There are nearly 400,000 comments on the blog. Every once in a while, some critic pops in to say that the blog is an “echo chamber” where everyone agrees. That is ridiculous. We agree about the dangers of privatization and the absurdity of teacher-bashing, but we have vigorous disagreements on many other topics.
Right now, there is a raging debate about the election. Many readers of the blog are passionate supporters of Bernie Sanders. Hillary supporters are fearful of awakening their wrath. Just read the last couple of days of comments, which are dominated with angry comments about Hillary, the Democratic party, and the failure of democracy. We have even had a few Trump trolls, who pop in to offer an incendiary comment linked to a far-right website. Sometimes, they recommend voting for Trump as the only one who will end Common Core, or they just stick to smearing Hillary. Their goal is consistent: Vote for Trump.
I let the arguments rage, although I have put the obvious Trump trolls into moderation (meaning I don’t post their comments until after I read and approve them) as they make me sick.
The Democratic convention starts today.
There is something I want to add about the current situation.
I believe the emails hacked from the DNC are authentic.
They demonstrate that the DNC favored Hillary and did not like Bernie.
This is hardly surprising since she has long been a Democrat stalwart, and he only recently joined the party to run for president.
It is not clear whether the DNC changed anyone’s vote.
I heard Bernie’s campaign manager on CNN saying that the election was not “stolen.”
Bernie ran a remarkable and inspiring campaign, depending on small donors, not big givers. He lost.
Hillary won more votes than Bernie, 15.5 million for her and 11.9 million for him.
She won more delegates (not including the super delegates). The final pledged delegate count was 2,220 to 1,831. The super delegates put her over the top, but why would they have voted for the candidate who won fewer votes?
If the Russian government hacked the DNC, then released the emails to help Trump, then, yes, that does matter independently of what the emails say.
And I reiterate: the emails are real, not fabricated.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz should have been fired long ago, along with the top staff.
She should not have left with an honorific title as “honorary chairman” of the campaign.
If she appears at the convention, she will be booed and jeered, and if she is wise, she should not go to the podium.
The Democratic party needs to embrace Bernie Sanders’ ideas and stop aligning with the 1%.
Here is where matters stand today:
Bottom line: the choice now is Hillary or Trump.
If you don’t like Hillary, vote for Trump or Stein or Anderson or stay home.
If you opt out of this election, prepare for President Trump.
As readers of this blog know, I think Donald Trump is unqualified to be president of the United States. He is both arrogant and ignorant, a bully and a flimflam man, a con artist and a nativist. A man who is quick to sneer and insult others, especially Hispanics, African Americans, women, people with disabilities, and anyone who dares to disagree with him. It is no wonder that the leaders of the Republican party refused to attend his coronation in Cleveland. One of his rivals, John Kasich, not only refused to attend the convention but put up a TV ad (see here) warning that he is dangerous (“first they came for the Muslims, but I was not a Muslim, so I didn’t care…”).
He seems never to have read the Constitution and has no understanding of checks and balances. He alone can “fix” all our problems. The Supreme Court and the future hang in the balance.
I believe this is the most consequential election of my lifetime.
No matter who you supported in the primaries, the choice is Hillary or Trump. No one else will be elected president.
I hope you will use your vote to stop Trump.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Perfectly said! The choice is to vote for sanity or allow a incipient mentally deranged person possession of the Oval Office.
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Yes…I agree.
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Even if HRC promised to reappoint make Bill Gates Sec. of Education I’d still support her because of the sheer horror of the alternative.
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Ya’all runnin scared eh!
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I truly believe, if you want this country to continue, your voting choice is very clear: you can either vote FOR Hillary or vote NOT for Trump. There is no other choice!! (Maybe the Republican party can sort themselves out over the next four years and actually float a real candidate.)
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“I don’t post their comments until after I read and approve them” -So you delete people’s comments that differ from your own but you publish works and hopeful policy that is inclusive of all students. That makes me really sad as I thought you were open to others opinions and that you yourself have shared that after you changed your views on education because you learned more and gained more experience and information over time. We all learn from learning from those that challenge us. Sad and I am learning more from you now that I didn’t know and am also perhaps changing my beliefs in your books and writings that once offered hope.
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I don’t post comments that violate the very few rules of this blog.
1. I will delete or block personal insults directed at me or my family.
2. I will remove or delete uses of he F word
3. I will delete or block comments that repeat absurd conspiracy theories, eg, Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, 9/11 was a CIA plot, Obama was born in another country etc. nor will I reproduce links from far-right websites that promote conspiracy theories.
These are not difficult rules. They don’t silence dissent. I welcome debate and learn from it.
This blog is my living room, where civil debate and discussion are welcomed. Insulting your host or using the F word are not.
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Every blog or web site I have ever entered has some kind of moderating or filtering process for comments. This is not something new. Trolls, disruptors and foul mouthed jerks will be banned from just about any blog. NJ Jazzman had to enforce a strong moderating paradigm because he was being spammed and trolled to the frustration point. Diane is incredibly tolerant, she’s had 400K comments for just one section of her blog, that’s pretty inclusive.
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lauracottington if you have read this blog for a while you should have known when comments get held up. Why are you being so accusing to Diane?
You said you are changing your beliefs in Diane’s books and writings that once offered hope. So you are saying you actually agree with what Diane writes in her books, but you are changing because she mentioned she holds up comments? Or have you been disagreeing with those beliefs because you don’t like teacher’s unions or pension benefits and you think charters are the answer, and now you are “changing” (as you said) to agree with Diane that those things aren’t working? If so, I can understand your frustration with Donald Trump.
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Well, those who love to crash in any websites for trolling by hiding their identity under alias are not the same as students and educators fighting for the struggle of public education. No one expects her/his comments to be posted without moderator’s approval. More likely so especially when you are at someone’s blog. I would not recommend you to assume that since Diane approves your comment, she has to agree everything you think, hold, say, or write. That is certainly not the case.
Here’s an example of posting guideline adopted for the human rights blog website:
http://www.debito.org/?page_id=1866
I would say Diane is even more generous in approving comments regardless of her/his position.
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her/his=one’s
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At this point we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be divided. We must stay united behind Hillary to defeat donald and advance our progressive agenda.
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https://twitter.com/kicranston/status/757616104948629505
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It’s really not that clear to a lot of people that giving Hilary a freebie (i.e. she gets to go on with business as usual) will help the situation. She’s an extreme hawk (speaking of checks and balances, her Libya war was illegal), a supporter of toxic trade deals that undermine national sovereignty, etc. She’s as corrupt as they get. She makes it physically difficult to vote for her. I think a lot of people will stay home.
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So that means Trump has a better chance of winning. I think that is the point Diane is trying to make. If you live in a swing state it seems you have no choice but to vote for her. If you live in NY or CA, you are safe to vote third party. I am voting for Jill Stein because I live in NY and can do so safely but if I lived in VA or PA, I would get myself to the polls to vote for Clinton. If she wins we will get 4 more years of Obama’s neoliberal agenda but if Trump wins, who knows what will we get?
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Michele,
We know what we will get if Trump wins. Exactly what he has promised. One, two, or three more Scalias on the Supreme Court. That will mean a reversal on reproductive rights and gay rights, at the minimum. Deportation of 11 million immigrants. Exclusion of Muslims from the country. Elimination of efforts to control guns, respond to climate change, or reduce nuclear proliferation. His agenda is out in the open.
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Lydia Maniatis, your post sounds remarkably like Donald Trump. He has always been your guy, right?
Bernie Sanders has never said that Libya was “Hillary Clinton’s War”, nor that she was “an extreme hawk” waging an “illegal war”. Bernie Sanders would probably tell someone who told appalling lies about his opponent that they should go vote for Trump because they obviously want a liar for President.
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I am absolutely baffled that millions of Americans are crazy and supportive of Trump. Red flags are fluttering on every flag pole, but his insanity marches on.
Folks, what would this man have to do for his supporters to stop supporting him? What would he have to do that he doesn’t already do, boast about, and plans to incorporate in his presidency? What is left? Yes, there is a long list of really sick stuff, but aren’t we at the threshold of that place?
What does it take for America to wake up and stop this disaster?
As a German, who still cannot understand that millions of Germans were swept up in the evil of the Third Reich, and could not turn things around because, by then, it was too late.
I am deathly afraid!
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H.A. I also am baffled that quite intelligent progressives and liberals don’t get just how bad Trump is compared to Hillary. Some even claim that Hillary is worse than Trump or equal to Trump. What can I say, they are determined and have made up their minds to vote Green. At the Common Dreams comments section, if you dare mention the name of Hillary, you are pilloried, smeared and attacked to the nth degree.
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I see it like this. If you look at our government/economic system as a house, then the house is badly broken. It is on a poor foundation and is crooked. The house is broken.
Bernie would dismantle the house and start to rebuild it on a solid foundation. But it looks like that won’t be happening. That hurts even more now that we know that the DNC had rigged the primary system.
Trump will burn down the house. Who knows what will be rebuilt in its place? It could go many different ways, most of which are scary.
Hillary will double down on the same broken house, taking a second mortgage to keep the same broken system going.
People know that the house is broken. There is only one major candidate of the 2 who remain who will take down the broken house. That’s why Trump does as well as he does.
Probably another vote for Dr. Stein from me.
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Good analogy, mathman.
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That “burn down the house” analogy sounds really good until you realize that people LIVE in the house. Children LIVE in the house.
Sometimes you have to double down in your old broken house and make do because there are 12 young children who are being sheltered and fed in that house — as broken down as it is.
And if you “burn down the house”, those children are now in the street with no safety net, no shelter, no food, for as long as it takes — maybe years, maybe decades — until you find enough money to build a house from scratch.
Maybe the children will get lucky and survive on their own with no food, shelter, or money and after wandering homeless and hungry for a year or more they will be so pleased to wander back into your newly rebuilt house. Or maybe they will be dead from exposure and starvation because the rebuilding is delayed (as it always is) or just ends up being far lower down on your priority list than you thought.
But what’s the lives of a dozen children when you can build a better home, right? I’m sure very few parents would be delighted their own children’s lives, but perhaps more than willing to tell other people that their family will be far better off it they just take the chance and burn down their house.
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“Burn down the house” sounds like the corporate reformers’ love of disruption. Closing thousands of schools, firing thousands of educators. Burn down the schools!
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Dr. Ravitch that is absolutely right.
I wonder if the Bernie supporters saying things like that realize how close it sounds to what the educational reformers always claim is the ONLY way to get “change”. Burn down those public schools.
I also see some pro-Hillary posts from some of your commenters who are also very pro-charter.
Do they realize that the Bernie supporters who want to “burn down the house” sound just like the pro-charter leaders? We need to destroy public schools in order to “save them”. Maybe some of those pro-charter posters might think about how destructive their leaders are and why I find their agenda so repulsive. They don’t care about the collateral damage done to the most vulnerable children in the country to serve their agenda.
Who pays the price under Trump presidency for the disruption until a supposed new and improved system evolves? The most vulnerable Americans. Who pays the price under privatization? The most vulnerable children. It is wrong.
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You’ve convinced me. After the freak show in Cleveland, I realize that I’ll have to compromise my conscience to vote for someone who is an odious, unprincipled opportunist and hope she keeps a neo-fascist authoritarian from doing damage. But wce will have Republican congressional majorities, a Schumer-led Senate minority and Blue Dogs in the House to block any meaningful reform. We will have a spineless Democratic Party that fails to give people in local and state elections any kind of alternative. We will have corporate interests continue to block sensible policies in education, health costs, military spending, public safety, transportation, and campaign finance. But hey, we might get a few alms like Supreme Court justices and keep the GOP out of the White House for another four years. We truly have met the enemy and he is us.
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88% of Congress is up for real-election. The down ballot has probably *never* been more important.
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Very well stated, Diane. Trump is a clear and present danger to this country far above whatever Hillary’s failings are. I wish Bernie had won or someone less controversial than Hillary had run. But that’s all moot and water under the bridge. First we laughed at him, then he fought us and then he won. I hope this guy does not win…….my only alternative is to vote Hillary.
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Joe…I agree with Diane, and with you and with the comments from others above. Painful as it is, we have only one viable choice, and that is Hillary.
