People are noticing.

I really like how we were characterized as being further left than the other sites. Makes me smile!

In all reality, I am with the "right group. We see the lies and BS being fed to us and want to work to make a positive difference for our family and love ones, and all of us.

of Joe's interview so you can compare what was actually written in her piece. I don't think he'd mind me posting this as any of it could have been used in the article anyway.

NN is Nicole Narea, the interviewer.

NN:
1. What is your own
background as a Sanders supporter? How long have you
endorsed him and how long have you been active in the
community of supporters?

JS: I personally have been an independent voter
who has mostly voted for Greens and some Democrats. I
started supporting Bernie as a pragmatic choice fairly early
on in his campaign based upon his policies, though they are
not as compelling to me as Jill Stein's are. I felt that
Bernie had a very small but appreciable chance of obtaining
the Democratic Party nomination, but even more than that a
chance at changing the character of the Democratic Party
which I left after Bill Clinton and his DLC cronies
destroyed the former New Deal coalition.

NN: Have done anything to support his campaign
beyond casting your vote in his favor and creating C99?

JS: I have been generally supportive of Bernie
and provided constructive criticism of his policy (example
here:
http://caucus99percent.com/content/bernie-needs-your-help),
particularly his foreign policy in my writings. I will be
participating in various activities at the DNC convention in
Philadelphia.

C99 was not created as a "Bernie"
site. C99 is a non-partisan site that officially endorses no
candidate or party.

NN: 2. When
did you found C99?

JS: C99 is the current platform of a
long-running project that was started a few years ago by a
loosely-knit bunch of left-leaning folks. It has been
through a variety of iterations from mailing lists, Google
groups, previous abortive attempts at site creation to its
present state. Its present incarnation is significantly the
result of my co-admin and politically like-minded friend JtC
(short for Johnny the Conqueroo) spending countless hours
building and maintaining it.

NN: Did you envision C99 becoming the kind of
home for Sanders supporters that it is today?

JS: No, not really. Most of the group of
people, probably numbering around a couple hundred folks,
who were with us when we started C99 were feeling that
electoral politics was not a venue that was helpful to us in
achieving the sort of meaningful change that we are looking
for. The two major parties monopolize the political space
and present us with choices that are completely unacceptable
in terms of creating the better world that we are looking
for. (Here is a longer explanation:
http://caucus99percent.com/content/big-tent-divided)

Many of the founding group have been involved
in Occupy, the anti-war movement, the environmental movement
and left politics in general and brought that orientation to
the site.

We were looking to draw in people to work
towards a common political and social agenda, influencing
the system from the outside for the most part.

NN: What is the appeal of C99 as a platform for
Sanders supporters?

JS: Our site grew quite suddenly when the owner
of Daily Kos, a large Democratic Party site announced fairly
early in the primaries that his site was a Hillary Clinton
supporting site which left a lot of Sanders supporters
feeling unwelcome. Many of our founding group had been
members of that site in the past and apparently word got out
that our site would allow people to advocate for Bernie,
discuss topics like third parties (which is verboten at
Daily Kos) and generally speak their minds.

The fact that we are a non-partisan,
left/progressive site where people are generally free to
express themselves (within the bounds of civility and
decency) is probably what appealed to Sanders supporters.

NN: 3. What
is your reaction to FBI Directory Comey’s recommendation
not to indict and the Justice Department’s affirmation
that they will not indict? Is this an outcome that you
anticipated?

JS: My reaction (not to be confused with the
C99 community's reaction) is that it was what I
expected. It is pretty clear to me that we have a two-tiered
justice system in this country, with one kind of justice for
the wealthy, powerful and well-connected and another kind of
justice meted out to the "little people."

Glenn Greenwald wrote an excellent commentary
on this issue here:

https://theintercept.com/2016/07/05/washington-has-been-obsessed-with-pu...

NN: How does this outcome reflect on the
Clinton campaign in your opinion?

JS: Considering that Comey in his statement
eviscerated so many of Clinton's claims about her
handling of classified material, her "permission"
to conduct government business solely on her own private
server, etc. - it can't look good to any reasonable
observer.

For Clinton, being able to tout that she was
found to be "careless," factually challenged
and incompetent rather than having criminal intent seems to
set herself a low bar for performance.

NN: 4. How
would you summarize your impressions of how the mainstream
media has covered the Sanders campaign vs. the Clinton
campaign and how would you define “mainstream media”?

My sense is that the corporate media (I prefer
that term to mainstream media) have been in the tank for
Clinton pretty much from the get-go. Early in the campaign,
Sanders was pretty much ignored. Later, they breathlessly
asked him after each primary contest which he failed to
achieve victory whether he'd be capitulating, making
that the narrative for the news cycle.

If I had a nickel for every time some
blow-dried, corporate talking head asked Sanders if he was
ready to throw in the towel yet or when he would endorse
Clinton, I'd probably have enough money to run for
president.

I define the mainstream media as the collection
of media outlets that are largely corporate-owned and
reflect the interests and outlook of the 1%. A longer form
answer would probably borrow concepts from Noam
Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent," which is
perhaps dated, but provides a good, basic description of
what the mainstream media are and do.

NN: 5. I
was reading a study this morning on voting abnormalities in
electronic voting systems suggesting that the primaries were
rigged in favor of Clinton—and there are certainly other
theories that suggest the same. Do you think there has been
foul play (aside from biased media coverage) in this
election?

JS: I think that the Democratic primary is
rigged in quite a number of ways.

It appears to me that Debbie Wasserman Schultz
went out of her way to make the rules to favor Clinton.

