What if Bernie had run in 2016?

I think he would have won. After all, he represents a state which is a historically red state. However, despite what Fox News tells you, The Democratic party is in no way "left wing". They preferred to lose with Clinton than win with Sanders.

After all, he is  a threat to the big donors for the duopoly.

Trump isn't.

Is PBS Credible anymore?

I am going to make a disclaimer that I believe in true public broadcasting, but US public broadcasting is commercial. It has commercials in the form of "underwriting" by large corporations, which is pretty much the same thing as being commercial. Yes, the fact that it is not free of big money influence make it a part of the rest of US media. Big business can threaten to take away its money and PBS is SCREWED--BIG TIME!

Which takes us to this clip from PBS News Hour where one of the commentators says "There hasn't been any obvious gaffes, big scandals, or anything like that."

Funny how Hunter's Laptop has been missing from the media (and I never heard back from Burisma about my job application).

It will probably also be missing again this election cycle (PBS shut off comments to this).

  

I should add that these two clowns are from the New York Times and the Washington Post. The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos who would be eating 50 cent burritos if the duopoly wasn't in power and was whacked by someone vaguely like Bernie Sanders enforcing US competition laws.

I live in hope for that day.

But this gets to where Fox News is wrong: The Democrats are nowhere near left wing. In fact, the Republicans have also strayed from their true populist roots, which makes it even funnier when I read Shot in the Foot's blog: they might want to look up Minnesota Justice Harry Blackmun. Or even better, look up Richard Nixon's comments about firearms ownership.

As I like to say, I was rather shocked when I watched a documentary about Nixon (on PBS) and realised how lefty he seemed in the early 1990s!

Sorry for the digression, but US Politics has moved to the right. The Democratic Party has pretty much extinguished anything vaguely New Deal-Roosevelt, which means that someone like Bernie Sanders has no part in that party. Which is why I distrust anyone who claims to be to the left and is associated with that party. It cannot be fixed from within.

The reason that Biden is president is that he appeals to the big donors, which is why the Tech giants can deny the existance of Hunter's laptop and what it means to Joe Biden. So, that really wasn't that much of a digression. 

There isn't much of a "lefty media" in the US other than some things on the internet (E.g.: Real News Network and Democracy Now), but they don't have much of an audience. Which means we are left with Fox News and Sky News Australia who get only part of the story, and are taken about as seriously as Democracy Now.

I feel like someone in occupied Europe trying to get reliable information when I look at the US media because it isn't there.

"All the News fit to Print" is propaganda, or at least explains their editorial policy in that they only feel they need to print what they believe should be printed. 

And Hunter's laptop and associated scandal is nowhere to be seen.

A vote for the Green Party is...a vote for the Green Party (or any other third party for that matter)

 OK, I didn't vote for John Fetterman in the last Pennsylvania Election (FYI once one emmigrates from the US, one votes in the last place they were domiciled--it seems I am currently stuck with Philadelphia due to bureaucratic BS). I don't like him for a variety of reasons, but I also Demexited in 2016 and haven't looked back on the duopoly since. I'm not going to get into why I dislike the "Berners" who have remained within the Democratic Party other than to say that I dislike them.

I voted Green in 2022 even though Dr. Oz was not my type. Although, I was walking around singing "Arc en Ciel" the day of the election...

 

De toute façon...

My point, My vote for Jill Stein in 2016 didn't change the election result, the electoral college did that. And the Russians had nothing to do with that, unless you want to tell me that Catherine the Great promised the Continental Congress a "Donkey Show" a few centuries later on.

My Green Party votes haven't changed the results since the duopoly pretty much runs things for the time being in the US. And no matter what Fox news tries to tell people, there really isn't that much of a difference between the two parties.

Seriously, if the "Democrats" really were socialists, they would have run Sanders in 2016 (and 2020) and won.

Electoral college or not.

But the duopoly doesn't want that to happen. And anyone who remains within the duopoly is a traitor to the movement behind Bernie.

Three Arrows on "America's Coming Weimar Moment"

One of the reasons I Demexited in 2016 was that the Democratic Party really has no ideology: despite what Fox News and other rightwing media outlets would like to pretend. On the other hand, the Republicans have firmly planted themselved in the right. Had there been a real opposition, the US wouldn't be in the situation it is.

I strongly believe that there will be a radical reshaping of US Political system since it really isn't a Democratic Republic, or even the promised republic, by any stretch of the imagination. The founders knew there would have to be systemic changes, but the system has stagnated such that it is a one party system.