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This is for Roberta and everyone. You make a critically important point that this election is not just about the presidents, but in many states also about members of Congress, governorships, state legislators, and local officials also ballot initiatives. Consider that David Duke is counting on riding into a Senate seat on his revised KKK platform which he claims was the model for Trump’s America First campaign strategy. Here is his pitch
Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke announced his US Senate campaign Friday in Louisiana, promising to defend the rights of European Americans.
“Thousands of special interest groups stand up for African-Americans, Mexican Americans, Jewish Americans, etc.,” he said in a YouTube video. “The fact is that European Americans need at least one man in the United States, one man in Congress, who will defend their rights and heritage.”
Duke, a former Republican state representative and convicted felon, said his emphasis on the rights of European Americans is what distinguishes him.
“The New York Times admitted that my platform became the GOP mainstream and propelled Republican control of Congress,” he said. “I’m overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years. My slogan remains ‘America First.’ Source http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/david-duke-senate-race/
Another big reason not to vote for Trump.
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I say amen. You are correct in saying the choice is Trump or Clinton. No one else will be elected president. God, Allah and the Magical Mystery Tour help us if Trump is elected.
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Watch Bernie NOW!
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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/damaging-emails-dnc-wikileaks-dump/story?id=40852448
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You nailed it with this one, Diane, thank you.
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I am disgusted and discouraged over our two choices. I’m at the point I’m willing to let the whole thing burn down so we can get some actual change in four years. I don’t want to vote for a lesser of two evils candidate; I want to vote for someone who I believe has integrity and a passion to do what is right.
Unfortunately, HRC does not inspire that within me.
Also–I’m afraid more is coming. If it turns out there are more damning emails than what was already released, how viable a candidate will she even be?
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There is one ray of light. Bernie is still in the senate with enhanced power and influence because he did so well in the primaries. They can’t just laugh at him any more.
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You are so right on
Sent from my iPhone
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Diane—Thank you for all that you do. The larger issue is the future of the Democratic Party. Its neoliberal tilt—you’ll see such a champion in Corey Booker tonight—has come to dominant the party. Insidious groups like DFER must be purged (yes, purged) if we are going to have an actual alternative to the Republicans. it’s up to us—many the people who write into this blog are true champions of public education—to relentlessly monitor and work against Democrats that are anxious to hand over our schools to the private sector.
When Hillary tells the union that we will “always have a seat at the table” I cringe. A seat?? Who else, besides the general public and teachers should have a seat? Gates? It smacks of a practiced piece of political rhetoric to pacify us.
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Agree, Chuck. The forces of privatization should not have any role in education policy. They represent the 1%, not public school parents, children, or educators.
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And Sanders just turned to his angry booing delegates and said ” this is the real world that we live in!!! Trump is a bully ……” So he agrees with you as well . But in the end it is Clinton who has to convince the American people and time is running short. Business as usual will not do.
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Are those really Bernie delegates who are so angry? Or just random protesters?
I am a big Bernie fan but I have to say that if my co-supporters are really that unthinking that they boo a reasonable speech by the man whose ideas they support, then their support does not seem very strong.
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Actually they were booing at the Idea of him dropping out they quieted down and he continued . I know their emotion. I have loathed the Clinton’s for years . I will hold my nose and vote for Hillary . It takes time to get there. Those delegates were far more involved than the hours I have put in or the dollars.
By the night speech you could see the tears in the eyes and the tape over the mouths . The in your face pick of Kaine coupled with the Email release poured salt on the wounds.
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“It is not clear whether the DNC changed anyone’s vote.”
This may be true but the whole situation formally reveals a lot about HRC’s character and the character of the DNC. I really wonder if people knew now what they didn’t know then they would have voted or acted differently.
Of course, this is America where we love cheaters as long as they’re our cheaters.
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I really don’t get these kinds of remarks. I don’t understand what the e-mails “revealed” about Clinton’s character? If anything, it’s clear that despite preferring Clinton’s victory, the DNC, for whatever reason, was not actively working against Bernie. They may have talked about silly stuff, but what action did they take? No dirty tricks. Usually e-mails reveal the conspiring against an action that occurred. Some nasty anti-Bernie commercial that was actually the work of the DNC. I am not seeing that.
The e-mails about where funders sit and how they are rewarded with very meaningless sinecures on “Commissions” didn’t shock anyone. I’d rather put the person on a no-work commission than invite them into the white house to design energy policy.
The Republicans this weekend managed to do to Hillary Clinton the same thing they did to Bill. Get the press riled up in a way that they never are riled up when it is a far more offensive thing done by another politician.
So what exactly did Hillary do that was revealed in the email? How do we now understand more of her character?
I actually kind of like her more (although still not a fan) for sticking by Wassermann Schultz a bit. I read through those e-mails and I am not feeling the same outrage that other people are. They preferred Hillary no doubt. But how did they manipulate the election to insure that she won?
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I dunno, if I go to a restaurant and the only two choices on the menu are the dirt sandwich and the poop sandwich, I don’t order the dirt sandwich just because it sounds marginally better than the poop sandwich (although that’s true so far as it goes). Instead, I leave the restaurant.
Paul Thomas has an interesting post today about Critical Literacy that I think applies to both Clinton and Trump supporters (although more the former): https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2016/07/22/why-education-critical-literacy-freedom-and-equity/
“Integral to the role of formal education as it contributes to individual freedom and societal equity is critical literacy: “challeng[ing] the status quo in an effort to discover alternative paths for self and social development.” For Paul Freire, a founding thinker in critical pedagogy, critical literacy is the ability to read and re-read the world along with the ability to write and re-write the world (see Freire’s The Pedagogy of the Oppressed).
“In more accessible language, critical literacy is the ability of any person to act on her/his world instead of being a slave to that world.”
I think all the “There Is No Alternative” thinking this election shows a failure of critical literacy, a belief that we can’t act on or change the world – our only two options are dirt or poop, so we might as well acquire a taste for dirt. We need, instead, to be able to re-read and re-write the world. That obviously isn’t going to happen with Trump (although I think many of his supporters think it will), but it won’t happen with Clinton either.
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Incidentally, Thomas himself did not mention the election in his post – that was my interpretation, which I do not mean to impute to Thomas, as I’m not sure of his stance regarding this election.
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Dienne, too much is at stake for flippancy.
Do you want a Supreme Court that reverses Roe v Wade? That overturns gay rights? That rules environmental regulations illegal? That gives a green light to corporate interest and reverses protections of human rights?
If you don’t care, don’t vote.
I do care. I will vote for Hillary.
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Thanks for the laugh, that was a funny comparison. The thing is, we can’t walk out of the restaurant, the USA. I’m not leaving my country. I would say that it’s a choice between a dirt sandwich and a cyanide sandwich.
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The question may not be which piece of poop is worse but rather which menu selection will give you acid re-flux vs a botulism.
There is too much to lose for many Americans including those with little to lose to jump on the Damaclean sword
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It’s not too late to storm the kitchen and demand a veggie sandwich. Or a burger sandwich. I don’t want to oversimplify.
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“I dunno, if I go to a restaurant and the only two choices on the menu are the dirt sandwich and the poop sandwich, I don’t order the dirt sandwich just because it sounds marginally better than the poop sandwich (although that’s true so far as it goes). Instead, I leave the restaurant.”
The problem with this analogy is that unless you’re planning on leaving the United States, you have to eat one of those two sandwiches. The restaurant does home delivery.
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I’m not being flippant, Diane – those are the two choices officially on offer. I reject both.
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Dianne, you can reject both, but I hope you are not affected when President Trump appoints three very conservative justices to the Supreme Court. My life will be affected, for sure. Maybe yours won’t be.
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Hi Dienne:
If you can have a choice to get up and leave, you would do so.
However, in reality, if you working in the legal field, then you must understand that your Supreme Judge is the ultimate power to impose on you.
Republican Presidential Trump is COMPLETELY controlled by invisible power. You can visualize that you must sit still and is forced to be staving without poop sandwich or dirt sandwich.
All people, who live with fascist and communist authority/dictatorship will be the witness for their own survival of their gullibility. They are used to be just like you and the rest of bloggers who adamantly cling on empty lip services platform from politician whose background and experience cannot deal with devious and deceitful strategies from the many centuries wealth families on Earth (200+ years of control all brightest academe personnel).
Please, do whatever you can in order to make a dent on the rich but NOT to do more damage on the poor. I beg your logical and legal mind to be sharp, not dull. May
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A reporter asked a Bernie supporting protester in Philly if she thought a vote for Jill Stein was a vote for Trump. She said, “I think a superdelegate vote for Hillary Clinton is a superdelegate vote for Trump.” Then, the reporter asked if she was afraid of a Trump presidency. She said she thought Trump was less frightening than Clinton. Earlier today, Bernie told a crowd to support Hillary Clinton and they erupted in anger.
I think Hillary Clinton should raise chickens.
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If we were to to the response to Sanders on a meter alongside the response to Wasserman-Schultze earlier, it is clear that she was met with anger; he with dissappointment. There is a tremendous difference between “BOO!” And “We want BERNIE!”
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They were crying out for him to not give in. They were angry that their candidate got deleted by the DNC system, not angry at their candidate.
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Actually leftcoast the DNC was not why Bernie was eliminated. The real reason is far sadder. It has been addressed by Cornell West on several occasions prior to this race. It makes the outcome even more disturbing. Look at the voter break downs and explain the breakdown for each segment of the voting population there is one that goes beyond the normal explanations.
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Bernie has a better record than Hillary on Civil Rights. Why was he attacked just ahead of the primary swing through the Southern states by a certain group supported by Obama/Clinton? (Lord have mercy, I’m afraid to mention them by name.) No, he wasn’t attacked by the DNC directly. You’re right as always, Joel, although I am not prepared to vote’n’puke like you are. I shouldn’t have written that the DNC was directly responsible. It was a much bigger — firing squad drumroll please — conspiracy.
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To LeftCoastTeacher:
Could you stomp in LAUSD administration to demand your entitlement of your 30+ years tenure as in Teacher Rafe Esquith’s case?
Please be realistic with the wild government.
You are strong, they have weapon.
You are law abiding citizen, they have Supreme Court Judge in their control to tell you what to do and where to go.
Most of all, they have lots of zombies under control to harm you and your family members at any given time.
They terrorize or isolate you and your family members whenever and wherever they please.
This is NO JOKE, and NO scare tactic.
Trump is just a scarecrow. He always said that he does not care for the well being of America and Americans as long as he is safe to enjoy his luxury and flamboyant living with his own lust.
Good luck on your gullibility. Back2basic
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M4,
There’s a reason I post (hopefully) anonymously. Standing up to the machine takes more than the strength of one. It takes many. It takes collective bargaining.
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LeftCoast, those leaders like John L Lewis (not afraid) were playing to something that already existed . The reasons as I said have been addressed by West on several occasions . There is plenty of fault to go around as to the cause of the divide. But of all people Sanders a civil rights activist with a record of social justice and message of economic equality. Was done a tremendous disservice.
But I have to caution, that disservice was done more to themselves as they will suffer more under Clinton and unimaginably under Trump. So
as Bernie said” this is the real world ” I lived through Reagan and we have been living with his legacy for over 35 years. I don’t want to spend decades living through Trumps legacy . Neo liberal democrats will not obstruct. If he would not have both houses Stein would be an easy choice.
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I don’t want to think about waking up on November 3rd. No win.
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I will use my vote to vote my conscience and beliefs, not to stop anyone. And my conscience dictates that I vote with the long haul in mind so that we can eventually break the stranglehold that the two headed monster of oligarchical duopoly will be slayed and flayed. I will vote for something not against something just as I have since my first presidential vote. That means voting 3rd Party Green, for Jill Stein.
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It is very disappointing to see Ms. Ravitch (along with NEA & AFT) shill for Hillary Clinton, a proven war hawk & criminal (to say the least). A vote for either Trump or Clinton is a vote for Wall Street. In fact, imho, I believe Trump is working to get Clinton elected OR he is a big enough egomaniac to want the presidency, but then hand it over to ultra-conservative Pence. Clinton is not a champion of public education, the poor, or even the middle class. With her choice of Kaine, we have another right-wing Democrat. Both parties are splitting apart because many Americans have had enough and are speaking out. Voting a lesser evil (although I believe both Trump & Clinton are equal evils) must end or we will have no humanity to save. http://mediaroots.org/exclusive-obama-doesnt-want-nuclear-war-neocons-for-hillary/
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So the choice is between Hitler and Dick Cheney.
