system – black people who get chewed up and spit out by the criminal justice system, women still fighting for equal pay – wouldn’t dare threaten to stay home in November if Clinton gets the nomination. They wouldn’t dare let Trump take the presidency.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/erika-d-smith/article79432037.html#storylink=cpy
Sure looks to me like California is not feeling the Bern.
In CA swing, Bill Clinton tells voters to ‘just relax’ about Hillary’s chances
Clinton’s remarks Monday, without citing polling worrisome to many Democrats, served to counter Sanders’ argument that he is the better candidate to oppose Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. Clinton said his wife has faced opposition from Republicans for years and that her campaign will “get a new shot when the general election starts.”
“Just relax,” Clinton told about 800 supporters at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Stockton. “In the end, the American people are fundamentally fair-minded.”
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article79418852.html#storylink=cpy
TPM: Time to Press Donald on Whether He Raped His Wife?
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After The Daily Beast resurfaced Ivana's claims that Donald had raped her, she issued another statement saying the story, which was based entirely on her own sworn deposition, was "totally without merit." Yet again, she didn't dispute her words or the incident itself. It is true that lots of accusations get made during acrimonious divorces. But this was a pretty concrete and specific. And the author of the book that first surfaced the deposition said he'd found numerous friends of Ivana's who she had confided the incident to at the time.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/time-to-press-donald-on-raping-his-wife
Bernie Sanders, Eyeing Convention, Willing to Harm Hillary Clinton in the Homestretch
Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders, said the campaign did not think its attacks would help Mr. Trump in the long run, but added that the senator’s team was “not thinking about” the possibility that they could help derail Mrs. Clinton from becoming the first woman elected president.
“The only thing that matters is what happens between now and June 14,” Mr. Devine said, referring to the final Democratic primary, in the District of Columbia. “We have to put the blinders on and focus on the best case to make in the upcoming states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/us/politics/bernie-sanderss-campaign-accuses-head-of-dnc-of-favoritism.html
Yep, I'd say they have their blinders on all right.
Bernie and Jane Sanders: The Democratic Party’s Thelma and Louise
That’s what Bernie is. If he’d stayed in Brooklyn, he’d have been a Socialist Scholars Conference hectorer. He had the wisdom to move to a podunk state, and the luck to do so just as it was becoming the place where all the aging hippies were moving and so he became a mayor and then a House member and, finally and exaltedly, a senator.
All that said I give him some credit. He’s much better on the big stage than I thought he’d be. And I certainly don’t have contempt for all his supporters. I am friends with some of his supporters. I love some of his supporters—not that way, but dear friends, extended family, like that. And I think most of his supporters are rational people who’ll accept the reality that he just didn’t get as many votes as the other person and in November will vote for the other person.
But they’re not what’s at issue here. What’s at issue here is the people who won’t accept reality, and in particular the Pied Piper who’s blowing on the flute and waltzing them off the pier. He is becoming a sputtering joke, a man who lost 58-42 and thought—really, truly thought, deep down in his kishkes—that it was stolen from him. And his aides, according to a New York Times piece posted Wednesday night, are ready to "harm" Clinton over the course of the next month, because Sanders also believes these farkakte general-election polls taken before anyone has spent a single dollar attacking him.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/19/bernie-and-jane-sanders-the-democratic-party-s-thelma-and-louise.html
SNL Cold Open Spoofs Trump fake PR guy & VP picks
You knew the John Miller thing would be on SNL, right?
http://www.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2016/05/15/donald-trump-vp-snl-sot-newday.cnn
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Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA
Current location: Southern California
Member since: Sun Mar 20, 2011, 12:05 PM
Number of posts: 51,744
