Donna Braziles' new book has some serious problems.

One of the charges in Brazile's book is that an agreement which the DNC signed with the Clinton campaign gave the campaign control over who the DNC hired.

However Sam Stein with the Daily Beast sees a problem with that contention.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

From early June 2015 until mid-September of that year, the Democratic National Committee operated without a communications director. 

In normal years, this would have been a problematic, perhaps embarrassing, staffing failure—and nothing more. But the timing of this particular vacancy made it operationally catastrophic. Just as the presidential campaign was heating up, the party’s main political arm was understaffed in a key department. 

When the committee finally filled the void, it settled on Luis Miranda. 

Miranda had served in the Obama administration’s communications shop and was well liked among his peers. One thing he was not, however, was the first, second, or even third choice of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. 

In fact, he hadn’t really been on the campaign’s radar at all. Clinton’s team had sent the DNC several other options for the post, top among them Jess McIntosh, who had been serving at the time as the communications director of Emily's List. But according to half a dozen sources, their requests were ultimately set aside by then Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was won over by Miranda’s pitch to emphasize her as the election year ramped up.

In other words Wasserman Schultz hired whoever the hell she wanted, and seemingly did not give two shits what the Clinton campaign recommended.

This does not sound as if the Clinton campaign had final say over anything.

But that is nothing compared to this.

Courtesy of Yahoo: 

Axios reported on Sunday that the book's dedication reads, “In loving memory of my father, Lionel Brazile Sr.; my beloved sister, Sheila Brazioutlanle; my fearless uncles Nat, Floyd, and Douglas; Harlem’s finest, my aunt Lucille; my friend and mentor, David Kaufmann; my DNC colleague and patriot, Seth Rich; and my beloved Pomeranian, Chip Joshua Marvin Brazile (Booty Wipes). I miss y’all.”

Now if the name "Seth Rich" leaps out at you it is likely because his death was part of the conspiracy theory pushed by Russian trolls, Alex Jones, and even Fox News, which claimed that Rich was the true source of those emails that Wikileaks was releasing and not Russian hackers, and that the Clintons had him killed in order to cover that up.

There was also this later in the book: 

Rich also appears elsewhere in Brazile’s book, as the Post reported earlier in the weekend. She wrote that Rich’s murder haunted her and that she installed surveillance cameras at her home and would keep the blinds in her office window closed so she could not be seen by snipers, according to the Post.

Now if Brazile accepted the official police report that Seth Rich's death was the result of an attempted robbery gone bad then why would she be so paranoid?

Look I know that people have great respect for Donna Brazile, and I have certainly come to her defense in the past, but there is something really off about all of this.

It is appears that there is little to no chance that the Bernie Sanders backed candidate will defeat Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida. And that's not all. Update!

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz — the former head of the Democratic Party — appears to be leading by about 10 points in her primary against progressive challenger Tim Canova. 

Canova was backed by Bernie Sanders in a Miami area district that overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary. Some progressives say the fact that the race is even that close is a win of sorts for their movement. (Thought not, as of now, an actual win, in the sense of receiving more votes.)

Oddly enough while Schultz has had both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden out campaigning with her, Sanders has not bothered to show up to support Canova.

And though former aides to Bernie Sanders did work on the campaign for a short time, they all left abruptly with no reason given as to why.

As I have said in the past I am not exactly a huge fan of Wasserman Schultz, but neither am I terribly critical of her time as head of the DNC.

Ultimately I think it is good for the Democrats that Schultz wins this race and that it sends the kind of message which I am sure the Republican party would have liked to have sent to the Tea Party back in 2010.

The last thing the Democratic party needs right now is their own version of a grass roots revolution challenging their every decision and playing the obstructionist when the party needs to negotiate of compromise with the Republicans in order to move forward.

In other news it appears that Sanders has no intention of giving up his mailing list, even though it could greatly benefit the party which graciously allowed him to run in their primary.

Courtesy of Roll Call: 

Despite his plan to help the Senate Democrats win a majority, Sanders still intends to draw the line on support somewhere: He will not turn his donor list over to the DSCC. 

Instead, according to a source, he will send his own fundraising pitches on behalf of candidates.

So clearly Sanders wants to "help," but only so much, and only those candidates who pass his litmus test.

He clearly has no intention of giving away his bargaining power.

Another recent event in the world of Bernie Sanders was the release of a study which claims to show that he would have won the primary by a landslide if not for Targeted voter suppression, Registration tampering, Illegal voter purges, voting machine tampering, and unsecured voting machines.

Now if your bullshit meter started pinging, good for you, because as the folks at Daily Kos and Reddit quickly pointed out the poll was conducted by unqualified individuals, with no experience, and with a very obvious agenda.

From one Daily Kos visitor put it:  

Wow, I just did some searching on Election Justice USA (which appears to have been established in April 2016), and found it’s staff had some VERY impressive credentials. One of the main authors of the report is Lulu Fries’dat, who’s claims she is an “Investigative Journalist”, but who’s IMDB page lists her as an editor, who’s many contributions to investigative journalism include: 

“In 2004, she developed, directed and edited a series of voter registration public service announcements for VH1 featuring Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. “ 

Seems legit! 

I love the smell of bullshit propaganda in the morning... 

Do you think 3 months is enough time to do an analysis of primary elections in all 50 states for a new unknown organization? Hmm…. I doubt it.

The problem with this, besides the sloppy methodology, is that it perpetuates the same myth which the Republicans are pushing, and that is that the Democratic party is corrupt and Hillary Clinton cheated to win the nomination, and will cheat again to win the general.

While in fact we are seeing in real time the Russian government attempting to cheat on Trump's behalf, and the Republicans resorting to every dirty trick in the book.

So these never say die Bernie supporters, whether they know it or not, are essentially working in tandem with the Republican party and the Russian government to undermine American democracy.

If we really want to keep this country moving towards progressive goals we need to work together to fight against foreign hackers and GOP merry tricksters to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.

If there are liberals who do not yet understand that cold hard fact, they might want to go up to the nearest mirror and ask themselves who they really are, and what they really believe.

Update: Schultz has won her primary.

So apparently nobody is feeling the Bern in Florida.

Bernie Sanders buys $600,000 summer home in Vermont, while continuing to accept donations for his "revolution."

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has purchased a nearly $600,000 summer retreat on Vermont’s Champlain Islands, the Vermont newspaper Seven Days reported Monday. 

“We’ve traveled up to the islands many times over the years — almost always on day trips,” Jane Sanders, the former White House contender's wife, said in a statement. "The entire family is very excited about it.” 

The Sanders family also owns a row house on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and a house in Burlington, Vt..

Well for a Democratic Socialist Bernie does pretty well for himself.

But where does this kind of money come from?

(Update: According to Snopes the money for this house came from the sale of a house they inherited. That information was not readily available when I wrote this post several hours ago, and I apologize for anything misleading I may have insinuated. However instead of deleting it I will leave it here as I think the second part down below is still worthy of conversation.)

 Courtesy of the Washington Post:

When he endorsed Hillary Clinton and spoke on her behalf at the somewhat-contentious Democratic convention last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pledged "to do all that I can" to make sure she defeated Donald Trump this fall. Since the convention, his new group, "Our Revolution," seems to be devoting its energy to … defeating the Democratic Party establishment that backed Clinton. 

Sanders has sent at least two emails to his army of grass-roots supporters since the convention ended, asking for money to continue his "revolution," a critical element of his primary-season pitch. The emails mentioned the Democratic National Committee, former committee chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the Democratic Party, and the Democratic establishment multiple times. They did not mention Clinton, Trump or the Republican Party (which would need to suffer a crushing defeat for Democrats to gain the majority Sanders would need for his progressive priorities to make it through Congress.)

I'm just going to leave this here without comment.

After all I wouldn't want to be accused of being a "Bernie Sanders hater" now would I?