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The fact that pro-Trump minions who would never vote for Bernie are saying that Hillary Clinton is no different than Dick Cheney demonstrates exactly how warped this discussion has become. I’m sure the people who dumped the e-mail are delighted, as are the rabid Trump supporters like this one.
Hillary Clinton is like Dick Cheney! That is exactly the kind of “logical discussion” that Donald Trump and the Republican Party have offered us for years.
I voted for Bernie in the primary because he did NOT say those kinds of dishonest and lying remarks. And if anyone voted for Bernie because they thought Hillary is worse than Dick Cheney, no doubt Bernie would tell them they are idiots. In no uncertain terms. I hope he does. But most likely these are paid Trump trolls given their language.
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I whole heartily agree!
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Diane, thank you for this forum in which opinions and ideas may be freely shared (and respected). As to the CNN comment you referred to RE: Bernie’s campaign manager (that the election was “not ‘stolen'”) –he has publicly stated that he will vote for Hillary. He is in favor of party unity. I respect him, and I respect his opinion, as I do the opinions of all who write here, though I may often disagree.
That having been said, I must reiterate-indeed, it was “stolen.” In ten plus states (since this information was first broadcast on April 29th), the exit polls were WAY off the typical + or – 4%–for example, N.Y. was a whopping 12%; Georgia 12.4%, Ohio-10.1%; & Arizona (& we all know what happened in Maricopa County–& both the Sanders & the Clinton campaigns challenged)–33.2%. As I write, lawsuits are being–or have already been–filed.
It is the nature of democracy for citizens to be able to question–and obtain answers.
I am anxious to hear Sen. Sanders speak tonight, after which, I’m sure your next post will be even more flooded with comments!
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What the emails show is intent at the highest levels of the DNC to derail the Sanders campaign.
To determine what the actual impact was, one needs an unbiased full-fledged investigation by a third party that is unaffiliated with the Obama administration — one that has subpoena power and can interview people like Wasserman-Schultz under oath.
Without that, I simply will not trust anything that the DNC or Democratic party officials say.
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Thanks, rqtiredbutmiss the kids.
The latest CNN poll shows that Trump has taken a lead over Hillary.
That’s scary to me.
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Diane ,
The polls are frightening to most of us . Which is why Hillary and Obama have to do something really Dramatic. Obama pulling the TPP off the table would be the type of drama that unifies this party. It would take a major Trump issue off the table. They just had a floor demonstration on this as I was typing. So if you want a president Trump worry about your legacy Obama and Hillary worry about Obama’s feelings . Because nothing not even education reform says OLIGARCHY more than the TPP.
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I wish I had more clout.
I oppose fracking (anyone see “Gasland”?).
I oppose TPP.
I support public schools.
I support unions, which built the middle class.
I think that Trump will take this country back 100 years, pre-New Deal. And he will have the help of Paul Ryan.
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RE: Polls
The closer the race the more CNN makes!
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The polls are not so close anymore.
Trump leads Clinton by 5 points: 44-39.
The outlook for the future not good
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Again, Diane, I don’t live my life in fear. I trust that this country can weather any presidency, hell we weathered 8 years of Georgie the Least. Trump can’t be any worse than that. I trust that our system can handle narcissistic con men, hell it handled Tricky Dick. Can Clinton be worse than him?
It has handled the assassinations of 4 presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy. I trust the checks and balances that are in place even though I don’t always agree with the outcomes.
I don’t vote out of fear, I vote for what I believe is in the best interests of this country and that right now is to break the stranglehold of the political duopoly. Therefore I vote 3rd party.
Were all the dissatisfied and more importantly those who feel disenfranchised voters to vote for what they believe in versus out of fear of the greater of two evils we’d be in a hell of a lot better shape as a country.
And as far as the polls go, see my comment to which you responded. For me anything under 15 points at this stage is close. Close races make a lot more money for those who gain from a protracted election season, i.e., the media and advertising agencies.
Personally I have my doubts that both the duopoly’s candidates will actually still be in the race come November.
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Duane Swacker
I hear you . And I do not need to point out to you that 3000 Americans didn’t survive Georgie boy . Not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqis .
I find it much easier to bash Trump than to support Clinton . But I will vote for her. Trump will be a disaster that Democrats wont stop .
With Clinton we may see a continuation of grid lock . Sounds great
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I just sent the following to the Clinton campaign. Would someone please grow a brain in the democratic party…I realize no one will read this, but HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID!!!!! Wasserman-Shultz may have just torpedoed your campaign and you are going to appoint her as honorary chair of the 50 State Committee???? It is estimated that there will be 100,000 Bernie or Bust supporters protesting at the convention and you want to give them more ammo? Please wake up!! This is the very thing that Trump and Republicans use against you so effectively. Wasserman-Shultz needs to go on a vacation until December. The response of her own Florida delegation should show you this. Please stop being so clueless. Our very country is at stake!!!!!!!!!
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The Fifty States Campaign was started by Howard Dean until he was successful replaced by Terry McAuliff. This promotion is just another example of the DNC giving the finger to the voter.
By the way, in Colorado the caucus system was so flawed, thousands of Bernie supporters were left out of the caucuses. This is not and never was a fair election process.
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Paul, you are the one without brain.
Would you abandon your supporter who has been with you all the way for the past many decades? There is always a back up plan for things go wrong = a second chance. (Hey, see the speech writer for Malania – Trump said OK to her plagiarism by saying everyone-else did it, hahaha. You think you have brain, and the rest has a stroke!)
In politics and economy like banking industry, all deceitful strategies will be endlessly used to the extension that mistakes are revealed in order to achieve its ultimate goal = winning at all cost.
I understand that conscientious educators will never want to be politician or a weasel in economic world, because their adamant principle for humanity and democracy is not respected by all devious weasels (=global leaders in 21st century).
That is the reality of the true GREED, EGO and LUST for POWER and CONTROL of WEALTH, and NEVER is the image or shadow of it as people are confused about what it should be or not. Back2basic
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Paul Bonner, I agree with you. Allowing her to remain chairman through the convention was dumb; giving her an honorary and symbolic title was dumber. She should go away on an extended vacation.
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It occurs to me today that the Bernie movement is not led by Bernie. It’s a grassroots movement. Thousands in Philadelphia alone. The DNC will not get away with trying to shut them down again, not even in the belly of Wells Fargo. This primary ain’t over yet, folks.
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I hear from many Bernie supporters that it’s Hillary’s fault if Trump is elected. They say it with satisfaction because it advances their goal of forming a third party. It’s chilling what could happen in the meantime.
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Agreed and I like many will vote for Hillary and barf . What is Hillary’s responsibility.Do you think she has shown she gets it .
“To stand up to Trump, first we have to understand who he appeals to, and why” Thom Hartmann
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I hear from many Hillary supporters that it’s Bernie’s fault if Trump gets elected. They say it with satisfaction because it advances their goal of shutting down debate or dissent with the 40 year reign of oligarchical tyranny. It’s chilling what could happen if the oligarchy continues.
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So LeftCoast how do we best crush the oligarchy. Do we do that by electing the Oligarch. If Bush had not been distracted by the Iraq war the amount of damage he would have done would have been phenomenal. I have said some pretty unflattering things about Obama about Clinton,some might put me on a no fly list .
A Trump Presidency will be very painful for many. But a battered bashed Clinton Presidency may be the best hope for progress.
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Who will Trump round up once he has thrown out 11 million Mexicans and other immigrants?
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Keep battering and bashing. Bash Clinton. Bash Obama. Bash Bush. Bash Reagan. Bash Trump. Do NOT let them control the narrative.
I guess where I differ with most here is in that I am equally afraid of both candidates, both parties, the two parts of the one party.
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” I am equally afraid of both candidates…”
LeftCoastTeacher
July 25, 2016 at 3:47 pm
I never thought I see the day when Hillary Rodham Clinton was characterized as someone to “be afraid” of just like a demagogue fascist who chose a Tea Party acolyte as VP.
I don’t know whether you are really that naive, only read one side of issues, or are a Trump troll. This country has survived Presidents who are significantly less liberal than Hillary. It has not yet survived a demagogue. It came close during the rise of Huey Long era, and Pat Buchanan thankfully had little popularity. But to say you are “just as afraid of both”? That just sounds like trolling.
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You’re right, NYC parent, I’m a troll because I am naive and one-sided. Have a nice day.
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You’re right, Diane. Xenophobia is indefensible. Love trumps hate. I just think fighting Wall Street trumps love. That’s my opinion.
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LeftCoastTeacher
You are in good company.
“NYC public school parent” also implied that “retiredbutmissthekids” (another long time teacher-contributor to this blog) was a troll.
Coming from “NYC public school parent”, it seems to be a badge of honor.
I’m waiting for my badge.
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Thank you, Poet. I needed to hear that from someone like you whom I respect. I’m sick of people just calling others names if they disagree with them. And think, I am on the fence. If Dems push me off the fence instead of pulling…
Side note: Lily Garcia just spoke and didn’t talk about education. Then Randi Weingarten spoke and said Hillary wouldn’t add MORE testing.
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Thanks for the kind words, LeftCoastTeacher
But unlike you and retiredbutmissthekids, I won’t actually be deserving of respect until I am called a troll — or better yet, a Trump Troll.
But I have a good feeling that it is going to happen any time now.
i already have an empty frame for it above my computer –just waiting.
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Poet,
Come on. You are a highly valued contributor.
We have had an infusion of Trump trolls. You are not one of them.
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OK, I’ll settle for being called a “Stein Troll”
I really need something to put in that empty frame.
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Poet,
It would break my heart if we lost you.
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SomeDAM Troll, you nationalist scum,
You’re a Trump troll, a trumpet, a Brexiting bum.
You know you’re just here to troll for Trump!
And only Loving Hill means that you’re a good one.
With respect and sarcasm,
Leftie
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Don’ worry, Diane
You can’t get rid of me that easy
and Leftie
That was some dam poem
Some DAM Troll?
ha ha ha ha
Wish I’d thought of that
(but I’m still going to steal it)
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Diane,
Thank you for support of public school teachers. It’s been great.
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SomeDAM Poet,
If I implied you were a troll, then I apologize because I know your posts.
LeftCoastTeacher, retiredbutmissthekids, SomeDAM Troll – If I said you were trolls than I apologize. Without re-reading all my replies to you, what I intended to point out was that you seemed to be posting the same kind of arguments that I see from trolls.
If you have read my (far too excessive and long) posts on this blog, you hopefully know that one of my biggest issues is HONESTY. I get riled up when I feel as if the debate is dishonest.
That’s why I liked Steve Cohen’s criticism of Hillary. I agree with it.
And that’s why I get so offended when I see posts like “Hillary is a war-monger who wants to bomb Iran” or “Hillary is completely in the pocket of big banks” and worst of all: “There is no difference”.
As a Bernie supporter, I understand and agree with criticism of Hillary. But I believe in keeping it honest.
If someone wants to vote against Hillary or doesn’t mind Trump getting elected, that is fine. But I feel obligated to remind them exactly what they are doing and what it means to the people whose lives WILL be disrupted under a Trump presidency.
And if you choose to vote against Hillary to “disrupt” the process, that’s fine and I agree that your goal of burning down the house might work (although at a price that is very high to the most vulnerable Americans).
But I will not be quiet if people claim they are voting against Hillary because she is no different than Trump or because she will bomb Iran or is completely in the hands of the bankers. Because I don’t believe it. And saying that provides a cover for allowing a demagogue President to be elected who could truly be dangerous for the most vulnerable Americans. Not for me, but for others.
So you aren’t trolls. I apologize if I said you were. But please keep the debate honest.
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I want to disagree with “if someone wants to vote against Hillary or for Trump, that it is fine”. I don’t think it is fine.
But because we live in a republic with a Constitution and Bill of Rights — something that Trump clearly wants to weaken or get rid of — I think people have a right to vote even if they are fools. That doesn’t mean I will think it is fine. If Trump is elected and the world starts to flow with blood and suffering, that will be when I will really thank the fact that as a teenager back in the early 1960s, I decided to join the U.S. Marines out of high school and learned how to defend myself and fight back if Trump’s racist, hating followers takes to the streets to terrorize, bully and attack anyone that gets in their way and/or doesn’t agree with them.
I took this oath of enlistment in the Marines and except for the part about obeying the orders of the President of the Untied States, I will still support and defend the Constitution of the U.S. against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and Trump’s own words have branded him as a domestic enemy of that Constitution.
The Oath of Enlistment (for enlistees):
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
In addition, read the oath of office for military officers:
“I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.”
Did you notice that officers don’t have to obey the orders of the President of the United States. In fact, go back to the oath for enlistees and it clearly says the troops must obey the orders of the officers appointed over them.
This clearly sets the stage for America’s generals and admirals to defy a President Trump and possibly even remove him from office if they think Trump is a domestic enemy and they have to defend the Constitution of the United States to preserve it.
If Trump becomes president, our last defense against Trump might be our own volunteer military and its officers.
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^^^and I was reacting to the comment that someone could be equally afraid of both candidates, as if there was no difference at all.
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I’m more afraid of Hillary on foreign policy than Trump. This article labels her more hawkish than Trump and Cruz.
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/27/democrats_this_is_why_you_need_to_fear_hillary_clinton_the_ny_times_is_absolutely_right_shes_a_bigger_hawk_than_the_republicanse/
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Diane, Parent, Lloyd, and Sarah Silverman,
That’s great. Just bully. You’re all so fair minded, and such flexible thinkers. You’re not being reactionary, oh no! (The only thing I have to decide is whether I wanna get myself banned or just leave.) Whatever. Have fun supporting Third Way. Hey, I love you all, babes. We’ll do lunch sometime. Ciao from Hollywood! Peace out.
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To Linda:
Watch Deasy, Cortine, and John King did to all tenure teachers in LAUSD, then and NOW! Could you do anything about it because legal system backs those weasels all the way? Please watch republicans and its Supreme Court appointees if Trump won thanks to you and all confusedly dreaming educators.
You can cling on your principle, but did not make a TINY impact on “American Public Education” except damage it to the point of no return, if you intentionally support Trump via distracting the margin of loss or winning in this either Hillary OR Trump set-up election by default. (=republicans try hard to damage Clintons to confuse you and all gullible educators)
This is the basic instinct of tuition in human conscience:
“Politician, whose background, whose living lifestyle and whose selfish-desires are approved by republican party, clearly shows us what he is and his party’s ideology is as it is without any doubt. (=lying, cheating, implanting fake news or creating real news that they work hard to make it happen through deceitful manipulation.”
You advocate for your choice that gears to help to elect the UNQUALIFIED, GREEDY, EGOISTIC, DEVIOUS, DECEITFUL AND MANIPULATIVE CON-ARTIST, shady businessman to be your President of the United States of America.
Honey always attracts bees as the rousing phenomenal “either you are with me or you are my enemies” attracts emotional and foolish listeners. I am not worrying about commoners, but I have a grave concern about educated and cultivated educators being gullible in their adamant principle which Republicans abuse for their advantageous control in Supreme Court Judges’ appointment. May
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What does John King have to do with Trump?
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It is a comparison how the power of control is invisibly behind these talent-less people but they love fame and wealth.
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I have been vacillating between voting green or voting Hillary. It just hurts to pull the lever for Hillary knowing that I’m probably voting for another Obama as far as educational policy goes. I also abhor her Walton connections. In essence, I feel I’ll be voting against myself and my family. However, I have decided I must vote for Clinton. A Trump presidency is unconscionable.
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A little misrepresentation the Kaisch ad was 9 months ago.
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It might be old but it’s more appropriate and chilling than ever to see today. I never saw it before so I’m happy it’s being aired again. Perhaps it was only in Ohio before now I hope it goes national.
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To Bernie supporters who refuse to vote for Hillary because she’s not what you want her to be, please think of her as a useful TOOL that can get you farther down the road to where you want to be. Otherwise, you’ll just end up cheating yourself of progress.
The president said it better:
“You can be completely right, and you still are going to have to engage folks who disagree with you. If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but you’re not going to get what you want.
“And if you don’t get what you want long enough, you will eventually think the whole system is rigged. And that will lead to more cynicism, and less participation, and a downward spiral of more injustice and more anger and more despair. And that’s never been the source of our progress.
“That’s how we cheat ourselves of progress.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/obamas-howard-commencement-transcript-222931
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Except that Hillary is not going to make incremental progress, she’ll incrementally make things worse, just as Obama has. She’ll give more and more to Wall Street, big international corporations and the obscenely rich. She’ll do more and more to harm the environment – fracking, Keystone, TPP (no matter what she says now about being against any of the above). She’ll instigate more and more foreign aggressions, drone bombings and other sorts of campaigns. All of which make it harder and harder for ordinary Americans to get by and more and more of us are slipping into poverty (and those who are already in poverty are slipping deeper into it).
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Trump will not make incremental change. He will move swiftly to do exactly what he promised. To build a “beautiful wall” on the southern border. To round up and deport 11 million immigrants. To appoint the most conservative judges he can find to the Supreme Court, the ones who will eliminate reproductive rights and gay rights and gun controls and environmental controls.
He says it. Believe him.
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Dienne, I don’t know if Hillary will make things incrementally worse. I do know that Trump will make things a lot more worse.
What I don’t like is comments like “she’ll do more and more to harm the environment…she’ll instigate more and more foreign aggressions….” Where did that come from? That isn’t reasoned argument – that is the same kind of misleading rhetoric I hear from Trump. I was a huge Bernie supporter and I preferred his policies to Hillary’s on most issues. But that doesn’t stop me from seeing the bigger picture.
This is a very dangerous time in the world. There is no real “enemy” we can fight the way we could fight Nazis or Soviets based in a country. The enemy is a mindset — often guided by religion but sometimes by notions of racial supremacy — that says it’s not enough for people to choose how to live their lives, our leader knows the one right way and anyone who disagrees is an evil terrorist, or anarchist, or infidel, or whoever the most convenient scapegoat is.
Hillary isn’t looking to “instigate more aggressions” anymore than Obama is looking to do so. I don’t like many of Obama’s policies, but in foreign policy he was between a rock and a hard place and IMO managed reasonably well. Hindsight isn’t 20/20 — we have no idea if the wrong actions Obama took actually prevented even worse outcomes.
Ultimately, especially in foreign policy, you need to trust that the leaders are smart and listen to viewpoints and make decent decisions that may or may not be right. I expect Hillary to make some wrong ones. I expect Trump could make some “right” ones. But what I know is that I don’t trust Trump to make either right or wrong decisions based on anything except what happens to be his whim at the time. And that is truly scary to me.
I find it hard to believe that any real Bernie supporters would vote for Trump. I also find it hard to believe that eventually Jill Stein — if she is really an ethical person — won’t ask her voters to vote for Clinton. If Jill Stein does not find the prospect of a Donald Trump Presidency a very scary thing, then in my opinion she is not fit to be President.
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>What I don’t like is comments like “she’ll do more and more to harm the environment…she’ll instigate more and more foreign aggressions….”
Hillary sold fracking around the world as SoS. She said the TPP was a model agreement, then she said she was against it, then she selected Tim Kaine, who is for it.
http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/trans-pacific-partnership
She voted for the war in Iraq, pushed for bombing Libya, and has vowed to attack Iran if elected. Her military stance is more hawkish than Obama AND Trump.
You make a valid point that Trump’s potential court appointments could be dangerous. But let’s not ignore Hillary’s record.
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Thanks concerned citizen. It astounds me that people who are that fearful of Trump haven’t bothered to inform themselves about Hillary. “Anyone but Trump” is dangerous too if you don’t know who that “anyone” is.
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Even if you don’t think Donald Trump is a threat to the world, please know that he has indicated he’ll let his VP do the actually running of the executive branch. This means Mike Pence will be your actual president.
If you don’t think Hillary is better than Mike Pence, then there’s no saving us.
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“She voted for the war in Iraq, pushed for bombing Libya, and has vowed to attack Iran if elected. Her military stance is more hawkish than Obama AND Trump.”
Even Bernie didn’t characterize Hillary in this way. At least, I certainly didn’t see him doing it and if he had I would not have donated to his campaign.
The vote for the war in Iraq seemed the right thing to do from the limited intelligence. It was a vote TO ALLOW the President to wage war if he thought it was necessary. And I agree, in hindsight she was wrong. But that decision – whether you agree with it – seemed reasonable at the time and designed to help people that were suffering mightily under a truly horrific strongman.
I don’t see Hillary “vowing to attack Iran if elected”. Again, that sounds like a Donald Trump lie. “If you elect me, we will be in attack mode on Jan. 21”. Did she use hawklike words? Sure, but she made no campaign promises to attack.
When Donald Trump uses that kind of lying rhetoric about his opponents, it’s because he has no facts on his side. The reason I adored Bernie is that he told it like it is and wasn’t trying to pretend Hillary was a raving maniac. And frankly, despite the e-mail trove we all saw, I so no effort by the DNC to paint Bernie as a raving maniac. They may have had a preference, but that didn’t lead to them lying and attacking Bernie.
Be honest when you post here. Don’t exaggerate. Donald Trump frightens me. I am not going to post that it is because he will bomb Iran or whatever terrorist nation he decides deserves it. It is because he cares nothing for the truth and spews whatever nonsense he thinks will give him the sale. The art of the deal. That is the worst thing for a democracy because the one thing Donald Trump is truly brilliant at doing is SELLING HIMSELF. And I think if this country buys him he will do whatever he decides is best for Trump.
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Did someone actually say Hillary was more hawkish than Donald Trump who wants to kill the families of Islamic Terrorist, arrest and throw out 11 million undocumented immigrants, use nuclear weapons on our enemies.
Trump actually supported the war in his first media interview after the Iraq war started and then in the next several media interviews, no one asked him about his support. Eventually Trump came out and said he was against it.
“Donald Trump Won’t Rule Out Using Nuclear Weapons in Europe”
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/03/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-europe
Then Trump picked a VP candidate, Mike Pence, who not only voted for the War in Iraq but co-sponsored and helped write the bill.
Hillary has admitted repeatedly for years that she regrets voting for that Bill and that it was wrong. Pence has never regretted sponsoring or voting for that bill.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-trump-pence-republican-ticket/
IN addition, Donald Trump said he would dramatically increase military spending, but the U.S. already spends more than any country on the planet. China is in second place and China spends about $150 billion annually versus more than $600 billion that the US spends.
He also wants to let Japan have nuclear weapons.
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-defense-budget-increase-2016-4
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NYC Parent,
You are right. A lot of the criticism of Hillary echoes Trump and the GOP propaganda. They are very good at shaping the narrative and branding their enemies
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I wasn’t echoing Trump, I was echoing Hillary in her own words.
Hillary: “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m president, we will attack Iran….We will be able to totally obliterate them.” This was in response to a hypothetical question about an Iranian attack against Israel, but her words and tone are chilling. This is not the posture of a diplomat or a peace negotiator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTt-xhF02Gg
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Governor Malloy speaking now. Booker up later. How inspiring.
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I have been viscerally critical of Clinton/Obama for over twenty years. That has not stopped me from voting for each of them twice. Bernie echoed Diane “this is the real world”, we have two choices .
That being said the Clinton victim card is a pile of “poop” . The Clinton’s are surrounded by controversy because there is always a varying degree of truth in most of them.The Republicans have been throwing mud at Obama for years none of it about personal conduct .
With the exception that his mother in law lived with them (bull poop). Obama has been squeaky clean that’s why they fail .
So tell everybody why Trump is unacceptable agreed. But absolving Clinton or Obama of neo liberal sins is unacceptable. On this blog especially, there are few low information voters. Just a lot of disgusted voters. Venting is cathartic, if it is positively responded to, it is transformative .
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Hillary has admitted to mistakes, and she has learned from them. Trump never admits mistakes and never learns from them.
And he’ll make a lot of them.
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Truthfully, I am more put off by the Democratic Party leadership for the whole email thing. I am hoping that there may be grounds to indict DWS. I have been a registered Democrat since 1970 and quite frankly, I feel betrayed. Since I have no emotional investment with Trump, he is a sleeze and I expect nothing else out of him, he bothers me less then the Democrats but no, I would never vote for him. I am going to investigate the Green Party with the idea that as their numbers grow they can eventually qualify for election commission support.
