We Said It Was a Corrupt Oligarchy. UPDATE: I Just Figured It Out! A Bit More Update: FBI Connection?
Therefore, it's no surprise when it behaves like one.
Bernie said there was corruption. Well, we found it.
The only surprise here is that they were this ham-handed and blatant, seriously jumping the gun when there was no need to, using a method which could create a lot more blowback than other, subtler methods.
Their move with the AP is actually a misstep, though how bad a misstep remains to be seen. Like banks, Clintons can make terrible strategic and tactical errors without taking much damage. In role-playing-game parlance, they have a lot of DR (damage reduction).
This is a very light diary, but I want to put it out there to try and stem some of the despair I'm seeing in the comments. There's no cause for it--or, rather, there's no more cause for despair today than there was a month ago. Like I said, this is actually a misstep. They have blatantly denied people the vote and declared a candidate the nominee by fiat--a candidate almost nobody likes and almost everybody distrusts--based on superdelegate votes.
Like NV, this is not going to sit well with many people.
It's not the time for despair. Despairing when you see the operations of their power gives them the win.
[Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0x7vL2T90]
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."--Winston Churchill
UPDATE: I figured out what this is! This is the Montreal Screwjob!
For those who don't know, the Montreal Screwjob happened when Bret "the Hitman" Hart was supposed to beat Shawn Michaels and retain the World Wrestling Federation title in Montreal. Hart was the current WWF champion, and had been successfully wooed to go to another company. Vince McMahon, who owned WWF, wanted Hart to drop the belt before he went to the other company, fearing that Hart would simply take the belt with him when he left--embarrassing for one company to literally lose its belt to its rival! Hart wanted to drop the belt somewhere in the United States, not in his home country of Canada. It should have been fairly easy to arrange, and the wrestlers were apparently told that the plan was for Hart to win. But instead, 28 minutes into one of the best matches I've ever seen, suddenly Vince McMahon ordered the referee to "Ring the goddamned bell!" They simply stated that Bret Hart had tapped out to the sharpshooter, thus losing, when video evidence clearly showed he hadn't. In essence, they just declared the match over, because, well, Vince says so.
Imagine that the ref is the AP, MSNBC, etc. Imagine Vince McMahon is, well, basically what he is: corporate America. Add some Wall St tycoons into the picture next to Vince, and it's basically the same thing.
Apologies to Shawn Michaels, who is a top-notch wrestler and actually did wrestle an awesome match that night, for comparing him to Hillary Clinton who couldn't fill the Veteran's Memorial Arena in Jacksonville if she offered free beer.
A BIT MORE UPDATE:
Might this have something to do with their unseemly haste? I wonder.
https://news.vice.com/article/fbi-additional-details-hillary-clinton-ema...
Comments
Glenn Greenwald weighs in on The Coronation
The Intercept
This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party
Greenwald used one too many words.
"Democratic", my ass.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Clintons will do anything to dampen turnout in CA
Desperation. Corruption.
Still reading "Birth of a Movement" - and rereading Nina Illingworth.
Now am expecting Clintons not being nominees. Doug Schoen in WSJ too.
Thinking the impetus for the preemption by them now, is to try to take ground b4 they get axed. Digging in as hard as they can.
Still don't understand what Obama is doing?
Good News for Kelly Ayotte
I'm forwarding this to Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is a superdelegate for Hillary, to explain why I won't be voting for her either in November.
Now interviewing signature candidates. Apply within.
"Big Development"
The exact words used by CBS News morning show with Charlie Rose.
First female to win nomination of party.
We will have so n so and so n so here to discuss this "big development."
She may very well
receive the coronation and be the first female to win the nomination of a major party but I wouldn't bet money that she's going to be the first female president..
BernieOrBust...
Maybe it is just my propensities at work, but..
Most of what I see if Jill Stein, #BernieOrBust, #NeverHillary.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
No she will not win the Presidency
because so many people will not vote for her. She will lose the swing states and she will lose some of the more progressive blue states like Minnesota and Washington. Jill Stein maybe has a chance to squeak in.
Beware the bullshit factories.
oh, WTF, how many other countries had female political leaders
and didn't make such a fuss about having the "first female" ... (put in your favorite curseword here). I can't take it anymore. Females are saints because of their dna? What the fuck is that idiocy?
Stop that shit already.