Update 2: By the way if the Sanders' sold a house they inherited why did that money not go towards funding his "revolution" rather than use the money toward the purchase of a third house?

After all how many houses does a socialist Senator from Vermont need anyhow?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is booed off the stage in Philadelphia.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was repeatedly interrupted and booed Monday as she sought to speak to Florida's convention delegation. 

The Florida lawmaker, who will resign after the Democratic National Convention this week after leaked emails showed top members of the DNC working to boost Hillary Clinton's presidential primary bid, had to strain her voice to yell over the flurry of protestors who showed up to interrupt her speech.

Well that just seemed fucking unnecessary to me.

Apparently the Bernie supporters have been causing a ruckus since yesterday, and there is every indication that they intend to keep on doing so all through the convention.

I'm sure it did not help matters that after Wasserman Schultz agreed to step down as the DNC Chairperson, only to then end up with a job as the honorary chair of Clinton's 50 state strategy.

(I heard from at least one person that this might have been the deal that Clinton needed to strike with DWS to get her to agree to step down. That makes sense.)

However it is time for every real Democrat to stop being an asshole, and move toward unity.

Hell if the Republicans were able to do it after the shit that happened on the first day of THEIR convention I think that the Dems can do the same.

And if you cannot, then I would kindly like to suggest that you fuck off.

Because we have an election to win, and at this point you are simply in the way.

So the evidence that those DNC e-mail hacks were the work of the Russians seems to be insurmountable at this point.

"Researchers have concluded that the national committee was breached by two Russian intelligence agencies" https://t.co/HGvwjpETPB

— David Grann (@DavidGrann) July 25, 2016

If you still have any doubts about this take a look at this post from a technology site which goes into great deal concerning the evidence.

So taking all of that into consideration it now appears that Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook was right all along.

Which also means that those who are suggesting that Wikileaks is going the dirty work for Vladimir Putin and helping Donald Trump's campaign, are also likely on to something as well.

You know I looked through those leaked DNC e-mails and I have to say that I think the media and Sanders supporters are  really exaggerating what's contained in them.

The e-mails that are being used to smear the DNC and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz all happened in May, when most establishment Democrats knew the race was over and were looking for Sanders to drop out before he hurt Hillary's chances in the general. It is not at all surprising that they were becoming impatient with the fact that Bernie refused to read the writing on the wall.

Sure that whole pointing out that Sanders might be an Atheist thing was kind of ugly (Especially since they seem to have actually used it.) but in a political battlefield where you are worried that a primary challenger might hurt your party's eventual candidate in a general election, it is really not that hard to understand.

I would bet big money that if the Russians had hacked the RNC that there are plenty of e-mails going back and forth about how to stop Donald Trump.

So if these leaked e-mails DO actually end up hurting the Clinton campaign and the DNC, then I guess ole Vladimir Putin and his puppet Donald Trump will be thrilled with how easily the so-called Democrats are to manipulate.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz out as Hillary Clinton takes control of the DNC.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has handed the day-to-day operations of the Democratic Party over to Clinton’s hand picked operator Brandon Davis. 

 Davis assumes the role of Chief of Staff, but in reality, he will be running the Democratic National Committee until a new Chairperson is selected at this year’s convention. He is currently the national political coordinator for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). 

Wasserman-Schultz will retain her title in name only until the Democratic party votes on a successor. 

The Bronx cheer you’re hearing as you read this article is coming from Vermont, where Bernie Sanders fans are cheering the departure of the southern Florida congresswoman known as DWS.

Personally I really have no opinion about Wasserman Schultz one way or the other, but  to me this feels like Clinton buckling under to demands from Bernie Sanders.

If this has been what Clinton was going to do all along, then fine. But if she is doing it to get Sanders to endorse or support her I wonder if she is not demonstrating weakness rather than strength to a guy who is clearly still wrestling for some kind of influence over the Democratic party.

Oh, I'm sorry. Actually he is still fighting for the nomination.

