Us and Them

I hope they don't make you watch a damn commercial before the video, but you can probably skip it after a few seconds. This album always gets to me.

DNC Day 4

So Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman ever nominated for President by one of the two major political parties.  It's historic. Monumental. Exciting. Her acceptance speech was electrifying, if you're a Democrat.

You could contrast the two conventions simply: hate from the Republicans, love from the Democrats. That's how it seems to me. Obviously, many of the haters on the right won't see it that way at all. They despise Hillary with a palpable and irrational hate. Sadly, they have been fed a steady diet of propaganda, lies and vitriol about Hillary by their main source of news - FOX News - for so long now, their hatred is almost understandable. Irrational and wrong, but understandable. If you only rely on FOX, that's what you get. 

In his speech on Tuesday, Day 2, Bill Clinton called it "the cartoon Hillary." Then he went on to say that the convention nominated the "real Hillary."

The differences between Trump and Clinton are also stark. I have to believe that enough Republicans will "come around" and reject Trump at the ballot box. I also have to hope that not too many Democrats defect to a third party, or not vote at all to protest Hillary.

We still have 100+ days until Election day (which ought to be a national fucking holiday!!) and we are likely to see all sorts of crazy shit between now and then. The upcoming debates will probably score some of the highest viewership on record.

And while who wins the election will have far-reaching implications and effects, I wish I could say I trusted the counting of the votes. Most of this country is using electronic and unverifiable machines which have been shown to be easily hackable. The stakes of this election are very high. The temptation to cheat is also great.

And one of the big things we learned from the DNC last night: Bill Clinton likes balloons. He's got to be pretty damn proud of his wife at this point, as if he wasn't already. My final hope is that no nut with a gun decides to off the first female Presidential candidate. There are lots and lots and lots of weapons around this country.

Remember you can see all the speeches on demand at C-SPAN.org.

Oh, almost forgot, you should really watch Khizr Khan speak, an American Muslim whose 25-year-old son was killed in Afghanistan in 2004. This Muslim gives Donald Trump a lesson on the U.S. Constitution. Khan is making the media rounds after the speech.

DNC Day 3

Tonight's DNC was packed with heavy hitters: Tim Kaine, Michael Bloomberg, Joe Biden, tons of elected Democrats, and topped off with a great speech from President Obama. I listened live most of the night. You can find all the speeches here at C-SPAN.org.

Just compare the hopeful, positive visions of the Democrats with what we hear coming from Donald Trump: nothing but how horrible everything is, and ONLY DONALD TRUMP can fix it. An ugly display of narcissism and ego. There is no comparison at this time between the two parties. Any rational, reasonable person should be leaning towards the Dems. Even the reasonable Republicans are. 

There was one video missing from the C-SPAN.org link that I wanted to find. 40 current Broadway actors sang, "What the World Needs Now" and it was very moving, especially coming right after remembrance of the recent massacre in Orlando, Florida. But I found it elsewhere.

DNC Day 2

Silly hat at the 2016 DNC

The 2nd day of the Convention typically includes the roll-call of the states to report the number of delegates for each Presidential candidate. I like this portion of the convention. Each state picks a speaker or two to read how many delegates each candidate got. And they often give silly tidbits of info, like "The great state of Iowa, home to the world's largest ball of twine, proudly casts 66 votes for...." etc etc.

In this case, the roll-call gave some the opportunity to proclaim their admiration for Bernie Sanders and how Bernie has opened up politics to a new realm of younger, progressive voters. Some were quite poignant, as were some of the pro-Clinton comments.

Another silly hat - 2016 DNC

Bill Clinton gave the big speech tonight, and he tantalized the crowd with some new details of he and Hillary's early personal lives. He stressed the point that the Convention nominated the "real" Hillary, not the fake "Cartoon Hillary" that the right has been spreading like manure into the minds of the poor, gullible right-wingers. 

You can watch each speech, including the roll-call of the states, plus past keynote speeches and other speeches from conventions past at C-SPAN.org. And yes, if you are of a strong disposition, you can also watch each Republican speech too.

DNC Day 1

I tried to watch some of the Republican National Convention last week, but every time I tuned in, some speaker was screaming about Hillary and the crowd was chanting "Lock her up! Lock her up!" or other unintelligible stuff. It was so dark, bitter, and angry. 

GOP: "Everything is horrible! The economy is in freefall! The military is decimated! Liberals are releasing hardened criminals to rape your daughters and kill you!!" (sigh). Lie after lie.

They didn't have many elected Republicans appear on stage either. No wonder. Who wants to be associated with that garbage?

The first night of the Democratic National Convention was very different. Sure, there were denunciations of Donald Trump, but the charges were a lot more fact-based this week instead of shrill opinion-based like last week.

Still, sometimes the Bernie backers or the Black Lives Matter people chanted enough to make it hard to hear the speaker. However, a chant of "We want Bernie!" or "Black Lives Matter" is in a different galaxy from "Lock her up!"

Bernie Sanders' supporters need to understand that defeating Donald Trump is paramount this November. And that will mean voting for Hillary. IF you respect Bernie, listen to him.

Next Steps for Our Revolution

By Bernie Sanders, Reader Supported News

26 July 16

 ur campaign has always been about a grassroots movement of Americans standing up and saying: "Enough is enough. This country and our government belong to all of us, not just a handful of billionaires."

I just finished speaking at the Democratic National Convention, where I addressed the historic nature of our grassroots movement and what's next for our political revolution.

I hope that I made you proud. I know that Jane and I are very proud of you.

Our work will continue in the form of a new group called Our Revolution. The goal of this organization will be no different from the goal of our campaign: we must transform American politics to make our political and economic systems once again responsive to the needs of working families.

We cannot do this alone. All of us must be a part of Our Revolution.

Join Our Revolution and help continue our critical work to create a government which represents all of us, and not just the 1 percent – a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice. Add your name here.

When we started this campaign a little more than a year ago, the media and the political establishment considered us to be a "fringe" campaign. Well, we're not fringe anymore.

Thanks to your tireless work and generous contributions, we won 23 primaries and caucuses with more than 13 million votes, all of which led to the 1900 delegates we have on the floor this week at the Democratic convention.

What we have done together is absolutely unprecedented, but there is so much more to do. It starts with defeating Donald Trump in November, and then continuing to fight for every single one of our issues in order to transform America.

We are going to fight to make sure that the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party becomes law. This means working for a $15 federal minimum wage, fighting for a national fracking ban, and so many more progressive priorities.

The political revolution needs you in order to make all this happen and more.

Add your name to say that you will join Our Revolution and be part of the fight for our progressive vision for America.

Thank you for being a part of the continued political revolution.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Original.

To paraphrase: