"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date."
As the White Rabbit wearing his top hat and staring at his big pocket
watch fast approaches the rabbit hole in the hollow stump and
disappears from sight. On his back is a sign that reads, "Nice try,
Bernie!"
I look over at Alice, sitting very still with her eyes and mouth wide
open. "Does this mean...what I think it means?" she whispers. "It's
a sad day, dear Alice. But I'm afraid that is exactly what it means".
"But," she sighed, "We still have Hillary to save the day."
"And just what day will that be?" I inquired. "Hillary already
forewarned us that when she is president, things will remain the same.
Change, says Hillary, must go forward slowly and deliberately. Well,
except for our war efforts and our God given right to defend our
nation from those crazed Terrorists over in Iraq." Alice sat very
still for a long time. "But if Donald Trump wins," she softly said,
"We will still have war, and along with it we will have austerity,
and poverty will run wild. Won't Hillary be better than that?"
"Depends," I replied, "Whether you want to lose it all at once, or
lose it bit by bit. Either way we will come out at the end of four
years as losers."
Alice stood up suddenly. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Quick," she said, grabbing my hand, "it's not too late to follow that
rabbit down the hole to Wonderland. Things can't be as bad down
there."
Carl Jarvis
On 5/27/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination
Published on
Friday, May 27, 2016
by
Huffington Post
Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination
by
Seth Abramson
According to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who's been listening to "all the
numbers people," Hillary is already the nominee. And, says the television
host, his network plans to announce that "fact" perhaps even prior to the
end of voting on June 7. (Screenshot: MSNBC/YouTube)
MSNBC's Chris Matthews has revealed that the major television networks plan
to call the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton during the day on June
7th - hours prior to the close of polls in California - on the grounds that
Clinton has "clinched" the nomination as soon as she crosses the
2,383-delegate threshold via both pledged delegates (who are already
committed to her) and super-delegates (who cannot, by Democratic Party
rules, commit themselves to her or be tallied until July 25th).
Watch:
In other words, as recently indicated by Mark Murray, NBC's Senior Editor
for Politics, the networks will make the news on June 7th rather than
report
it - as, per the Democratic National Committee, the final and indeed only
authority on the tabulation of super-delegates, Clinton cannot clinch the
nomination on June 7th unless she wins 78.3 percent of the pledged
delegates
on that date.
Which she won't.
No more than Sanders will get 70 percent of the pledged delegates on June
7th.
Which is why many of us in the media had thought this Democratic primary
would go to the super-delegate vote to be held in Philadelphia on July 25th
- nearly every super-delegate interviewed by the media thus far having made
crystal clear that they are not bound to vote for either the popular-vote
or
pledged-delegate leader, but rather the individual the weight of the
evidence suggests is the most likely to defeat Donald Trump in November,
which at present is Bernie Sanders, not Hillary Clinton.
But that was pretty silly, in retrospect.
And more importantly it's really not what "reporting" is - as it's too
easy,
I admit, for a blogger like me to forget.
Given that every major media outlet is already banking on Clinton getting
both every super-delegate who has temporarily endorsed but not yet
committed
themselves to her plus a large enough stock of the pledged delegates on
June
7th to put her over the top - how else to explain Rachel Maddow saying
yesterday that Bernie Sanders, who would take the pledged-delegate lead
with
an unlikely but mathematically possible win (70 percent) of June 7th votes,
has "no chance" for the nomination and indeed is "not really in contention"
for it - there's no reason whatsoever for us to wait for the news to happen
before reporting it.
Waiting for the news to happen is so cringingly Cronkite I'm embarrassed to
be even a tangential part of the American media these days.
If we can't report that things have happened when our personal opinion is
that they've happened or "as good as" happened, I don't see what the point
of having wall-to-wall cable news on fifty different channels is.
What else is the First Amendment for, if not the freedom of the press to
outpace its own coverage?
So, because good reporting can and indeed by all rights should precede the
news, without any consequences being visited upon major media for alleged
dereliction of their journalistic duties - it's not like they've ever
prematurely called a presidential race before, other than 2000, so they
should get a mulligan here - there's absolutely no reason for the citizens
of California, New Mexico, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or the District of Columbia to vote.
Per Mark Murrary and Rachel Maddow, and, as Matthews put it on his
television program, "all the numbers people," Hillary is already the
nominee.