Courtesy of  Politico: 

Asked to answer "yes or no" whether Sanders is still running for president, Weaver was unequivocal. 

“Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Yes, he is," Weaver said. "He is an active candidate for president, yes. 

Well, so much for accepting the will of the voters. 

As I have said in the past Clinton should not negotiate with this guy, he is now essentially a political terrorist who it appears is not so much trying to change the DNC for the better, but rather destroy it from within.

Remember to Bernie Sanders Fidel Castro is a hero, and the Democrats and Republicans are essentially the same. 

The guy attempting to challenge Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida, is attacking her over the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran. Wait, what?

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

Much of Canova’s campaign literature emphasizes his opposition to the nuclear agreement with Iran, a position shared by many in the district’s large and active Jewish population. Wasserman Schultz backed the deal. 

“She’s Jewish; I’m not. But I’ve had a Jewish stepdad for 40 years, and I was a volunteer on a kibbutz. . . . And she voted for the Iran agreement,” he said. “Either she got duped by [Obama deputy national security adviser] Ben Rhodes or she was in on it.”

So to be clear this Canova guy is attempting to attract the Jewish vote by using Right Wing talking points to attack DWS over a deal that she probably had virtually nothing to do with.

Is he not aware that the Iran deal is very popular among Democrats? Or that they get very defensive when somebody attacks their President in order to earn political points?

Cause they do.

But hey, Bernie Sanders supports him right? So I guess he has that going for him.

Wait, does this mean that Sanders is also against the Iran deal?

I think some intrepid reporter needs to ask him that very question.

An image guaranteed to make Bernie Bro heads explode.

 

The guy that the Sanders' campaign wants kicked off of the DNC convention rules committee endorsing the woman that they simply want to fall off the edge of the earth. 

Oh yeah, this is going to leave a mark.

Bernie Sanders' campaign manger heaps praise on RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Noting a report that quoted a Clinton source remarking that DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz "poured gasoline on the fire" in the wake of the chaos of the Nevada Democratic Convention, Jeff Weaver told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" that she "really escalated the situation."

Weaver dismissed the notion that there are back-channel conversations about replacing her as chairwoman but remarked that, "I think unity in the party is much easier to achieve if we have consensus and a chair who was committed to playing the traditional role that the chairs of parties play." 

What Wasserman Schultz did is "really not the role a party chair should traditionally play," he continued. "I mean, if you look at the Republican side, the party chair there has been working day and night to try and you know, keep everybody together and to try unify the party." 

I'm sorry what?

By just about every standard Reince Twice and Priebus has been an unmitigated disaster since the very beginning of his tenure.  And he lost control over his party the minute that Donald Trump started winning primaries.

Weaver's hatred of Debbie Wasserman Schultz has blinded him to the facts, and I have very little doubt that the same is true of his boss.

Speaking of blinded to the facts, the Sander's campaign recently demanded that Kentucky recanvass the primary results searching for some malfeasance, and guess what?

Fayette County election officials finished the recanvass in Lexington in 20 minutes and they didn't find anything wrong.

So yes Bernie Bros Hillary Clinton DID indeed win Kentucky.

And the lesson for today is that the system is not rigged just because you lose.

The DNC throws Bernie a bone.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Bernie Sanders will be able to claim more sway over the convention in July after the Democratic National Committee partially gave in to his demand for more control over the committee that writes the party's platform. 

While DNC rules allow the chair to pick all 15 members of the national convention drafting committee, the organization struck a deal with the two campaigns so that Hillary Clinton will pick six members, Sanders will pick five, and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will appoint four, party officials confirmed

It's short of what Sanders lobbied for — he wrote to Wasserman Schultz suggesting that each campaign pick seven members and that the final member be picked jointly by both campaigns — it's still progress for Sanders, who has had an especially rocky relationship with Wasserman Schultz.

Awfully nice of Debbie Wasserman Schultz to negotiate with Sanders while he is actively working to get her primaried out of the House.

Don'tcha think?