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So you take Hillary’s answer to a hypothetical question with a “chilling tone” and turn that into “Hillary plans to bomb Iran when she is President”.
As I said, it’s a comment worthy of Donald Trump. It’s the kind of lies he says in so many speeches that are fact checked based on “did he get the number of Iranian nuclear weapons correct?” rather than “why is he lying and saying Hillary plans to bomb Iran as soon as she wins?” It’s why Donald is winning.
Please do not allow Donald Trump style of appalling dishonest debate to become the norm in the US.
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Dienne: appointing Kagan and Sotomayor did not make things worse. The deal with Iran did not make things worse. Obama was crucified for the Iran deal.
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Julian Assange: Choosing Between Trump or Clinton is Like Picking Between Cholera or Gonorrhea
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/25/julian_assange_choosing_between_trump_or?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=4e7c147b68-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-4e7c147b68-191191913
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Clinton Running Mate Tim Kaine Supported TPP, Offshore Drilling & Anti-Union Right-to-Work Measures
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/25/clinton_running_mate_tim_kaine_supported?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=4e7c147b68-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-4e7c147b68-191191913
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Tim Kaine received a 96% approval rating from the AFL-CIO.
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What rating do you think the AFL-CIO would give to Trump and Pence?
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“Tim Kaine received a 96% approval rating from the AFL-CIO.”
Yes, and Hillary was endorsed by both the NEA and the AFT – over the vociferous objections of their respective memberships. Sometimes unions don’t reflect the will of their members.
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Incidentally, I was hoping that Bernie could save it and restore it to what it’s supposed to be. But it doesn’t want to be saved.
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And Bernie received a D- rating from the NRA which did not stop Clinton from going after him on guns. Organized labor is in the same position as most on this blog . They are choosing between the lesser of two evils far to often . So if your not my enemy you are my friend . Kaine and Clinton are not enemies neither does their policy make friends of organized labor. The Political liaison of my Union the day my Union (one of the largest private sector locals in the country) endorsed Hillary (weakly 2days before the primary) admitted he was voting for Sanders as probably was most of the leadership . Political necessities makes strange bedfellows.
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Thanks Diane.. Is ill be voting for Hilary ..we must stop Trump…:)
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PA voter agrees. There is only one choice. I don’t want a President who could potentially come into my classroom and be “A man who is quick to sneer and insult others, especially Hispanics, African Americans, women, people with disabilities, and anyone who dares to disagree with him.” Diversity is what makes America great. Insults and scapegoating should never be tolerated.
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People have to decide if they want catharsis or an election. And for those who only joined the party for this primary, it’s worse. They seem to want to destroy something they were never even a part of. They’re saying we need to be responsive to them or they’ll go away. I don’t believe that if they achieve any compromise that they will back our nominee. Frankly, at this point, I wish they WOULD go away.
This new article is as excellent as Diane’s original post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/07/25/despite-what-youve-heard-democrats-arent-in-disarray-their-party-is-under-attack-from-the-outside/?postshare=4751469475962343&tid=ss_tw
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I was a lifetime Democrat. But I seen now that it has to be destroyed because it’s become toxic. The Democrats no longer represent much of anything Democratic.
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Dienne, I don’t understand how the release of the e-mails would change your mind. Are you saying you are certain the people at the DNC never have preferred establishment candidates?
What should have heartened you is that there are no DNC e-mails about negative advertising to bring down Bernie. No dirty tricks. The worst — the very worst! — that keeps getting repeated as if it was so terrible is the suggesting that they make Bernie go on record as to whether he is a practicing Jew or an atheist. And since he was never asked — apparently they decided such a question wasn’t appropriate! They didn’t actually DO anything.
Contrast that with REAL dirty tricks. That’s when a flyer goes out to all Christian households saying “Is Bernie an Atheist who wants to outlaw Christmas”? That’s what dirty tricks are. Not asking a candidate his religion. Seeing pro-Bernie voters saying that they are “outraged” makes me wonder if they were really ever Democrats at all.
I know you are and I often agree with you on here. But one of my biggest issues is honesty. Not having political candidates lie about the other candidate or about issues. Not having pro-charter school folks lie about results or studies. I liked Bernie because he was honest. I disliked Hillary because of the things she stood for, but not because I believed she lied through her teeth. Nothing in these e-mails show me that Hillary lies. But all I had to do was listen to Trump’s acceptance speech to hear lie and after lie blithely told to rile up anger.
I hope you will re-consider. This election is too important to “burn down the house”. People — and children — LIVE in that house that is going to get burned down.
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“there are no DNC e-mails about negative advertising to bring down Bernie.”
Well, there is this email , a suggestion from the DNC head of communications, Louis Miranda, to distribute a article ****without attribution*** that painted Bernie and his supporters in a negative light
Of course, the DNC did not want anyone to know they were responsible for the distribution of such an article. That might look bad, like they were favoring one candidate over the other. They couldn’t have people thinking that, now could they?
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Yeah, I’m not seeing it in the e-mail.
It was an interesting opinion that the DNC wanted to get out not simply to defend Hillary, but to defend themselves. I have read some hit jobs, but this wasn’t one of them. It raised some interesting issues. As a Bernie supporter, I wasn’t seeing a lot of “let’s rile up people’s emotions” in the article. I was seeing an interpretation of how the pro-Hillary and pro-DNC people saw what happened. I didn’t see Bernie painted as evil.
It’s just like what Steve Cohen posted below. It was a legitimate critique of Clinton’s flaws. It didn’t make her out to be an evil person or “most dishonest candidate ever” as I keep hearing by supposed Bernie supporters. It laid out the honest criticism of her campaign. It’s why I didn’t vote for her. But it is also why I will support her over Trump. She isn’t evil. She is a moderate Republican. And I would prefer a moderate Republican (with a history that tells me it is not impossible that she will be more liberal than we expect) over a demagogue who lies about his opponents any day. No contest.
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It was an interesting opinion that the DNC wanted to get out not simply to defend Hillary, but to defend themselves.
i guess that’s why they wanted no attribution.
ha ha ha ha !
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But was it a “hit job”?
I’ve followed politics for a long time and have seen many dirty tricks. Passing along this e-mail without attribution just isn’t my idea of a “hit job”. Or if so, it’s a “hit job” in an election where the opponents are very nice and polite.
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You misread the emial.
Oh, brother
The idea was not to “pass the email along”
That would not even make any sense because the email has a header in it which identifies who is sending it.
The idea was to distribute the “Ralston article” with all the negative things in it about Sanders and his supporters.
maybe you missed the subject line in the email (right at the top) “Subject: Ralston article
And “pass along?
Just like one would “pass” the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving?
I don’t know about your house, but in my house we don’t do that under the table.
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Make a list of all the “negative things” in the Ralston article that you claim is a “hit job” on Bernie.
Since you find it so abhorrent it must be full of quotes you can post here to show the awful and degrading way that Bernie was characterized in the article that the DNC wanted to pass on.
I didn’t notice any, but I defer to you. You should be able to post a lot of those abhorrent quotes from the article about how Bernie is a Communist, wants the terrorists to win, wants to take away your homes, wants illegal immigrants to be able to murder American citizens. Those are the kinds of dirty tricks that are typical of Republicans. I hope you will post a few quotes from this article so you can convince me that what the DNC tried to forward was a terrible “hit job”.
If not, then why are you so outraged? It feels manufactured. I am not saying it is — I am just saying that as a Bernie supporter I am not seeing it. And neither is Bernie. So why are you?
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^^Correction: not “pass along”. To anonymous send to reporters covering the campaign to sway their opinion. You are correct about that.
While I don’t agree with everything in the article, and it certainly paints Bernie supporters in a negative light, calling this a “hit job” just offers cover to the politicians like Trump who constantly offer lies about their opponents that are truly appalling. Bernie supporters were immature and whining and don’t understand politics. That’s what the article said. That’s what the DNC believes. It is wrong. But again, calling this a hit job reminds me of when no one could criticize Republicans because they were being “mean”. No — “mean” is viciously lying and painting your opponent as evil.
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Why do you suppose Wasserman-Schultz resigned soon after the emails were released?
Do you think she wanted to spend more time with her family?
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Poet,
DWS was pushed out by her superiors.
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Precisely, Diane
and they would not have done so if they actually believed “There is nothing here to see. Move along.”
She was “pushed out” (or at least pushed to a different position, like one might push a pawn on the chessboard) because they knew that anyone with eyes can see that there actually is something there to see.
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She was pushed out because the DNC was smart enough to realize that her presence was distracting from one of the most important week in the election. Trump had received a huge bounce from the election and the DNC had a chance to tell voters why Hillary was a better choice.
Instead of focusing on that, the week was going to be about DWS and whether she actively and illegally thwarted the right of people to vote in order to get Hillary elected.
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So, you think if the email release had been a week later (after the Convention), Wasserman-Schultz would not have resigned?
Your claims are getting progressively more absurd.
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Thank you Diane!
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I’ve been a Bernie supporter for a long time and was delighted when he declared his run for the presidency. I don’t like Clinton, I feel she has little integrity, and doesn’t think the rules apply to her. But I’m going to vote for her.
Question: If Clinton promised to name Diane Ravitch Sec. of Education, then would you be willing to vote for her?
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I guess the better question would be under what circumstances would Diane agree to be Hillary’s Secretary of Education? Knowing that John Podesta is managing Hillary’s campaign and that she’s best friends with Eli Broad, I think it’s safe to say that Hillary supports charters, even if the “non-profit” [sic] type. Would Diane agree to that agenda?
It’s the same with the idea of what if Hillary had selected Warren as her VP? Would that mean Hillary was moving left or Warren was moving right?
Both of which such speculations are moot, of course, because we know that Tim Kaine is the VP choice and Randi or Lily will most likely by the Education choice.
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I will not vote for Trump and I will not throw my vote away or stay home.
If given a choice that might stand a chance to win, I’d vote for the Green Party candidate for president, but the Green Party is not registered in every state, and I wouldn’t vote for anyone from the Koch Party, sorry, I meant to say Libertarian Party, if someone held the barrel of a .45 to my head and I had a choice between dying or voting for a Koch Party candidate, I’d tell them to pull the damn trigger.
On that note, the U.S. has a history of dirty politics. The first dirty example was the election between Adams and Jefferson.
The Republicans manipulate districts through gerrymandering.
If you are a Bernie supporter, I want to suggest you get over it (whatever your it is), count to ten, calm down and then consider what life would be like in the United States with a President Trump. And if Trump wins, I will blame Hillary and anyone who didn’t vote who could have voted.
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Sorry about that. Here’s the link to Gerrymandering: Crash Course Government and Politics #37
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We don’t know how much the leaked DNC emails impacted the primary. With all the voter suppression that took place, the long lines and mysteriously switched voter registrations impacting Sanders voters, the fact that Sanders rallies were in capacity stadiums and Hillary’s were much smaller scale – there is a very good chance the primary was stolen. With DWS and the party leaders implicated in the leak, this is a credible claim. This is why we see turmoil at the DNC convention. The people voted for one candidate and are told they can’t have him. They must vote Hillary. THAT more than anything voters do from this point forward is a great way to give the general election to Trump. Hillary does not poll well against him. She never has. Bernie does and always has. If we want to beat Trump, we need a contested convention. We need the DNC to nominate the actual winner of the primary. That’s not Hillary. It’s Bernie.
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Ok, this is just anecdotal and proves nothing, but I had absolutely no trouble voting for Bernie in central NJ. No lines, no problems.
NJ: Clinton 63%, Bernie 37%. Hillary is the clear winner, no contest. I was very disappointed and a little shocked, too, I thought NJ would go for Bernie.
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>there is a very good chance the primary was stolen.
Oh, please. Even Bernie doesn’t maintain that. Rally size does not translate to votes. The fact is, Bernie’s rallies were full of young people, and young people are just not good at showing up to vote.
The rules in place for this election have been in place for decades. Bernie agreed to them from the beginning, and he himself admits Hillary won fair and square.
Hillary won because more of us showed up to vote for her. Period.
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If Bernie thought the election was “stolen,” he would not have endorsed Hillary.
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I have to agree with that about the rally since I personally know quite a few teenagers who attended Bernie rallies – none were old enough to vote, unfortunately.