So let's dispense with all these arcane DNC rules about what a
"super-delegate" is and when and where and how they vote and say what we
all
know is true: Hillary has clinched the Democratic nomination, and all these
upcoming primaries and caucuses should be canceled to save those states'
taxpayers their hard-earned tax dollars. Also, since the super-delegates
vote on July 25th but also apparently on June 7th, it seems silly to have a
convention in Philadelphia on the 25th of July when we can just declare
July
25th to be June 7th and hold the Democratic National Convention in MSNBC's
studios in New York on that date.
There'll be less room for dancing, but equally good catering, I'm told.
As Clinton herself has stated to Chris Cuomo on CNN, nothing that anyone
voting in the upcoming primaries and caucuses could possibly say or do will
change the outcome of the Democratic race, so it's merely a beauty contest
to hold these votes and that kind of thing really shouldn't happen in
America.
Only American things should happen in America, like the media being told
explicitly by the DNC not to call the election for Hillary Clinton on June
7th and the media ignoring that directive, despite the DNC being the final
authority on everything relating to superdelegates. I mean, there's no
point
in being a reporter if you can't also choose to not report the facts,
right?
If you can trust one thing in this unpredictable election cycle, it's that
nothing, absolutely nothing whatsoever, could possibly happen in the next
two months that would keep Hillary Clinton from being the Democratic
nominee. No indictment - of her or anyone close to her - would stop that
from happening; no undisclosed medical condition; no cratering poll numbers
against her prospective Republican opponent; no historically bad (and
worsening) unfavorables; no polling showing that fully 50 percent of her
primary opponent's supporters won't support her in the general; no sudden
disclosure of all her Wall Street transcripts, revealing that much of her
campaign platform with respect to Wall Street was a lie; no string of
defeats on June 7th, producing a scenario in which Mrs. Clinton would have
lost 18 of the final 25 state primaries and caucuses, the worst second-half
performance of any major-party candidate in a primary election season in
U.S. history; no surprise entry into the race by Joe Biden and Elizabeth
Warren as a unity ticket; no sudden and unexpected news event that changes
dramatically the viability of one or many of Clinton's campaign promises or
policy positions; no - and take it from people who sit behind desks in D.C.
and New York City - there is nothing anyone could possibly do or that could
possibly happen over the next two months that would cause any change
whatsoever in how the super-delegates will vote on July 25th.
And if you think otherwise you - please don't take this personally - are a
delusional dead-ender.
None of which should suggest to anyone that the super-delegate system is a
sham intended to guarantee an Establishment candidate is selected no matter
what. That's a pathetic view of the facts and I strongly urge you not to
have it at a dinner party.
In other news, the Chicago Cubs have won the 2016 World Series.
C 2016 Huffington Post
Seth Abramson
Skip to main content
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Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination
Published on
Friday, May 27, 2016
by
Huffington Post
Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination
by
Seth Abramson
. 66 Comments
.
. According to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who's been listening to "all
the numbers people," Hillary is already the nominee. And, says the
television host, his network plans to announce that "fact" perhaps even
prior to the end of voting on June 7. (Screenshot: MSNBC/YouTube)
. MSNBC's Chris Matthews has revealed that the major television
networks plan to call the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton during the
day on June 7th - hours prior to the close of polls in California - on the
grounds that Clinton has "clinched" the nomination as soon as she crosses
the 2,383-delegate threshold via both pledged delegates (who are already
committed to her) and super-delegates (who cannot, by Democratic Party
rules, commit themselves to her or be tallied until July 25th).
. Watch:
. In other words, as recently indicated by Mark Murray, NBC's Senior
Editor for Politics, the networks will make the news on June 7th rather
than
report it - as, per the Democratic National Committee, the final and indeed
only authority on the tabulation of super-delegates, Clinton cannot clinch
the nomination on June 7th unless she wins 78.3 percent of the pledged
delegates on that date.
. Which she won't.
No more than Sanders will get 70 percent of the pledged delegates on June
7th.
Which is why many of us in the media had thought this Democratic primary
would go to the super-delegate vote to be held in Philadelphia on July 25th
- nearly every super-delegate interviewed by the media thus far having made
crystal clear that they are not bound to vote for either the popular-vote
or
pledged-delegate leader, but rather the individual the weight of the
evidence suggests is the most likely to defeat Donald Trump in November,
which at present is Bernie Sanders, not Hillary Clinton.