That's right mimi
Identity politics that are not even symbolic. As a woman I sure don't 'identify' with The Mad Bomber, Margret Thatcher, Imelda Marcos or any other bad ass female who thinks killing, austerity and plundering globally is 'worth it'. The talking heads and the media are insulting women when they finish telling you it's a done deal and add their only talking point left 'the historic first woman pres.' as a consolation prize in a rigged primary election. Don't get your hopes up people cause democracy is dead as a doornail but hey you get a bad ass female to identify with.
Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir — Elizabeth Bathory . . . n/t
If we're speaking of HRC, who could forget Margaret Thatcher?
eom
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti
Ha! good point mimi!
We're so far behind Europe when it comes to healthcare, education, equal rights and the environment that if we used these as measuring criteria it would be another 50 to 100 years before we have a female president.
BernieOrBust...
The Hillary campaign will break the glass ceiling
Thanks to Hillary, Jill Stein will be our first female President.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Bob Schiefer: Bernie's "been just like gum stuck to her shoe"
Poor Hillary! How dare he?
Gayle King, CBS News: it doesn't matter if she loses CA.
In that same segment, Schieffer mentions how Hillary needs to be careful and make sure her voters don't get complacent, or they won't turn out in California. Gayle King then says, well, she's already won; it doesn't matter if she loses California.
So interesting to watch the pundits saying exactly what people here said they would say.
Outing the ringers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9zkQcLi4Yo
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
in her hair wd be good too
This will make it easier for people
To "cut the cord", as it were...
Thanks for the encouragement -
love the "dementors" tag !
Peace -
Murph
Glad somebody noticed it. :-)
LOL!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I hear you ,,, /nt
Game called on account of darkness (of their hearts & souls) n/t
Bitter LOL! Yeah I laughed, but with full awareness that the
"Democratic" Party is the party of dirty tricks. The D now has as much meaning as NPR--exactly nothing. If I tweeted I guess I'd use #dirtytricks.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
The End of the Beginning
indeed.
It was necessary for this to play out. Make them say it out loud. Shine a light on the corruption. Demonstrate to the young voters entering the system that the party is a Potempkin democracy.
Trump was talking to Kimmel and pandering to Sanders voters. He did say one true thing (yes, it happens) - "...the system is rigged against him, just like it was rigged against me, the system is rigged. And if I didn't win by massive landslides every state there was no chance I could have won."
(first 25 seconds)
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
Just so.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
They are trying to depress the vote in CA.
Their polling told them she was going to lose here. There is no other reason for them to do this.
Here's hoping CA is ready for this and ignores the media
as successfully as we learned to ignore them.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I know I am
I will be voting in CA in three hours.
Even if it were absolutely true that Clinton has it "sewn up" nobody is going to take away my privilege of voting for one of the few presidential candidates that makes me proud to be an American.
The people, united, will never be defeated.
Hillary will take no chances. She will stop at nothing.
Why did Bill Clinton say that Bernie's supporters will be "toast" after today? Why would Hillary declare victory before it's over? Why would they engage in vote rigging if she has it locked up? One reason is that the Clintons were so burned and devastated by their defeat in 2008 that they will stop at nothing in 2016. They will take every advantage (legal, illegal or questionable). Maybe it will bite them in the ass, if not in the nomination process, then in the general election.
If it DOES bite them, it will not be unlike what happened to the cops with the O. J. Simpson verdict. An attorney I know said that the cops wanted O. J. so badly they made a fatal mistake.....they framed a GUILTY man.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Pretty profound...
Here's hoping the Clintons go down big.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Yesssssss.....
It is long past time for karma to take a terminal bite out of the collective Clinton ass.
Come on Cali, a major slapdown would be SO nice!
I'm thinking there should be temporarily less fraud
at least in California, now that Hillary doesn't think she needs the voters over there. So less incentive to cheat for the time being. Which means the exit poll subtracted from the official vote counts should be approximately equal, a rarity so far.
With compensation for margins of error, there have been enormous differences in almost all states. The big question is: what will the statistics reveal in California? My guess is that we will have a brief respite from the crooked counting which is always made to boost Hillary's ranking.
They'll probably try to fix the numbers to 1% or 2% difference (that is, a margin of error minus the official count), just so it's not so obvious here. Smart criminals they appear to be.
However until the California numbers by Election Justice USA will show up in Richard Charnin's blog, I wait for the data and ignore the official 'victory' propaganda.