For example, there's the Hillary Victory
Fund fundraising scam in which the Democratic Party allowed
Clinton to launder giant money donations through the state
parties under the pretense of supporting down ballot
Democrats, but in actuality, almost all of the money went
into Clinton's coffers.

Then there was the debate schedule, which DWS
set up in order to minimize the exposure that Sanders (and
O'Malley) would get to the public by scheduling the
debates at unfavorable times.

That said, there certainly have appeared to be
quite a number of problems, from voter roll purges in New
York to the total mess in California where tens of thousands
of votes still aren't counted. There have long been
problems documented with electronic voting devices and that
certainly can't be discounted as a possibility,
particulary since in many places there are problems with the
audit trail.

Like you, I've read a number of articles
suggesting that foul play might have happened, some of them
with fairly credible assessments.

For me, the thing that is troubling is not so
much that these allegations are possibly true. In our less
than perfect world you have to expect attempts to cheat. It
is that we have little means of ascertaining the truth of
the matter that is a terrible indictment of the system.

NN: 6.
Sanders has pledged to take this fight to the convention.
What do you foresee happening at the convention and what is
the significance of such a pledge to you?

JS: Barring an unexpected indictment or the
intervention of the giant meteor that won 13% of the vote
against Clinton and Trump in one recent poll, I expect the
convention to nominate Clinton.

I expect there to be some amount of fighting
over the platform. I hope that Sanders pushes hard for the
issues that he has brought to the table - they are critical
issues, some of which, like climate change need immediate
action.

I view Sanders' fight as largely symbolic,
though. I expect the Democratic leadership class to give
little ground to the demands of its base.

For me, what I hope that Sanders' fight
does is mobilize the base to organize outside of the
Democratic Party, which is and has been for years an
obstacle to progressive change.

NN: 7. If
the general is Clinton vs. Trump, who would you support and
why?

JS: Neither. They are both completely
unacceptable to me. I will not choose between a con-man and
a warmonger.

NN: Would you abstain? Would you vote for Jill
Stein as a third party candidate?

JS: I have voted for Stein in the past and will
likely vote for her again.

As for the people in the C99 community, it is
my sense that a lot of them will vote for Stein, some will
write in Sanders and a smallish number might vote for
Clinton. I would doubt that many will abstain.

NN: What do you think of Sanders supporters who
have gone on to support Clinton—are they part of the same
movement as your own?

JS: I think that their vote is their business.
If they feel like they want to vote for Tweedledee or
Tweedledum, it's just not the end of the world. If in
the aftermath of this election there are issues that we can
all work on together, that is fine with me.

NN: 8. What
do you think about rumors that Loretta Lynch might be
appointed in a Clinton administration following her run-in
with Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac?

JS: Sounds like politics-as-usual to me. Heck,
I wouldn't be surprised to see her appointed to the
Supreme Court as a gratuity for her service to the
Clintons.

Just to stay in character.

They might have left the Daily Kos, but instead they’ve dispersed to more obscure, leftist corners of the Internet, where they are plotting their next moves.

Great job as usual Joe! Together we are forging a true place for progressives, peacemakers, populists and radicals who want a party for the 99%.

And look today, Steven D had an excellent piece on the motives for Bernie's speech endorsing HRC, spurred by his own citizen journalism to seek out the source, collect other voices on the subject and write it up as an essay. This, my friends, is going to make the difference and hopefully set us apart. Citizen journalism, especially in light of the brazen cave-in and complicity of the MSM during the 2016 Democratic Primary fraud, voter suppression and rigging, will be so important for speaking truth to power and giving voice to all marginalized voices.

I'm very happy with the progress of this place, the input of the many fine minds and its potential in the sphere of progressive politics and social reform.

And thank you to Joe. It was great reading what you had to say. I'm coming late to the show, as I've always voted for the democrat. That ends NOW.

say DFHs). Majority here find c99 a welcoming, accepting place. Let's hold to that behavior, the article sounds like a c99p ad! Poor JtC! Another influx? Yay!

Good job joe. Onward and upward in the effort to take the Clinton mob down.

And see the freakout!

So nice to be hanging out with such a fine bunch of fellow "political misfits".

Congratulations c99

The Bernie Blog. Wonder how that works after Bernie kisses Clinton on the mouth at the Convention.
I guess my anti-Bernie bullshit got swept away in the 'fervor"

deliciously rascally and desperate enough to tempt me. Is there a snazzy outfit? Somebody get a #LurkersForBernie hashtag started. How come an internet org thinks the t00bs has dark corners? If it didn't have light everywhere we wouldn't be able to read their shit.
Seriously, Joe that is a great interview. Thanks, JtC, for sharing it.

They've found us!

Run for your lives!

thank you all for your kind words, being part of this community and your efforts to make some needed change in the world!

They’re building new hideouts online.

and now everyone will know about it!

I really liked this obscure little niche. Now I will have to find another lair to lurk in.

Too funny.

JtC for the full text of the interview. I am a bit peeved that Joe did not mention that this is the new home of The Evening Blues, Joe's signature tour de force and a thing of great merit in its own right.

As usual, I'm late to the party, but I wanted to commend and thank both you and JtC for creating this space with (largely) a hands-off approach. Allowing for a very wide range of opinions and dissent on this blog is, I think, the key to a healthy and vigorous debate on critical issues facing the nation. And something that is badly needed in democratic politics - whether or not such advocacy is within the context of an organized political party, or outside it.

The last thing anyone who is capable of rational thinking and articulating coherent policy positions needs is enforced conformity. That approach is representative of small-minded, insecure thinking.

"Let a thousand blog flowers bloom" seems to be the operating philosophy of c99% and for that and much more, many thanks.