Fraud??

May 21, 2016. Bernie has changed his game. In the past, he’s played the “poor little  guy” card for sympathy. But in Nevada he used it to induce a near riot. A volunteer, party chairwoman, who works at a modest local restaurant, was pilloried as a vicious 1% establishment elitist, with shouted obscenities and implicit threats of violence.

Remarkably, Sanders has not disowned any of this behavior or even acknowledged that it took place. Instead, he and Jeff* have doubled down on the misinformation that caused the damage. PolitiFact rates his campaign’s description of events as completely false. In reality:

♦ The final outcome was fair and no rules were changed.
♦ Bernie had nowhere near the votes to change the rules.
♦ The Credentialing Committee was fairly composed: Sanders/Clinton.
♦ He lost only 2 delegates to disqualification.

The attacks on chairwoman Roberta Lange continued with over 1,000 texts and phone calls after the convention (NY Times). Listen to what Bernie refuses to repudiate and instead justifies. One said “Hey bitch. … We know where you live. … Where your kids go to school/grandkids. … Prepare for hell.” Here are four more:

If not Bernie … Trump	Guaranteed fires in Philly
You’re a c**t. F**k you.	…hung in public execution

Let’s take a close look to see what’s going on and what can be done about it. (Below, see how a petition could pressure Bernie to change behavior.)  (*Campaign manager) 

The Final Outcome Was Fair

As this table shows, the final May 14 results are exactly what you would expect (and what the press expected in February—see USA Today), given Clinton’s popular-vote victory.

The Nevada Primary Outcome		Clinton	Sanders
Feb. 20	Popular vote:	53%	47%
Feb. 20	District delegates:	13	10
May 14	At-large delegates:	4	3
May 14	Official delegates:	3	2
May 14	Total pledged delegates:	20	15

Back on February 20, Clinton won 13 “District” delegates (to the July national convention) and Sanders won 10. That left seven “At-large” delegates and five “Official” delegates to fight over at the May 14 State convention. (Wash Post)

But a huge chunk of Clinton’s delegates didn’t show up at the April 2 county conventions where Bernie won extra delegates for the May 14 state convention. Then 460 of Sander’s delegates didn’t show up on May 14, so in the end, she got what was originally expected and proportional.

Bernie’s Two False Charges of “Fraud” 

False charge #1. 64 of his 2,124 delegates were unfairly disqualified.
False charge #2. He was cheated out of making his last-minute rule changes.

1. Disqualified.  The Credentialing Committee had five Clinton people and five Sanders people and two equal co-chairs, one from each camp. They unanimously agreed on the rules for qualifying delegates.

Initially the Committee disqualified 64 Sanders delegates and 8 Clinton delegates. Of Sanders’ 64, only eight attempted to register at the convention, and six of those were seated. So only two Sanders delegates were actually turned away. Disqualifications were for failure to register as a Democrat by May 1 (a month after the Feb Primary).

May 14, NV State Convention	Clinton	Sanders
Delegate slots	1,722	2,124
No shows, but eligible	−19	−404
No shows, but ineligible	−8	−56
Showed up, but ineligible	−0	−2
Total qualified & seated	1,695	1,662

2. His last-minute rule changes.  On page 4 of the convention rules you can read this: “e. Motions to amend the Temporary Convention Rules, or the Convention Rules shall only be adopted upon a two-thirds (2/3) vote of all delegates.” Sanders team (but not his followers) knew these rules at least since April.

Moreover, any amendment must be proposed before the temporary rules are adopted. None of the three Sanders supporters who spoke at that time made a motion to amend the rules. But their mistake didn’t matter. They needed a 2/3 (67%) majority and had less than 50%.

Why Were Bernie’s Delegates so Upset?

First, Bernie has long been crying that the big, elite, party establishment had been rigging the system against poor little him. But just take a look. He has won only 42% of the vote, so a fair system would give him 42% of the delegates. But the system has actually given him 46% of the elected delegates. He’s just lying to make his supporters angry at the Democratic party.

