Fair Game: Why Bernie Should Keep Going
by John Atcheson
"Sanders’ run was never about him," writes Atcheson. "It was about trying to seize the country back from the Oligarchy, and giving it to
the people."
Commenter "DL T88":
EXACTLY. This is OUR campaign and movement that is being sidelined and lied about in the media. It is the PEOPLE Hillary is running against -- not just Bernie.
Another commenter ("atelios") at Common Dreams has compiled a map showing Clinton's and Sanders' primary wins county by county, with this message:
Yesterday I spent all day working on a graphic I put together, from the graphic results I have been following over at Huffington Post (I took a plain map of USA I found on Internet, and then took each state's results map and sized/rotated that to fit on the USA map). See I noticed that Bernie kept winning lots of counties even though he wasn't always winning the eventual vote total. But it just makes him look like his popularity is sweeping the country. Go check out this graphic and decide who you think deserves to represent the entire country in the White House. And share it with anyone you care to. I'll try to update it as the primary races continue...
If the nomination was based on amount of land area won by the candidates, I think Bernie Sanders would win by a landslide! Too bad mother nature can't vote. .........atelios
Click on image for larger version. Blue = Sanders, green = Clinton
It's Music Monday, and it's the anniversary of the birthday of
Ella Fitzgerald. She has some wise words to share with any deflated Bernie supporters out there:
It's unfortunate that Martin O'Malley withdrew at the start of his campaign. I think he would have eventually made some headway, but it required funding that he obviously didn't have. His stay in the race would have decreased Hillary's count and, between O'Malley and Sanders, more of Hillary's subterfuge would have surfaced. Bernie has been far too kind. O'Malley would probably have still been third, but Hillary's edge would have been decreased. Oh, well!
ReplyDeleteBill Clinton is in the news this morning, because he stated that millennials didn't vote in the 2010 midterm, allowing the Republican take-over, and now they're angry. There's definitely truth to that, though the entire population of Democratic and Independent voters were paltry that year, as always. Bernie is echoing that sentiment, stating Sunday that poor people aren't inclined to vote. I commented on your Rensin post with statistics of the American eligible-to-vote vs registered voters...about 33% of the eligible population doesn't even register to vote...appalling! Many people vote against their own better interests and some don't even register to vote to protect their interests!
Re - atelios' geographical voting map...the Republicans have been using that type of data for years...it's called gerrymandering...LOL. Gerrymandering (redistricting) is of no use in primaries, but is invaluable for the actual midterm and presidential elections. Most of the rural areas throughout the USA are conservative strongholds. Bernie may be claiming land area in the primaries, but he'd forfeit those areas in the presidential election to the Republicans. A challenge to Texas' redistricting was recently decided by the Supreme Court:
"The U.S. Supreme Court handed Texas a victory Monday, upholding the state’s system of drawing legislative voting districts based on everyone who lives there — not just registered voters.
But it was liberal groups, rather than the Republican-controlled state’s top leaders, who applauded the 8-0 ruling loudest since it likely bolsters the voting power of Texas’ booming Latino population over sparsely populated rural areas dominated by conservatives."
http://lubbockonline.com/texas/2016-04-05/supreme-court-ruling-texas-redistricting-cheers-democrats#.Vx45qEdX7IV
mike ~ Good point about O'Malley. I too wish he'd fought on for longer. He'll be one for the future, perhaps. I think Hillary's huge lead in the early weeks and months of primary season must have been terribly scary and off-putting to other candidates and prospective candidates. This was what DNC wanted, of course - a clear road for their chosen one. They are now royally pissed off that Bernie has proved indefatigable.
ReplyDeleteYou and I can't understand why people don't want to vote, have a seeming blindspot when it comes to the need to vote. I have no interest whatever in sports - a kind of comparable focus of disinterest, but with less impact on life and society in general. I have no ideas as to why people don't vote. I looked for comparable figures for the UK -
http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout45.htm
They do better there than the USA, but numbers have gradually decreased since early 1990s. Of course, the UK is comparable, in size, to a single large state here, so not really a valid comparison.
I added that map as a purely optical optimistic image really, to counteract any pessimistic feelings following the NY primary last week. :-)
Since you brought-up sports:
ReplyDelete"A U.S. appeals court on Monday restored the four-game 'Deflategate' suspension of New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady over allegations footballs he used were under inflated before an NFL playoff game in 2015."
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/04/25/u-s-appeals-court-restores-bradys-deflategate-suspension/21350554/
I'm certainly not a "team" sports' enthusiast, but I do enjoy individual sports like track, skiing, gymnastics, swimming-diving, etc., though some of those are played in teams during the Olympics. I do follow some of the controversies surrounding many team sports and the NE Patriots' Tom Brady. Evidence highly suggests he knew of and condoned the deflation. There's big money in these games and so little accountability. I've been following the concussion issue, too...the NFL has been in corrupt denial and they caused tremendous harm to the medical doctor that first correlated concussions to true brain abnormalities. Surprising how greed and avarice appear in so many human enterprises...politics is but a sideline.
mike (again) ~ Greed - one of the 7 Deadlies. We just can't quit our 7 Deadlies can we? ;-)
ReplyDeleteSport in general is my total blind spot. I read headlines at Huff-Post on such topics as you mention, but the words slip through my brain without properly connecting.
I used to have an interest in boxing, because late partner had had some connection with the sport and was a keen follower - but back then there were big personalities involved: Ali, Sugar Ray, Frazier, Foreman, Henry Cooper, Lennox Lewis etc etc etc. It's not the same these days.
I happened onto this listing of top astrology blogs:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.blogmetrics.org/astrology
Scroll downward and notice your ranking by categories. Bravo, girl! You're in the top listings.
mike (again) ~ LOL! Thanks! Goodness me - I haven't seen those listings for years.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Facebook would have made them defunct by now. It's nice to see that some of the guys and gals who helped me when I first started out in 2006/7 are still at the top of most of those lists. :-)