Three Arrows has a really super analysis of how the system will collapse: and it isn't from the duopoly kayfabe. 

Which is what Trump was really talking about, Not "Kovfefe".

Cut the distractions and work for change.

And the bad news is: You can't blame Donald Trump for what is wrong in the US anymore.

Of course, the people with Trump Derangement Syndrome probably will continue to do so long after he has passed from the scene.

Seriously, I wasn't sure which would be worse: Trump winning the same way he did in 2016 by taking the electoral college, but not the popular vote. Or Joe Biden winning and then having to deal with all his shit.

It looks like option two is the one on the cards. With an addition of Horrible Harris to make the package even more fun to swallow.

The real problem is that the "Democrats" spent the past four years blaming everything and everybody, but the people responsible for making Donald Trump president in the first place.

The "Democrats" themselves.

Toss in that the system is pretty much a mess to begin with.

I walked away in 2016 with the Demexit and will not go back, but the system has to catch up with those of us who know it is broken. The electoral system is in serious need of reform and trying to pass the blame on the other guy won't help the situation.

Not sure how to title this post about the presidential election results

I guess I should have known that the wrong conclusions would be made however the election turned out. I've already pointed out that the right/centre of the "Democratic" party is blaming the left for the poor results. No one is addressing that not having any real policy set out other than "orange man bad" might not be a good way to win votes.

While Fox News and Sky News Australia may try to paint Biden and Harris as extreme lefties: they are anything but. The Green New Deal, Fracking, Medicare for All and all those "lefty" ideas probably won't see the light of day, or will be transformed into something unrecognisable. FAIR's Counterspin pointed out:

After a historic election turnout, driven by mobilizations like Black Lives Matter, that signaled the longed-for end of the Trump presidency, it's sad to see corporate Democrats leap to blame the left, including activists, for denying the party a landslide—and call for immediate, compensatory overtures to the right. Sad, but not surprising, as that's been the practice of elite Democrats and their media abettors for decades.

    When Michael Dukakis chose Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate, he turned his back not just on Jesse Jackson, but on two decades of Democratic Party thinking. He sent an unmistakable message to the activist constituencies of the Democratic Party that the days of litmus-test liberalism are over.

That's the Washington Post's David Broder in 1988.

You could say everything old is new again, but corporate media's allegiance to an ever-drifting "center" gets more dangerous by the day.

Fair.org's Counterspin

In other words, AOC and Black Lives Matter can pretend all they want that there will be a leftward shift in the party. But the Dems will throw them under the bus as soon as they get their vote in favour of the big donors. "Creepy Joe" Biden and Hillary Clinton weren't chosen as front runners well in advance because they were popular or strong candidates. They were chosen because they brought the big money.

There were a whole lot of other black women out there who would have been a much better choice than Horrible Harris. Horrible Harris was the choice of the big donors in Silicon Valley. Black Lives Matter should have burned the country down the moment they knew Harris's record as a prosecutor if they had any real power. My guess is that Black Lives Matter will be forgotten until 2022, or maybe relegated to the dust bin because of the things that were said and unsaid in the Abigail Spanberger leaked phone call.

It was Groucho, not Karl, if the BLM person was a Marxist organiser. I was pretty certain that the "peaceful protests" were going to result in a Trump win, but the only thing those really generated was a run on "assault rifles" and "ammunition". Still, "Defund the Police" was enough to get some "Democrats" into squeaker situations. But was that actually the reason that people like Spanberger and Madeline Dean found themselves in tight races?

Nevermind, the "Democrats" have a long history of being anti-progressive and no matter of polling data that some of the ideas floated by the "socialists" were popular will change that opinion of the right/centre wing. The left needs to move on since the "Democrats" talk "big tent", but the reality is that one needs to follow the party line. Whatever the fuck that happens to be.

AOC, Black Lives Matter, and the rest of the vindictive branch of the "Democratic" party need to be careful. They go against the people with the power and they find they are the ones to be purged.

If they don't realise that they should exit the party to one more favourable to their ideals.

Another person's reasons for voting Green

I am posting this, which is the opinion of another Green Voter.  I don't agree with everything this person says, but the reasoning is pretty much what I was hearing from the people who didn't vote for Clinton.

I think these opinions need to get out there because there is too much nonsense being spread about what happened in 2016 without examining what really went on.

Open letter to Michelle Obama:
Dear Mrs. Obama,
At the Inbound 2017 conference in Boston you said;
"Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice,"
Over the last couple days, I've been thinking about your comments on women that didn't vote for Hillary Clinton.
I guess I'll start with saying I wanted to respond immediately, but was so angry I decided it would be best to let it sit for a bit while I processed my thoughts and emotions.
Looking at the words you chose to use is very telling-"voting against Hillary." In some way, it appears you recognize just how bad a candidate she was, that women would feel the need to "vote against" her.
I agree, many women did cast a vote against her. I have no doubt that a very large majority can tell you exactly why they did.
See Michelle, as a lifelong Democrat, I volunteered for Sen. Obama in '08. I used all of my vacation and sick time and took a leave of absence from my job at Kennedy Space Center to help get the good senator elected. I have art from the campaign office hanging in my kitchen; it has a nice positive message and in very large colorful letters it says "Yes We Can!"
There's a picture of now former VP Joe Biden, my husband, and myself at the campaign office on my fridge.
But I was not one of those that "voted against" Hillary Clinton even though there were plenty reasons to. Before my vote, there was a year of consideration, watching debates and speeches, knocking on doors, making phone calls, writing checks, discussing the candidates with friends and family, going to the DNC Convention, and don't forget crying. Oh, there was crying.
There was crying because of the missed opportunities, the lies and deceptions. I might not have voted against anything or anyone, but I sure as Hell was not going to vote for more of that.
My vote went to the other woman on the ticket, my vote went to the person I felt had the platform and moral integrity that most aligned with my beliefs.
I long for the day a woman sits behind the desk in the Oval Office of the White House, and I pray it happens in my lifetime. But it can't just be any woman, it has to be the right woman.
Hillary's loss had nothing to do with husbands telling their wives how to vote or not knowing one's voice. This was one of the most closely followed and well financed elections in our country's history. No, it has everything to do with Hillary's record and the Neo-Liberal agenda of your husband that at every turn, Hillary said she said she wanted to advance.
That brings me to my second point.
Where was your voice?
Where was your voice, Michelle, when your Peace Prize winning husband dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016 alone on a plethora of countries without even having the good grace or decency to declare war on these people? All told, he bombed 7 different countries. I'm curious, do you know the number of innocent women and children that were killed or maimed by these bombs? It must be in the 10's of thousands. Did you talk about this with your husband when you laid down at night?
Where was your voice when Barrack (our self proclaimed environmental president) signed off on a record number of natural gas, oil pipelines, and renewed drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?
Where was your voice when human rights violations were being committed on American and Native Peoples in Standing Rock by the same police President Obama allowed to become militarized, including using chemical agents that, according to the Geneva Convention, are illegal in warfare. As well as allowing private contractors to set dogs on peaceful people, using water cannons on them at well below freezing temperatures, shooting people with exploding devices that blew a large part of a young women's arm off. Where was your voice then Michelle?
Where was your voice when your husband gave trillions in taxpayers dollars to the big banks that caused the crash of '08 mere months after appointing the very cabinet that CitiGroup told him to? (thank you Wikileaks for that email)
I suppose it's no surprise that none of these bankers were jailed or that the rules are still in place that would allow the very same scenario to happen again.
Where was your voice when your husband, who was voted in on a platform of labeling GMOs, decided to side with Monsanto?
Where was your voice, Michelle, when record breaking numbers of People of Color were being shot down like dogs in the streets by the police your husband helped militarize? Where was your voice when for profit prison slavery continued on and on and on?
Where was your voice when newly elected President Obama didn't fight with everything he had for a public option? For me, this was the first indication that something was rotten in Rome. See, I'd just finished fighting for my life not only against breast cancer but having breast cancer with no health insurance.
Where was your voice when your husband deported 2.5 million undocumented people?
Where was your voice when your husband signed the NDAA making government propaganda legal and making it legal to assassinate and imprison Americans w/o charge or trial.
Where was your voice when he used Espionage Act to prosecute more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined? Or when he pushed the TPP?
Where Michelle, where was your voice when your husband said that our elections are not rigged when in one precinct alone, over 100,000 voters were purged from voter rolls, Donna Brazil was giving Hillary the questions to debates, or when DNC head Debbie Wasserman-Schultz resigned under the dark cloud of corruption from the DNC, only to be hired by Hillary?
Where was your voice when the Super Delegates declared their votes at the beginning of the primary?
Where was your voice when during the DNC Fraud Lawsuit Federal Judge Zloch said, "Democracy deserves the truth."
I could go on, but you know the record, you had a front row seat.
In closing, I'll acknowledge I've asked you a lot of questions, but my real question is this:
Michelle, do you know your voice?