I loved Bernie’s speech tonight — this is the beginning of a movement, not the end.
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I’ll vote for her. I think Trump is a crook.
The truth is, though, Diane, Democrats are weak in rust belt states. People think they’re snobs who are out of touch with ordinary working people.
There’s truth to it. The President wouldn’t even engage with people on his trade deal. He labeled them all isolationists and completely dismissed their concerns. They bash public schools and spend most of their time insisting all of the problems in the economy are due to an inferior workforce.
It gets old. I’m sick of it and I’ve been a Democrat since I was 18 years old. They need to stop scolding and patronizing people. We’re not idiots. We figured out that wages haven’t gone up in 15 years. What are they doing about it, other than lecturing us?
I’ll vote for Clinton but I don’t think she’ll be any more responsive than Obama was. They live in a different world than we do. None of them even go to public colleges anymore, let alone something like a community college or trade school. They are people who seem to be on this high-powered track since birth. I don’t feel I have anything in common with them.
It’s like this unique class of people- an exclusive club. I didn’t tell them to form a club and exclude 99.9% of the country. They did that all by themselves.
But I will vote for Hillary Clinton, because Mr. Trump is a fraud.
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Chiara,
Michael Moore has said something very similar to what you say here.
Moore thinks Trump is going to win based on what is happening in the rust belt states like his home state of Michigan.
Clinton seems to be utterly clueless about what is happening in this country — and even what is happening in her own campaign.
It’s actually bizarre.
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Hillary did not grow up in privilege. She went to public school, then was accepted at Wellesley. Same as me. Read her bio on Wikipedia.
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Chiara, you are so wrong(LOL) it is really about 92 %. Thomas Frank details the problem in “Listen Liberal”. Their birth may have some influence, often it is the sense of personal success that make them dismiss the concerns of the lower people . The Plutocracy’s belief in meritocracy tells them they are the smartest people in the room on any subject . How could a lowly teacher tell them about what works in education . How could Union leaders with out a Harvard business degree, tell them that the economy does not have to function in the manner it does.
The Zuckerbergs, Gates, Bezos, Blankfeins … that’s the donor class at the upper end , their concerns are not those of the workers who have been decimated in the Midwest . Chew on this one Chiara
German auto makers produce and sell more cars than American automakers ,are fully unionized and pay their workers more than American automakers. There is nothing inevitable about our industrial policy. These are decisions made about the distribution of goods and services . “Who gets what ” they are not ordained by god or economic law. Decisions are made that determine this distribution every day ,be it in a hunter gather society or an advanced industrial/post industrial society. That is politics. As long as the donor class has more access to the decision making class by a sense of equal merit or cash contribution you get screwed.
These decisions do not have to be this way, Ha-Joon Chang ” 23 Things They Did Not Tell You About Capitalism “
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Chiara,
As a Democrat who grew up in a rust belt state, I wholeheartedly agree with much of what you say. President Obama was a huge disappointment to me because I had such high expectations.
The one thing that I feel somewhat mollified about is that I see a surprising number of Facebook friends from those Rustbelt towns who support Hillary. Mostly Republican women who did not vote for Obama. They may not love Hillary, but they find her a much more attractive candidate and Trump appalls them. As a human being. They do not want him to be President. They are paying attention and making a thoughtful decision to support Hillary.
I agree with you that except for Bernie, the Democratic Party have left behind so many of those workers. Some are too angry or uneducated to see beyond the load of crap that Trump is so good at selling. But I am glad there are still people — I suspect more women than men — who see Trump for the fraud he is. I hope they vote and that what happens at the Democratic Convention this week helps them seal the deal.
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Chiara,
I don’t know about Ms Clinton’s home state of Illinois but in NJ at the time she was finishing high school, community colleges were JUST being opened. In the 60s we valued the opportunity to attend college out of state, learning from students who hadn’t grown up in the same area, and learning about a different locale.
I imagine Ms Clinton’s guidance counselor was pretty pleased when Hillary was accepted to a Seven Sisters college; in 1965 Princeton and Yale had yet to admit freshman women. Neither did U Va or Rutgers, consigning them to separate state women’s colleges.
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Even without our votes, Hillary Clinton will win. Period. So no, it doesn’t matter and there’s no issue of “wasting a vote” by choosing NOT to play the “pick the best of the worst choices”. Her win is baked into the cake. GEMS voting machines count approximately 25% of all votes in the United States. They are used in the following states: Alaska, Connecticut, Georgia, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Utah and Vermont, and for counties in Arizona, California, Colorado, *Florida*, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, *Ohio*, *Pennsylvania*, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The decimalized vote feature built into GEMS voting machines allows an _extraordinary_ amount of precision. It is possible to instruct the voting system to produce a landslide, a squeaker, or just a solid but uncontroversial win. There’s a reason you come up through the party. The establishment at the state level controls the machines. And everybody needs to be paid. Kasich won’t be delivering Ohio and “low energy Jeb” and Little Marco Rubio won’t be delivering Florida. Trump has no one to deliver votes for him. And on election night we’ll all have fun calling him a loser and we can all light up a fat one for a night. (Note: in select states that allow you to light up a fat one.) The question for me is how long will it take for Hillary Clinton and her billionaires to fully and utterly privatize our nation’s public schools? The defense for this is the down ballot choices. State legislatures, school boards, state superintendents. This is my focus.
http://blackboxvoting.org
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I agree with you, pnwarriorwoman, & you, too, stevenmsinger. The people I know who worked so very hard for Bernie do, indeed, believe the election was stolen (please read my earlier comment RE: the way-off exit poll %ages (& these were only the ones presented as of 4/29–there were so many more after, & CA was called by AP the EVE of VOTING DAY!! {One has to see the Chris Matthews interview w/Jeff Weaver &–I think it was–Robby Mook–when he brought up this possibility [&–lo & behold!–MSNBC then went int “Breaking News’–the AP had called HRC the winner of the CA primary–not even on the DAY of the primary–the NIGHT BEFORE!!!]}) Thanks for the blackboxvoting link, pn.
Anyway, this is exactly the reason why many Bernie supporters are not coming around & are so angry (& rightfully so)–as steven said, “We need the DNC to nominate the actual winner of the primary…It’s Bernie.” The whole DNC e-mail fiasco was just a punch in the gut (although we all knew it) along with the heartbreak.
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pnww,
The forecast for UK EU vote was Remain by a narrow margin. 3.8% of the electorate made that prediction moot.
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I was going to bite the bullet and vote for Hillary but with these new revelations, I simply cannot do it. I am old enough that I remember Richard Nixon. Our country survived him and it will survive Donald Trump. Since Bernie may be too old to run in 2020, it is time for Elizabeth Warren to come up to bat.
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Robert,
Be ready to welcome President Trump.
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What did the “new revelations” tell you, Robert?
It seems as if the Bernie supporters didn’t really believe in Bernie’s ideals. If they did, the last person they would vote for is Trump.
Read the e-mails carefully. The DNC never demonized Bernie Sanders nor his ideas. Hillary Clinton never demonized Bernie Sanders nor his ideas. Bernie Sanders never demonized Hillary Clinton nor her ideas. They disagreed strongly about how to move this country forward, but ultimately believed that honest debate was the way to win over voters.
Given that, it is astonishing to see Bernie supporters reject all that he stands for and claim that Trump is no worse. Trump – a politician who says whatever will sell with no concern as to its truth nor to the people harmed by the rhetoric and dishonesty.
I despise everything Ted Cruz stands for. But that doesn’t mean I think it is okay for a Presidential candidate to imply his father killed JFK.
I disagreed with Obama on many issues. But that doesn’t mean I think it is okay for a Presidential candidate to say that he was not born in US and is lying, or that Obama doesn’t mind “sacrificing” the life of a young woman killed by an illegal immigrant.
Until we start making it clear that there is a difference between two candidates with different policies and world views, and blatantly lying about a political opponent in order to “win”, our country will never improve. And I would say that if it was Bernie making up stuff about Hillary in service to his progressive agenda that I love. Bernie didn’t do that. I hope his supporters will stop acting like Trump.
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God do I hate having to stand up for Clinton . Richard Nixon was not today’s Republican .Noam Chomsky has stated on several levels he may have been the last liberal president . That said I was shutting down the LIE after Kent State so I am certainly no fan . Yes he certainly did set in motion several policies that have brought us to where we are . From the racist Southern Strategy to facilitating the creation of the Business Round Table. But my question to you is, have we survived the election of Ronald Reagan? I would argue that vast segments of our working class have not . He set in motion policies that empowered corporate America at the expense of working America .Made it fashionable to crush workers and the poor. Tax policy that shifted burden to working class Americans . When you “starve the beast ” you not only increase poverty, you shift the burden of things like State college education to the student. This infection of Reaganomics and anti union “right to work” has spread from state to state. . Thank you Ronni for that Reagan Revolution may you ………………. (fill in the blank).
You have been living with Reaganomics for 35 years .Family incomes are down in-spite of wives entering the workforce . The only policy that can pass congress in the last 25 years are Republican policy including almost all of the Clinton’s major initiatives . Even Obamacare was designed by Heritage foundation..They only hate it because Obama proposed it. Try anything progressive and they shut down the government or threaten the American bond rating .
You think you will survive a Pence /Ryan presidency .Because that’s what your getting . You may find out other wise . If I thought a vote for Stein would bring on the revolution one day sooner I would do it . It will bring more pain to many more Americans and strengthen the Oligarchy.
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Michelle Obama was spectacular
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With Bernie I felt hope and saw that real Democracy is possible. With Hillary, as with Obama, not so much.
But as a passionate Bernie supporter myself, the transition to Hillary, when the time came, while disappointing, was a “no brainer.” Even Bernie Sanders himself knows this!
How can all you high minded Bernie supporters be so principled that you leave the man himself behind?
Sometimes our principles amount to little more than a kind of vanity.
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Diane’s view needs to be taken seriously, no doubt. But so does Bill Black’s, perhaps the foremost authority on financial fraud in the US. He’s a Bernie advisor, to be sure, but before Bernie, for a long time, he called out anti-New Deal, anti-Great society, neoliberal Democrats.
Put Ravitch’s view together with Black’s and you have one very difficult choice to make.
JULY 25, 2016
Doubling Down on Wall Street: Hillary and Tim Kaine
by WILLIAM K. BLACK
By picking Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton has revealed her true preferences and shown that her move to the left on policy issues during the primaries was simply a tactical move to defeat Bernie Sanders. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.
Clinton can talk about caring about the U.S. public, but this choice cuts through the rhetoric. The two politicians to whom she gave serious consideration to choosing as her running mates were Kaine and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. What both men share in common is, like the Clintons, being leaders of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). The DLC was, on economic and foreign policy issues, a servile creature of Wall Street – funded by Wall Street.
As Tom Frank’s new book Listen, Liberal documents, the DLC vilified the New Deal, financial and safety regulation, organized labor, the working class, opponents of militarism, opponents of the disastrous trade deals that were actually backdoor assaults on effective health, safety, and financial regulation, and the progressive base of the Democratic Party. The DLC leadership, which included President Clinton and Vice President Gore, entered into a series of cynical bipartisan deals with the worst elements of the Republican Party, Alan Greenspan, and Wall Street elites that:
* Destroyed Glass-Steagall
* Created a massive regulatory “black hole” in financial derivatives that Enron and later the world’s largest banks exploited to run their fraud schemes that drove the Enron-era fraud scandals and the Great Recession
* Drove Brooksley Born from government because she warned about these derivatives and sought to protect us from the coming disaster
* Cut the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) staff by over three-quarters, destroying effective supervision of banks
* Cut the Office of Thrift Supervision’s (OTS) staff by over half, destroying effective supervision of savings and loans such as Countrywide, Washington Mutual (WaMu) – which became the largest “bank” failure in U.S. history, and IndyMac. OTS was also supposed to regulate aspects of AIG and Lehman, but had no capacity to do so given the massive staff cuts and its deliberately useless regulatory leaders chosen by Clinton and Bush
Kaine — like Hillary Clinton – has embraced for decades the DLC/’New Democrats’ agenda — meaning they are allies of Wall Street. They embrace a neo-liberal, pro corporate outlook that has done incredible damage to the vast majority of Americans. bestwayrobKaine is actively pushing to weaken already grossly inadequate financial regulation and pushing to adopt the indefensible “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (TPP). By choosing Kaine, Hillary Clinton is signaling that her new-found support for financial regulation and opposition to TPP is a tactical ploy to win the nomination before she “pivots” back to the disastrous policies that she, Kaine, and Vilsack have helped inflict on the world for decades. She is playing into Trump’s claims that she is not honest.
