@Big Al

So adding the Bernie situation to the neverending list of cheating does what, particularly if Bernie himself doesn't want to play.

Bernie may not want to play but many of his supporters do.

#11 agree that Sanders was robbed. To me, if the alleged victim feels he is not a victim, then there maybe there was no crime, maybe it was all part of the play's plot.
Plus, everybody knows the system is rigged, they cheat and have forever, we already have all the proof we need. So adding the Bernie situation to the neverending list of cheating does what, particularly if Bernie himself doesn't want to play.

@Big Al OK, let me put it another way.

Bernie is not the only person who was robbed, and while he may or may not be OK with it, millions of the rest of us are not. I am not interested in letting this particular violation go down the memory hole along with the Bushes' 2000 election fraud, which Democrats have now turned into "Bad Nader No Dog Biscuit," and which the left wing has turned into a "Shrug. What can you do?"

Shrugging at violations like that leads pretty quickly into the Boss Man's wheelhouse. We're supposed to shrug off everything horrible He does, and say "What can you do?" We're supposed to forget violations because it's pointless to remember them.

Doing so basically reinscribes the Boss Man's dominance permanently; when we do that, we are giving over our minds to him as well as our bodies, bank accounts, and lives, all of which he already has.

And as for this:
Plus, everybody knows the system is rigged, they cheat and have forever, we already have all the proof we need.

I don't think everybody exactly knows this. At least, they seem to need to be constantly reminded, and they sure don't integrate their understanding of the rigging into anything they plan to do. In other words, if they know elections are fraudulent, why the hell do they keep going back to play the rigged game? I've been noticing this since 2004. I'll never forget, on a MoveOn phone call, Michael Moore talking to Eli Pariser or somebody, and Eli saying "Sounds like all we have to do is get out the vote!" and Moore agreeing, and I, even in those idealistic days, shaking my head--because the idea that all the strategy you need is getting out enough votes to "overwhelm" the fraud is nonsensical in days when computers can flip every 5th or 10th or 20th vote easily.

You might ask why I bothered to support Bernie last time, given my opinions on this.

I had two reasons for voting for Bernie last time: first, I thought he was making an honest gesture--trying, in good faith, to improve the system in a direction I agreed with. Whether I thought his gesture would be successful or not, I didn't feel I could leave an honest man hanging. At this point, he's definitely no longer an honest man, and I'm unlikely to be moved in the same way again, by him or anybody else. They basically just got the last of my good faith and my basic humanity. I'm not going to come out and do the same thing for Tulsi, or Nina, or whoever they put up next time, if anybody. Anyway, DHS is now running our elections, so it's obviously fruitless to have an electoral strategy unless you know somebody who can outhack the Department of Homeland Security--and if you do, you shouldn't post it on the public airwaves!

Second, and more importantly, I voted for (and supported) Bernie because I believed that an independent movement would arise from his campaign. That was my main goal, especially once I saw how ready the people were for his message--more ready than Sanders was, for sure. There were plenty of data indicating that an independent people's movement could happen. I am beyond disappointed that, not only did people not take that initiative, but worse, actively embraced almost every bit of propaganda the establishment put out to fracture us (including, of course, Bernie Sanders and the politically bankrupt non-profit organizations associated with him: Brand New Congress, Our Revolution, and even, at a slightly greater remove, Justice Democrats). In October, we looked like we were ready to mount an actual challenge to the system; by December, everyone was rushing out to protest Trump, filling their role in the establishment's scripts as perfectly as if they actually had a director pointing out the marks on the floor where they should stand. I basically watched both street protest and electoral politics get completely co-opted and turned into puppet shows. That left people like me in the position of having to be the bad guy, the meanie who tells people their wonderful inspiring protest is a sham. Nobody listens to Negative Nancy, especially when she doesn't have a pre-made, surefire replacement plan for defeating the establishment in her back pocket all ready to go (just add water).

I'd say last year's reaching toward resistance--which is what tens of millions of people were doing--has collapsed in pretty much the worst way possible--far worse than I ever expected. I've actually never seen the left, what's left of it, behave like this: half of us embracing something very much like McCarthyism and a version of Reagan's Cold War rhetoric on steroids, while others talk about punching neo-Nazi media figures like that's going to accomplish something.

A few months ago thousands of us were protesting at CNN. While I'm unsure of the effectiveness of street protest in these days (at least in the traditional sense of standing around waving signs and then going home), that was encouraging because it was the first time I saw people challenge the media itself as a large part of the problem, rather than just bitching about it and then going on as if the media were Walter Cronkite, and being surprised again every time they acted like shits. I thought we were starting to get somewhere. Let's get real: we, the people on the bottom, were responsible for everything good about the Sanders campaign other than that one speech and Sanders' willingness to keep giving it, over and over, despite being ignored, ridiculed, etc. Well, also, his willingness to hold his ground and fight back when engaging with the press (once they started admitting he existed). Other than those two things, there was little the campaign-from-above did that was valuable. Everything else good came from below. I didn't see why we couldn't continue that. If we could raise that much money, take all those actions, etc., with a U.S. Senator standing there, why couldn't we do it without him standing there?

But apparently we can't.

#11 agree that Sanders was robbed. To me, if the alleged victim feels he is not a victim, then there maybe there was no crime, maybe it was all part of the play's plot.
Plus, everybody knows the system is rigged, they cheat and have forever, we already have all the proof we need. So adding the Bernie situation to the neverending list of cheating does what, particularly if Bernie himself doesn't want to play.

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I have emailed today a letter to my worthless warmonger POS Representative, who says he is a DemonRAT Democrat. I have liberally excerpted from Big Al's essay. So please allow me, Big Al, to do so. The letter which is in the comments below is available to any as a template.

#14 I have no patience for a politician who can't reframe a debate. What are they good for if they can't even manage marketing?

"Do you, Congressman X, actually favor North Korea with their horrible horrendous dictator? Do you actually want to go soft on this Communist menace?"

"No, Congressman Y, I favor foreign policy that doesn't get us into World War III against two nuclear-armed superpowers. I favor my children, and their children, surviving."

There, sorted.

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal response were reported at all by our media Pipe dreams, I know.

#14 I have no patience for a politician who can't reframe a debate. What are they good for if they can't even manage marketing?

"Do you, Congressman X, actually favor North Korea with their horrible horrendous dictator? Do you actually want to go soft on this Communist menace?"

"No, Congressman Y, I favor foreign policy that doesn't get us into World War III against two nuclear-armed superpowers. I favor my children, and their children, surviving."

There, sorted.