But that was pretty silly, in retrospect.
And more importantly it's really not what "reporting" is - as it's too
easy,
I admit, for a blogger like me to forget.
Given that every major media outlet is already banking on Clinton getting
both every super-delegate who has temporarily endorsed but not yet
committed
themselves to her plus a large enough stock of the pledged delegates on
June
7th to put her over the top - how else to explain Rachel Maddow saying
yesterday that Bernie Sanders, who would take the pledged-delegate lead
with
an unlikely but mathematically possible win (70 percent) of June 7th votes,
has "no chance" for the nomination and indeed is "not really in contention"
for it - there's no reason whatsoever for us to wait for the news to happen
before reporting it.
Waiting for the news to happen is so cringingly Cronkite I'm embarrassed to
be even a tangential part of the American media these days.
If we can't report that things have happened when our personal opinion is
that they've happened or "as good as" happened, I don't see what the point
of having wall-to-wall cable news on fifty different channels is.
What else is the First Amendment for, if not the freedom of the press to
outpace its own coverage?
So, because good reporting can and indeed by all rights should precede the
news, without any consequences being visited upon major media for alleged
dereliction of their journalistic duties - it's not like they've ever
prematurely called a presidential race before, other than 2000, so they
should get a mulligan here - there's absolutely no reason for the citizens
of California, New Mexico, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or the District of Columbia to vote.
Per Mark Murrary and Rachel Maddow, and, as Matthews put it on his
television program, "all the numbers people," Hillary is already the
nominee.
So let's dispense with all these arcane DNC rules about what a
"super-delegate" is and when and where and how they vote and say what we
all
know is true: Hillary has clinched the Democratic nomination, and all these
upcoming primaries and caucuses should be canceled to save those states'
taxpayers their hard-earned tax dollars. Also, since the super-delegates
vote on July 25th but also apparently on June 7th, it seems silly to have a
convention in Philadelphia on the 25th of July when we can just declare
July
25th to be June 7th and hold the Democratic National Convention in MSNBC's
studios in New York on that date.
There'll be less room for dancing, but equally good catering, I'm told.
As Clinton herself has stated to Chris Cuomo on CNN, nothing that anyone
voting in the upcoming primaries and caucuses could possibly say or do will
change the outcome of the Democratic race, so it's merely a beauty contest
to hold these votes and that kind of thing really shouldn't happen in
America.
Only American things should happen in America, like the media being told
explicitly by the DNC not to call the election for Hillary Clinton on June
7th and the media ignoring that directive, despite the DNC being the final
authority on everything relating to superdelegates. I mean, there's no
point
in being a reporter if you can't also choose to not report the facts,
right?
If you can trust one thing in this unpredictable election cycle, it's that
nothing, absolutely nothing whatsoever, could possibly happen in the next
two months that would keep Hillary Clinton from being the Democratic
nominee. No indictment - of her or anyone close to her - would stop that
from happening; no undisclosed medical condition; no cratering poll numbers
against her prospective Republican opponent; no historically bad (and
worsening) unfavorables; no polling showing that fully 50 percent of her
primary opponent's supporters won't support her in the general; no sudden
disclosure of all her Wall Street transcripts, revealing that much of her
campaign platform with respect to Wall Street was a lie; no string of
defeats on June 7th, producing a scenario in which Mrs. Clinton would have
lost 18 of the final 25 state primaries and caucuses, the worst second-half
performance of any major-party candidate in a primary election season in
U.S. history; no surprise entry into the race by Joe Biden and Elizabeth
Warren as a unity ticket; no sudden and unexpected news event that changes
dramatically the viability of one or many of Clinton's campaign promises or
policy positions; no - and take it from people who sit behind desks in D.C.
and New York City - there is nothing anyone could possibly do or that could
possibly happen over the next two months that would cause any change
whatsoever in how the super-delegates will vote on July 25th.
And if you think otherwise you - please don't take this personally - are a
delusional dead-ender.
None of which should suggest to anyone that the super-delegate system is a
sham intended to guarantee an Establishment candidate is selected no matter
what. That's a pathetic view of the facts and I strongly urge you not to
have it at a dinner party.
In other news, the Chicago Cubs have won the 2016 World Series.
C 2016 Huffington Post