What’s especially noteworthy is that Hillary Clinton and Kaine are carrying Wall Street’s water while the Republican party is repudiating some of these policies. The Republican Party platform (cynically) calls for reinstating Glass Steagall and Donald Trump has called for the defeat of TPP in an equally cynical fashion. The self-described liberals – the Clintons, Kaine, and Paul Krugman are against reinstating Glass-Steagall.
This shows Hillary Clinton hasn’t learned a thing from the failed pro-Wall Street policies that have wrecked the economy. It’s bad politics and it’s bad policy. Actually, that’s not quite right. These policies have worked brilliantly for the top 1/1000th of one percent. They have been disastrous for nearly everyone else in the U.S. — and around the world. As Senator Warren says, “the financial system is rigged.” As an attorney, professor of economics, serial whistleblower, former financial regulator, and white-collar criminologist, I can explain exactly how the DLC and their Republican allies, both of which were traditionally funded by and servants of Wall Street, rigged the system. You can be sure that people like me who have demonstrated their ability and willingness to destroy the rigged system in order to regulate and prosecute financial elites and their political cronies will never be appointed by a Clinton/Kaine administration.
And that’s just the finance. One the economics, the choice of Kaine signals that Hillary Clinton is openly returning to her life-long embrace of the economic malpractice of austerity. Recall, that Bill Clinton tried, in league with Newt Gingrich, to largely privatize Social Security. That is Wall Street’s greatest dream. The only reason it didn’t happen is that the Republican rebels asked for too much and that scuttled the deal that Bill Clinton was making with the Republican congress. The same thing happened when the Tea Party sank President Obama’s efforts to reach a “Grand Bargain” with the Republicans to adopt austerity and make cuts to the safety net.
The leadership of the now defunct DLC continue to applaud the cuts they made to Social Security and the oxymoron they called “welfare reform” that has brought so much misery to poor mothers. The preposterous lie that, working with President Reagan they “saved Social Security” is repeated daily on the intro to an MSNBC program.
Even though it would be good politics as well as policy for Hillary Clinton to break with the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party and choose a VP from the Democratic-wing of the Party, she refuses to even pretend that she gave serious consideration to choosing a progressive as her running point. Democrats should take a lesson from economics and focus on this clear case of “revealed preferences.” She is telling us that she intends to ensure that should she be elected and unable to complete her term of office she can be confident that her successor will continue the DLC’s disastrous agenda.
William K. Black is an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A former bank regulator who led investigations of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, he is the author of the book The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.
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Steve Cohen,
This constant demonization of Hillary is indistinguishable from the vitriol at the GOP convention, that bilious hate-fest.
I will see what Bernie says and take his advice.
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Steve Cohen,
I have been posting here appalled at much of the anti-Hillary rhetoric. Thank you for providing such an excellent summary of all the reasons that I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary. It’s refreshing – after seeing so much dishonest vitriol against Hillary – to read a rational argument that sets out why so many voters are angry.
These are the reasons that I don’t like Hillary — what you describe is essentially a moderate Republican platform that she represents. And certainly there are a few of Donald Trump’s policies that could even be good for this country.
The problem is that Trump is so dishonest — willing to say one thing one day and another thing the next, willing to lie about his opponents with no compunction — that it doesn’t matter how much I like what his actual platform says or his positions are. He is a demagogue and will do whatever pleases him at the time, taking no prisoners along the way. He seems to believe that he should be free to say anything — no matter whether it is true or not — to “close the sale” with the American people. And he is a darn good salesman. He will promise whatever gets you to sign on the dotted line and then turn around and dare you to sue him when he breaks the contract. If someone gets in the way, he crushes them. No doubt as long as people please him, he is good to them.
Allowing such a person to get this close to the Presidency makes this one of the most dangerous times in US history. It is possible that – on a whim – Trump may actually decide to govern as a progressive moderate because it makes him feel good. It is also possible that – on a whim – he will decide to do what he has been telling his supporters and round up Muslims and build a wall and stop immigration of anyone but white Christians or Jews. Regardless, Trump’s word is just as good as the promises made by Trump University. In other words, not worth a plugged nickel. He should not be President.
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^^^I will also add that I don’t think Hillary Clinton is completely in the thrall of Wall Street as President Obama is. I could be wrong. But I will risk that over President Trump’s constant dishonesty. I also think Tim Kaine may turn out to be far more moderate than painted here.
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I didn’t know that Paul Krugman was against reinstating Glass-Steagall because has said that its repeal was a mistake. On the other hand, Krugman said that G-S didn’t have much to do with the meltdown of 2008. Robert Reich certainly takes issue with the point. Krugman was all wrong about Bernie, very disappointing and totally wrongheaded.
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In the debates, it was clear that Hillary was trying to make the point that her plan would go beyond Bernie’s in fixing what broke the economy and that reinstating Glass-Steagall alone wouldn’t do the trick.
Just because someone doesn’t call to “reinstate Glass-Steagall” doesn’t mean she/he isn’t for fixing what reinstating it would fix. It means there’s more to it than that, and all of it needs to be addressed.
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dianeravitch
July 25, 2016 at 7:00 pm
Hillary did not grow up in privilege. She went to public school, then was accepted at Wellesley. Same as me. Read her bio on Wikipedia.
THanks, I;m really familiar with her bio- I;ve been a Democrat since Jimmy Carter 🙂
I’m okay with Clinton, but I don’t expect a lot. I hope she does something about economic insecurity for (some) older people and I hope she helps young people.
They are snobs, Diane. They put Common Core in thousands of public schools with virtually no public debate. I’m not even opposed to the Common Core and I see that as arrogant. They can’t “transform” the public school system without the public. These are our schools- none of them even use public schools.
Obama held ONE public event on that trade deal and they all fast-tracked it with no debate. They no longer bother even to try to sell these things-they just push them thru.
What Rauner wrote about public school teachers and school principals? That’s what they really think. About 99% of us. It isn’t just teachers they have contempt for- they really think the problem with the US economy is working people. Us.
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I understand, Chiara. I don’t like the way they steamrolled Common Core, charter schools, and testing-above-all on the people.
I get the elitism.
After this election, we will have to keep fighting. If it is Trump, he won’t hear us. Ever.
With Hillary, there is a chance.
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We will never know the true will of the people in this past Primary. The egregious mishandling of the AZ primary (and much of CA), the ridiculousness of Bernie supporters at the Nevada Caucus being shouted down and not heard…. the “Party of the People” no longer represents the true will of those people, or they would have allowed an untampered-with Democratic Primary.
In the end I won’t be “voting *for* Hillary,” but I will definitely vote *against* Trump.
This may mean that I cast a Hillary vote – but that’s still not a vote FOR her. I feel as though I’ve been asked to choose between being poisoned and being burned alive. That and I feel betrayed, and discouraged, and angry, and sad, and….so many things. Hopeful isn’t one of them, though.
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To SomeDAMPoet @ 6:32 PM–We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!!
(Sorry, but you asked for it!)
Really, we must maintain some humor, here (which you always provide so cleverly & so well, SDP).
Also, read Andy Borowitz (introduced to him through a link on this blog)–hilarious.
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Go ahead, don’t vote, or vote for a third party candidate who has no chance of winning. Then, if we do end up with President Trump, consider the Supreme Court and federal court nominees who will be determining our country’s fate for a couple of decades or more. If you are comfortable with the possibility of more Antonin Scalias, Samuel Alitos or Clarence Thomases holding federal judgeships and handing down pro-business, anti-consumer rulings, then you are not really interested in seeing a different, more equitable society.
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I get the feeling the Bernie-or-Bust crowd just wants to be able to say, “See, I told you so. I told you you should vote for Bernie. I told you he’d do better against Trump than Hillary.” It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy in the making.
Well, I don’t think Bernie would have done better against Trump. In fact, I think Trump would have won in a YUGE landslide, once word got out about Bernie’s atheism.
As an atheist myself, it pains me to say it, but Trump would have used that and Bernie’s self-admitted socialism to scare, scare, scare the public and move himself right into the White House.
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Bernie has stated that he’s not an atheist. Maybe deist, agnostic? I don’t know?
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I hope everyone watched Bernie tonight. He was fabulous, as were Elizabeth Warren and Michelle Obama.
I will post Bernie’s speech when it is online.
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Diane,
Do you have any thoughts or comments on H. Clinton’s work as chair of the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee during her husband’s tenure as governor?
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As one who changed her views, I am not inclined to criticize Hillary for what she did or said 25 years ago.
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The vitriol against poor whites by the Democrats is just as appalling, “red neck,” “low information voters,” “voting against their self interest.” Look in the mirror folks. Democrats are just as horrible. Poor whites are suffering and nobody cares.
http://m.startribune.com/black-or-white-the-poor-are-trapped-at-the-bottom/387988052/
#Demxit
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No, only the Republicans don’t care. That’s why they believe 1. no minimum wage raise. 2. Let people buy their own health insurance and hope they won’t be dropped if they get sick 3. Raise the retirement age for social security because working class people generally have easy sedentary jobs that allow them to work well into their 70s with ease. 4. outlaw unions because those working guys are paid way too much. And who cares about dangerous work conditions anyway – those gov’t regulations are bad bad bad and cut into profits.
Saying that Democrats “are just as horrible” makes you sound like a low-information voter. And I call you that quite certain that you are educated and well off and don’t much care about the suffering of the poor if you think there is no difference.
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Actually, Trump has advocated for raising the minimum wage, universal health care, and protecting social security. He has also talked about negotiating with unions. He supports a flat tax on corporations, breaking up the big banks, and cracking down on Wall Street crooks. He is also calling on our NATO allies to pay their fair share. Yes, I get that he crazy, hateful, and superficial. That is not the point. He is tapping into middle class concerns and Hillary is not, #Demxit
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I think it’s ridiculous to say that Hillary does not support all those things. I agree that she has not expressed them very well.
The problem is that when Dems make those suggestions they are painted as dangerous socialists far outside mainstream America. That Trump is getting away with saying some of those things without being a labeled a socialist is surprising — no Dem could say that.
I truly think the characterization of Hillary as completely in the pocket of big bankers and Wall Street and big money is nonsense. Really. she is no Bernie, but she is also no conservative.
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This is how Thomas Frank in Listen Liberal defines the Clinton presidency: “Now we remember that it was Bill Clinton’s administration that deregulated derivatives, deregulated telecom [before the Enron scandals], and put our country’s only strong banking laws in the grave. He’s the one who rammed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through Congress and who taught the world that the way you respond to a recession is by paying off the federal debt. Mass incarceration and the repeal of welfare, two of Clinton’s other major achievements, are the pillars of the disciplinary state that has made life so miserable for Americans in the lower reaches of society. He would have put a huge dent in social security too, had the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal not stopped him. If we take inequality as our measure, the Clinton administration looks not heroic but odious.” p.84.
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Between 2013-2015, Clinton made $21.6 million by speaking to banks, securities firms, Goldman Sachs, etc. She made $1.8 million for speaking engagements with the 8 biggest banks. Of course, she refuses to release the transcripts of her most recent engagement with Goldman Sachs, which paid her $225,000 for one hour of her time. One witness said she presented herself in a way that was completely opposite to the person campaigning, She’s totally on the side of Wall Street and deregulation.
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When you speak in public as often as Hillary has for 25 years, there is no transcript
She can wing it on any subject
If the banks offered me big bucks to speak, I would grab the offer and give them an earful
You can’t judge her by where she spoke. I have no doubt she also gave many pro bono speeches
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Actually, in the article I read she insists on written transcripts from every engagement and demands no media presence and strict confidentiality. This along with every flippant decision she makes, comes across as arrogant, corrupt, and entitled.
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Too bad about that. I don’t know of any such transcripts.
For better or worse, whatever her faults, she is about 1,000 times better than Trump. Maybe 10,000.