In Nevada, his team did not tell his supporters about the no-show problem or that there was a 2/3 requirement for changing the rules. At the convention, his national staff wrote an inflammatory and misleading “Minority Report” and got it read to the convention. And the misinformation continues. Bernie’s first complaint (Wash Post) in his public statement three days later was:

BS1:  The chair of the convention announced that the convention rules passed on voice vote, when the vote was a clear no-vote. At the very least, the Chair should have allowed for a headcount.

Bullshit. In fact, the whole reason Bernie is upset is because Clinton had more delegates eligible to vote (see BS2). So he knows there could not have been more voices on his (no) side. (What he “clearly” heard was likely recorded from his “no” side of the room.)

And what is the point of demanding (“at the very least”) a count of 3,300 agitated heads, when you know there are more Hillary supporters. That would take hours and simply cause more contention about who’s head was not counted. His next point was equally screwball:

BS2: The chair allowed its Credentials Committee to en mass rule that 64 delegates were ineligible without offering an opportunity for 58 of them to be heard.

The evenly-structured Committee checked each case individually, not “en mass.” And you cannot “offer an opportunity” to those who don’t show up. Not one “falsely-ineligible” person has been named or presented to the press (PolitiFact & many reporters were present).

Most Sanders’ Supporters Are Nicer than Sanders

PolitiFact was there and reported that many of them “rushed the dais and started screaming insults and obscenities directly at the volunteer chairwoman, Roberta Lange.” But Anna Merlan isn’t like that. An openly pro-Bernie reporter, She was upset to find that:

“In these voicemails, she is called a cunt and a bitch, and many callers express hopes that she’s seriously harmed. ‘Praying to god someone shoots you in the FACE,’ one says, ‘and blows your democracy-stealing head off!’ Another called for her to be ‘hung in a public execution.’

So Anna decided to call some who had left messages. One seemed sad and said “I wouldn’t have done it had I not been hyped up and angry.” Another said his purpose was to represent angry people, not to express his own views. These people have been manipulated.

What Is the Danger?

Bernie has just signaled to the Democratic party that he’s willing to ruin the Party’s chance at the White House. And every right-wing news source is fanning the flames of his supporters’ hatred. People now realize that if he is the nominee, the “political revolution” in the Democratic party will look more like the Chinese cultural revolution.

We Can Defeat Bernie’s Intimidations

Bernie gets away with pretending he’s not responsible (so no need to apologize) and with vague generalities about violence, which he associates with Hillary! But responsible or not, candidates are expected to repudiate uncivilized supporters. That’s where he’s vulnerable. He has repudiated nothing, and people are noticing. But much more pressure is needed.

Repudiation has a huge impact on supporters. In 2008, a John McCain supporter called on the media to “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.” Within hours, McCain said “I absolutely repudiate such comments.” Later that day, the offender said “I’ve had it with McCain,” and stopped supporting him.

The most powerful attack on his misbehavior would come from his base camp at MoveOn. Well guess what? Here’s an approved MoveOn petition! Anyone can sign it. You don’t need to be a member.

petitions.moveon.org/sign/candidates-must-disown-1

The press will love this unexpected “Man bites dog” story — If we get enough signatures. But how? We just have to make this page go viral.

For an hour Sunday morning, this page started to take off. Then people got busy. It keeps getting a lot of viral visits, but not quite enough. I’ll keep working to make it catchier. We’re close, but I need your help.

All it takes is this: On average, every visitor must get slightly more than one other person to visit (even 1.2 works great). That shouldn’t be impossible. I’m not saying get them to “sign,” just get them to visit. That’s enough. (But I hope you’ll sign it yourself. quick-sign below). A faceBook share is best.

This is important. Bernie is getting more destructive by the day, and this is probably the easiest way to help put him back on track.

—Steve

P.S. You can also sign right here (slightly quicker, but you can’t comment or see other’s comments).