I don't think she needs incentive to cheat
I think that's just how Team Clinton naturally operate.
Rules are for other people.
allowing the PR prisoners to vote
and only vote for Hillary, while largely disallowing the law-abiding citizens on the island their right to vote, this has to be a subliminal or subconscious message to suggest that she will be a ruthless person in charge, and the rule of law will be disregarded when she becomes POTUS. Martial law could be expected, and all sorts of nasty things that come with a dictatorship. She's got a proven track record to work from, considering the 2009 military coup in Honduras, a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Assuming she can scale up the phony voting numbers to knock off Trump, who will be trying to move his own criminal operations into the White House.
Only strangely enough there was some universal
consensus that exit polls in this richest vein of pledged delegates were an unnecessary frumpery.
Honestly, I wish the UN did poll watching in our country.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
I heard they don't
Because we don't meet their standards for fair elections.
Speaking of Winston Churchill
When he was PM, during WWII, he went to speak at his old school, Harrow, it was the depths of the war, no one thought Britain would survive. He came back to Harrow 10 months later and spoke again. Churchill took to the stage, probably his most memorable words: "Never Give In. Never Give In. Never Give In."
We must NEVER GIVE IN!
Disgusted with Mud-Smeared-Media...
As a former broadcast journalist (from Canada), I was actually shocked (for a total of 5 seconds) on reading that AP so blatantly jumped the gun on declaring HRC the presumptive nominee last night...followed so quickly and slavishly by the other news networks.
Then my brain and memory kicked in...I wasn't stunned by the wrongful 'coronation' after all. Of course this would happen just before the oh-so-important California primary (let alone the other state primaries slated for today)...HRC's campaign and the Democratic establishment were getting antsy about her chances of winning CA...too demeaning my dear, if she loses. So how 'bout a little spot of voter suppression, timed just right, aided and abetted by MSM.
America is exceptional alright...a shining beacon of how to destroy democracy while, at the same time, hypocritically declaring itself to be the one country whose mission it is to safeguard and promote democracy around the world.
In case you haven't seen this, there is a letter you can copy/paste to AP thanks to a commenter from the Naked Capitalism site (see below) plus this link of contact details: http://www.ap.org/company/Contact-Us
aletheia33
June 7, 2016 at 12:55 am
OK, i added a few extra touches. here’s what i have written to the AP email for general inquiries:
Dear AP,
Re your “report”: “Hillary Clinton has commitments from the number of delegates needed to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, and will be first woman to top the ticket of a major U.S. political party. An Associated Press count of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses and a survey of party insiders known as superdelegates shows Clinton with the overall support of the required 2,383 delegates. Now the presumptive nominee, she will formally accept her party’s nomination in July at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.”
Can you count?
The AP does not have the power to appoint anyone the nominee of the Democratic Party. Or, the Republican Party, or the Libertarian or Greens for that matter. The nominee of the Democratic Party will be determined by a vote at its convention. Seriously, that’s how things work. You can make an educated guess that Hillary will probably be that person, but that guess does not make it so. You know, have you ever heard of “Dewey Defeats Truman”? A headline is not a magical incantation with the power over the minds of men and women.
I am appalled by this lie published by the once esteemed and reliable Associated Press.
For shame, for shame!
At long last, have you NO decency?
mitchbird
(No subject)
From the Light House.
AP new low
From the Light House.
She can be Ma Ferguson if she likes
Miriam "Ma" Ferguson was a Texas governor who got elected after her husband was impeached and convicted. She ran on the promise to take her husband's advice, and campaigned on "two for the price of one" - and a price it was, indeed. Her name is not synonymous with "First Woman Governor" but instead is remembered as a massively corrupt administration. Sold pardons(I know of a woman who poisoned her husband and possibly others who was pardoned). Sold construction contracts.
I feel strangely calm today, because the establishment is behaving exactly as we though they would. They are lacking in creativity so the crooked behavior of Puerto Rico is there for all to see - yet again. I hope Berniecrats arrive in Philadelphia wearing white gloves - like the mothers of the disappeared in South America - proclaiming, "Our hands are clean." Really, the exposure of all the dirty tricks of voter suppression has been a very important development in this campaign.
The last link
In your essay about FBI and Clinton is very interesting. I think you are on to something with that. Thanks.