Brilliant new Bill Curry article at Salon today
Bill curry has always been out front of the posse catching up to El Diablo Hillario in the dusty deserts of the post-industrial wastelands. He's not only smart as a whip, but he has seen the Clinton Machine in flagrante delicto up close. Do not form mental images inside your head...too late, eh? He's so close to El Diablo he can almost touch the tails of the rear-most horses. He provides a brilliant take on the view from there today. And takes a good swot at the overreach of the 538's of her MSM colluders. It even has a Jack Sparrow quote. Extract and link below.
Democracy isn’t algebra. Elections aren’t mere algorithms. A poll tells you more about the person who writes its questions than the few hundred who answer them or the millions who don’t. Polls have short shelf lives because people change their minds; gradually about issues, overnight about other people. Pollsters do message, not policy. They know we’re angry but haven’t a clue why. Here’s a hint: One party denies the reality of climate change, the futility of modern warfare and the humanity of millions of our fellow citizens. Neither will admit that our democracy is dying and taking our middle class with it. We need help making this choice, not predictions as to the choice we’re about to make.
While we’re on the subject of life’s mutability, a word about party rules: The first thing to know about them is that like Captain Jack Sparrow’s pirate’s code, they’re “more like what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” This is perfectly legal and sometimes even fair. All conventions are gaveled open by temporary chairs under temporary rules because no convention can bind the next one any more than one Congress can bind the next.
So no current poll can tell you how many delegates each candidate will have and no current rule can tell you for sure what those delegates can or will do. Delegates elected in primaries or caucuses will surely vote as pledged. If one candidate has pledged delegates comprising more than 50 percent of all delegates, that should end the discussion and the process. If not, all bets are off.
Clinton’s and Trump’s fates may rest on legal processes or leaked tax returns or speech transcripts. Democrats may figure out that Clinton’s a neoliberal and they aren’t. Republicans may decide Trump is a fascist and they aren’t. No boss can defy the will of either party’s base without risking permanent, even fatal damage. But the history of political conventions makes one thing clear: a plurality is not a majority. Frontrunners arriving at conventions without majorities often go home empty handed for the simple reason that a majority of delegates don’t want them.
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/15/can_hillary_stay_in_the_race_if_she_lose...
Salon's front page is full of Clinton denouncements today. Interesting. Clinton is already having a perfectly horrible day, which seems to be heading for a nasty surprise for her when the poll closes tonight. Go Bernie!
Peace be with us, if we work for it with peaceful hearts,
gerrit
Comments
And that is from a former senior staffer
during the Clinton administration, so I assume he knows what he's talking about.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Too right, Steven, and thank you. We all should listen to him.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
That was a good read
Thanks for posting, as I don't regularly check Salon. The web site drives me nuts.
“I'll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. 'I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.' 'I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.' 'Hey, wait a minute, there's one guy holding out both puppets!'”- Bill Hicks
Yes please let Sanders surge continue.
I fear that Sanders really is our last chance.
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams
And finally
someone asks the right question:
Excellent piece by Bill Curry thanks for the heads up
Oh, and long may Clinton's horrible day continue to show no signs of improvement.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
It was Captain Barbossa
Captain Barbossa was the one who explained how the Code works, in the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
Now that Bill Curry has made the connection, I'm going to have a hard time finding the distinction between our major political parties and rival gangs of pirates. There must be some differences...
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
Course I read that quote... and think.
One party actively denies Climate Change, The futility of modern war, and the humanity of the poor. The other takes bribe money to look the other way about it.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.