Here are Sanders' picks:  

Arab-American Institute President James Zogby; Cornel West; Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison; Deborah Parker, an activist on Native American rights; and Bill McKibben, an activist on environmental issues. 

Got a couple of bomb throwers in there.

I am not at all convinced that Cornel West, a man who has been attacking President Obama virtually since he took office, is going to be much for negotiations.

Here are Hillary's picks: 

Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden, former State Department official Wendy Sherman, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, former White House Energy and Climate Change Policy director Carol Browner, Ohio state Rep. Alicia Reece, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union's Paul Booth.

And look Hillary picks a bunch of reasonable folks well versed in negotiating techniques, folks who have been through this kind of thing many times before.

Of course that does not include the four that Schultz will appoint, which I imagine will not be terribly interested in taking Sanders' side on too many issues.  

I swear it looks more and more like this convention is going to be a damn free for all.

The Daily Beast accuses Bernie Sanders of pulling a "Sarah Palin" on Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Bernie Sanders is trying to Sarah Palin the head of the Democratic Party—throwing his support behind the DNC chairwoman’s primary opponent in the latest escalation of the intraparty fracas gripping the left. 

“Well, clearly, I favor her opponent,” Sanders told CNN on Sunday. “His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz’s.” He added that if elected president he would not support Debbie Wasserman Schultz to keep her post as chair.

Of course we have already covered this yesterday, but what has not been discussed is just how dedicated the Sanders' campaign is to defeating Schultz in the primary:

In a fundraising appeal asking his “sisters and brothers” to split a donation between Bernie’s presidential campaign and the congressional campaign of Tim Canova, Wasserman Schultz’s Democratic primary challenger. “Splitting a $2.70 contribution between Bernie 2016 and Tim Canova for Congress will help elect progressives up and down the ballot while sending an UNMISTAKABLE message about our political revolution’s commitment to electing candidates who share our values,” the fundraising email read.

To put this into perspective, this is a potential presidential nominee (Well not really but for the sake of argument.) requesting donations to assist in the defeat of a sitting Congresswoman from the party he wishes to represent in the general election.

That is stunning.

I mean regardless of how you feel about the DNC Chairwoman, and there are plenty of reasons to criticize her, trying to defeat her in a primary right before she hosts you at a national convention, for a party that you just recently joined, is more than a little....did I already use the word "stunning"....because that's what it is....stunning.

But we have seen something a little similar before haven't we?

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen party on party attacks this cycle.

After Speaker Paul Ryan blindsided presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and his campaign by declining to endorse him following the exit of Sen. Ted Cruz from the race, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin hit the airwaves and called for conservatives to rally around his primary opponent.

Now in my defense this is not a comparison that I would have necessarily come up with, but now that it has been made......well it does kind of fit. 

In fact the similarities between the Sanders' "movement" and the Tea Party, which caused so much strife and divisiveness within the Republican party, are becoming more and more defined.

Bernie Sanders is now actively supporting DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's opponent in the primary.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Bernie Sanders says he is supporting the primary opponent of Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 

Sanders, speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview airing Sunday on "State of the Union," said, “well, clearly, I favor her opponent. His views are much closer to mine than as to Wasserman Schultz’s.” 

Tim Canova is challenging Wasserman Schultz in Florida’s 23rd congressional district, which holds its primary on Aug. 30. 

Sanders also told Tapper that if he were to be elected president, he wouldn’t want Wasserman Schultz leading the DNC. His remarks come amid a longstanding feud between Sanders and the Democratic party apparatus during the Vermont senator's run for the presidential nomination against Hillary Clinton. 

I think most of us are quite aware that there is a long standing feud between Sanders and Schultz, and his supporters have been calling for her to step down for months now. 

But let's be clear he is not simply calling for her to leave her post as the head of the DNC he wants her out of Congress completely. Where she has served since 2005.

That seems a little extreme to me.

And I think it just goes to prove that Bernie Sanders really holds a grudge, and I wonder what that means going forward after the Democratic convention in July?