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Liking or not liking a candidate, in the usual meaning of the word, is only a part of the decision when it comes to voting. I don’t like Hillary. But given the situation I will vote for her without qualms. And not because she got the most votes–which given the way voting took place is impossible to know for sure. I’m for her because she is the status quo which is less to be feared than the world Trump would lead us into. And I’m for joining with those who supported Bernie and those who agreed with him but thought his campaign quixotic and together taking over the Democratic Party. Deb
Sent from my iPhone
>
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I like your comments, Deb. (Am typing this as Cory Booker speaks…I’ve put the tv on “mute.”)
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Someone should get the hook for Corey.
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He stumbled around a lot and was shouted down by people chanting something I couldn’t discern. Any idea what that was?
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something to remember about Tim Kaine. The media is all too happy to categorize him into his space on the ideological spectrum, and evaluate him on that basis. Never mind that he has beliefs related to abortion, but maintains a 100% rating with NARAL. This man is a decent human being, the kind those who care about education would want to have in the picture. THE MEDIA IS NOT GOING TO SAY MUCH OF ANYTHING ABOUT PUBLIC EDUCATION, BECAUSE THEY THINK IT IS BORING. Kaine knows how important a subject it actually is…..it is not boring, but it is intimidating to the media because it is filled with intelligent people who care about it and examine the subtleties which make it not a subject with automatic answers.
No matter what your place on the ideological spectrum….push for discussion of education. I believe you will find that Tim Kaine is aware of a lot more than most politicians in terms of what happens or does not happen for children.
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Bernie’s message you want to continue the political revolution you do it through pressure on a Clinton administration . It dies with Trump .
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Yes, like it or not, this is the right decision, with the emphasis on keeping the pressure on Hillary and Tim. The next round of Occupy Wall Street is going to be a much more serious affair, and it will require organization and solidarity to prevail. Bernie’s work has contributed significantly to creating such organization and solidarity.
But for now, Trump must be defeated, or we go down the road of Irrationalism–never a good thing in a democracy.
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Reply to Mom2Twins & Joe: Bernie is NOT an atheist. In fact, both he & Hillary were asked about their faith by a woman at a town hall (in Michigan, I think). Right away, I said, “I think she’s a plant!” because I already knew that Bernie is not a Jew who regularly attends synagogue, & Hillary is a pretty devout Methodist. Also, some people didn’t know Bernie was Jewish, & there are still anti-semitic people in this country. (& this was an issue discussed in the leaked DNC e-mails RE: asking Bernie about his Judaism–you’ll have to read that one yourself–don’t have a link)
Anyway, Bernie gave an outstanding, touching answer that he is proud to be Jewish, he believes in G-d, & that he believed in loving thy neighbor–doing good for all people (which, if I’m not mistaken, Maimonides said of the Ten Commandments–the first being “Love thy neighbor as you would love thyself–all the rest is commentary.”).
A link of his answer was sent to a number of rabbis (ours being one, and he was very pleased).
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Try Hillel.
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It’s too bad that given your influence with rank and file teachers across this country, you did not endorse Bernie Sanders in the primary. Yes, he flubbed a question on Charters (public vs private) but he would have been the best candidate to defeat Trump and protect teachers from coast to coast and Hillary, as well as many establishment Democrats have taken much worse positions on Charters.
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Also, don’t count on Hillary to reverse Bill Clinton’s largely unknown (except in the circles of the 1%) Free Market Tax Credit, especially since she has said that he will be her economic advisor. This is the law that allows the super wealthy to shelter their money by investing in the construction of low income charter schools. Multi millionaires like Congressman Jared Polis invest in charter schools for the tax dodge then walk away when the schools fail and close, oblivious to the disruption this causes to the children.
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VERY rowdy Echo Chamber here and don’t words match up in most echo chambers? Anyway, always thank you for the comment which are diverse and mostly full of heart and mind. And this piece by Diane…well it is solid, solid, solid.
I supported Bernie but we all see where we are headed and from this point forward, our activism is badly needed just about anywhere we choose to put it to work.
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This is indeed a “very rowdy echo chamber.” We argue and we disagree, we agree and we argue. Some people pout and say they are leaving and will never come back, and then they come back. Not too many echoes, but a very lively table.
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Is this reasonable discourse in the squalor of the 2016 election? Wow! Even if I didn’t agree with Diane (I do, however), I would admire the pragmatism and elegant style of this post. Echo away!
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Trump would be an incredible disaster and embarrassment. Hillary would put on a ‘democratic’ face but plunge us deeper into the economic abyss for her 1% friends and go to war with Russia, something Obama is on the verge of doing right now.
If enough people vote, by voting for the greater good, not the lesser evil, we can put Stein in the WH.
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Myles,
Let’s stick to reality and not What Ifs. I seriously doubt that Hillary will plunge us into a war with Russia and Obama has not put the U.S. at risk of having a war with Russia.
For a fact, Russia and Putin does not want a war with the U.S. or NATO because Russia would lose for any number of reasons.
The population of NATO nations is more than 900 million people.
The U.S. population by itself is almost 320 million.
Russia’s population is 143.5 million.
How strong is the NATO military alliance?
The U.S. by itself has the biggest conventional military advantage over the entire world and it’s defense budget is more than $600 billion versus Russia’s defense spending of $76.6 Billion.
http://www.businessinsider.com/11-most-powerful-militaries-in-the-world-2014-4
NATO is an alliance of 28 sovereign countries and NATO relies on the military forces of all of those countries. Don’t forget, Donald Trump wants to end the NATO alliance.
Despite cuts, NATO still accounts for most of the world’s military spending.
http://www.stripes.com/news/despite-cuts-nato-still-accounts-for-most-of-world-s-military-spending-1.269882
Russia is Outmanned and Outgunned
“Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States. And this raw count doesn’t take into account the general deterioration of Russian forces since 1991, a quarter-century that saw little equipment modernization. By the late 1980s, NATO already enjoyed a significant qualitative advantage over the Warsaw Pact, and that edge has only increased since then.”
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2014/04/09/natos-military-capabilities-in-europe-should-deter-russian-aggression
And Trump has said he wants to end the NATO allegiance. What a total fool!
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Trump is too dangerous and, too mentally unstable to elect.
Of note, about the Democratic party- Sanders, a man who did not become a Democrat until this election cycle, ran against Hillary. The DNC worked against Sanders, and for Hillary. Yet, Bernie only scored 17% fewer delegates than Hillary and, 23% fewer primary votes.
So, how did the DNC respond to the wake up call? By inviting Bloomberg to speak at the convention. Incredible.
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“Trump is too dangerous and, too mentally unstable to elect.”
Trump is too dangerous and, too mentally unstable to allow to be elected. We have to actually vote against him as effectively as possible.
One positive side to his election: It will be easier to convince kids that anybody can become president during the remaining weeks of civilization.
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Why is inviting Bloomberg to speak about the dangers of Donald Trump bad?
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Bloomberg is a face of ed rephorm. He’s often listed as a plutocratic funder for initiatives that privatize or corporatize public education. Media speculated that his speech’s content is a defense of Wall Street. The DNC could have found a less controversial, in other words,
a person truly representing the party of the people, to deliver a message about why Trump is bad.
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I suggest that if you are a Democrat who is angry about the DNC’s thumb on the primary scale, HRC picking up DWS in a mercy position, and Bernie being barely honored at the convention, that you send a message to the DNC, and change your party registration. Do it Friday or after your state primary. You don’t need to be in a political party to vote in the general election. Millions of Dems exiting the party will give Mrs. Clinton a hint that we will watch her very carefully after the election. If more emails are revealed about the DNC, a new party must emerge or a complete “turnaround” of the Democratic Party leadership is in order.
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Who is likely to let Common Core fester for four more years? Who is more likely to enable the corporate elites to run the show for kids, teachers, parents? If one candidate is more opposed to the corporate elites, this should be the one parents and teachers vote for, no matter whether he or she takes the flimflam option of tweeting little pointed jibes at opponents or whether he or she deletes dozens of thousands of emails from his/her private server.
An addition issue, I will grant you, is the ability of either candidate to define the desirability to have school choice (i.e., charter schools) without a state defined non-corporate model for such charter schools. Sanders and Hillary may be slightly better than Trump on this matter–but only maybe, nothing for sure.
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Donald Trump or any other president has NO influence over state use of Common Core. He can’t get rid of it. That’s a state decision.
However he can get rid of public schools by pumping billions into charters and vouchers
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The president can’t get rid of Common Core. That is a state decision.
The president CAN get rid of public schools by allocating billions for charters and vouchers.
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I believe it was Darwin who pointed out that survival of the species is more important than schooling. And though social Darwinists may enjoy seeing an evil clown elected president, it should only happen in a Rob Zombie flick.
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To all Bernie Supporters:
Please trust your intuition about Bernie’s years in political experiences from being Mayor, Congressman, Senator, and honorable Presidential candidate with money fundraising from all working class people.
You love (=admire and agree to support with heart and logical mind) Bernie, his principle, his ideology and his political experience.
I love Dr. Ravitch (=admire and agree to support with heart and logical mind), her principle, her wisdom, and her profound care for the well being of American Public Education, American educators, American young learners.
Here is our idol’s important message to us:
[start quote]
We become stronger when black and white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American — all of us –STAND TOGETHER. Yes. We become stronger when men and women, young and old, gay and straight, native born and immigrant FIGHT TO CREATE the kind of country we all know WE CAN BECOME.
[end quote]
Please put your doubt away, please come together to DEFEAT a cancerous
[…Citizens United, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of our country. That decision allows the wealthiest people in America, like the billionaire Koch brothers, to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying elections and, in the process, undermine American democracy.(From Bernie’s speech at DNC) ]
Senator Bernie gives his supporters all reasons why he is honor to support Hillary:
1) Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy in this country.
2) This campaign is about moving the United States toward universal health care
3) she wants to see millions more Americans gain access to primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs through a major expansion of community health centers.
4) the leadership we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform and repair a broken criminal justice system.
5) the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. Among many other strong provisions, the Democratic Party now calls for BREAKING UP:
A) the major financial institutions on Wall Street, and
B) the passage of a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act.
It also calls for strong opposition to job-killing free trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
6) I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care.
I served with her in the United States Senate and know her as a FIERCE ADVOCATE for the rights of children.
7) Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton presidency —
and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen.
8) Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here tonight.
Please remember that we cannot shake off dirt (= weasels) out of sandwich (= society).
However, we can, yes we can ELIMINATE poop (= tycoon with billions dollars to destroy our democracy BY SUPREME COURT JUDGE to imprison them and to BREAK UP their gangs in banking industries, pharmaceutical scheme, food poison corporate GMO, and healthcare insurance sheme, rental control and living wage…) from sandwich (=community of all conscientious educators, workers and students)
The odor will fade away ONLY IF we all listen to the wisdom of leaders whom we love.
Please people come together to show your support and truly understand the CRITICALLY IMPORTANT MESSAGE of AMERICAN SUPREME COURT POWER if it falls into the hand of WEALTHY FAMILIES or individual like Peter Thiel = THERE WILL NEVER BE THIRD OR SECOND MAJOR PARTY = only scarecrow and mouthpiece opposite leaders, because all the true opposite leaders will be in jail or assassinated by zombies = KKK supporters
If you love, respect and trust Senator Bernie’s wisdom and Dr. Ravitch’s wisdom, please do a big favor for our children and grandchildren in a solid unity of voting Secretary Hillary of a Democrat party to have the SUPREME COURT JUDGES in people power.
My love and salute go to all of conscientious Americans in this November 2016 Presidential Election, because the world peace is in your vote. Back2basic
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Now that it seems, if Mrs Clinton makes it to Friday, our candidates are in place, wouldn’t it be more helpful to keep our remarks to an intellectual debate of the issues? I find name the calling is just a noisy distraction and really causes one to dismiss what might be a reasonable position.
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Thank you, Mary
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I couldn’t agree more.
I was a passionate Bernie supporter and I was dismayed when the emails came to light. But I’ll save my outrage and indignation until after the election when Hillary is president.
As far as I’m concerned, Hillary is running unopposed. Because I wouldn’t vote for Trump under any circumstances.
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To Abigail Shure–Thanks for the correction–I’ll not forget, next time, that it was Hillel I’ve mistakenly attributed the quote to Maimonides several times before, but you’re the first to correct me. Shame on me!
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