Why I left the Democratic Party and went back to being independent.

OK, Hillary Clinton wasn't the only reason, but her candidacy was the final revulsion in a long string of signs that the Democratic party didn't want, or care about my vote.

I can really start this timeline with when I read a quote from Jomo Kenyatta something along the line of "does having two parties make you twice as democratic as we are?" Kenya was a one Party State and western democracies, such as the US, were trying to push "multiparty democracy".

One of the cold war staples was "free and fair elections", which seems laughable after the 2016 Presidential election.

I came up with this a while back (probably after the Philadelphia DNC).

My timeline is:
1980--Supported Anderson, but ended up voting for Carter, who lost anyway.
2000--Gore wins the popular vote, yet doesn't become president
2004--The Candidate I wanted to vote for, Gen. Wes Clark, dropped out before I had a chance to vote for him.
2008--Clinton v. Obama--Obama won and the pact was made for 2016
2015--Clinton is chosen to be democratic nominee before any votes are cast.  Sanders is "drafted" by popular demand.
2016--Sanders does well to my surprise, but the system is totally rigged against him.
--AP calls the primaries for Clinton before the largest state in the Union, California, has voted along with 6 other states and territories.
--Between AP calling the election and DNC in Philly, it becomes obvious that I have no voice in the primary selection process and I DEMEXIT.
--DNC Philly makes it clear the Democratic Party isn't.
--Clintonite overconfidence that Trump will lose.

US parties are supposed to be "coalitions", but that doesn't really work and the Republicans have become the party of the "right" (I won't call it conservative since it isn't),  The Democrats the party of the "Left": although many progressives and liberals are showing disgust with the Democratic Party (as are a lot of  conservatives with the Republican Party).

Sanders was willing to take his candidacy to the end of the cycle.  I have to admit that I was surprised he did as well as he did.  But the Democratic Party isn't truly "democratic" and Clinton was the chosen candidate.  It was said that the Dems preferred to lose with Clinton than win with Sanders.

But it is the lack of democracy in the process and unwillingness of either party to address this problem which drove me to the Greens.  The Greens were the only party talking election reform.  After all, Clinton was more about the big donors than the little guy (as the Sanders phenomenon pointed out).

It is the continued scapegoating with silly theories about Russian involvement, when it is pretty obvious that what cost the election was the electoral college.  Neither third party candidate on their own stole the vote from Clinton either: numbers here.

Quite frankly, the reason I voted for Jill Stein over Hillary Clinton was that Stein was the only candidate who was addressing the issues I cared for: including election reform.  I am not sure whether people who supported Clinton really knew, or cared, what she believed in.  I say this because one of the incentives for writing this is a run in with a Clinton supported who somehow believed Clinton wasn't a hawk.

Quite frankly, I don't think it made a lot of sense to try and debate hardcore Clinton supporters because I am not sure what they thought about Clinton or her politics.  I only know I didn't like what I saw when it came to her policies. 

They weren't what I believe in.

Or that I could trust her.

The problem with the Russian scapegoating is that if you analyse it, you find that the real failures were from the Democratic Party.  But it's a lot easier to blame someone else than address the systemic failings of US politics.  And I won't be voting for the two major parties unless some drastic changes happen.

Quite frankly, it was not the Russians, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, or anyone beside the "Democratic" Party which drove me back into being independent.  I doubt I will bother with wasting my vote in a sham primary election (or showing much interest in that process).  Bernie and the Greens point out how much of a sham the current political situation is in the US, which is why I went with them.

Addition:

It was also influential that the Clinton camp (and pretty much everybody) was pointing out that

I would put money they are sorry they said things like this.

Trump would never win.  I can remember at least three predictions of a Clinton landslide.  Well, Clinton did get more popular votes, but the prediction of her winning was premature. I can say that most of the factors in my deciding to bolt from the Democratic party was due to their actions, not "Russian interference" of any sort. I think that goes for most people who voted for Third Parties.

Or just plain didn't vote.

Any real discussion of the election should try to address the real issues that led to Trump being President.

See also:

• The Democrats' performance as an opposition party? Pathetic 
• Why Did My Union Give an Early Endorsement to Hillary Clinton Over Bernie Sanders?