Bernie Sanders Is Head and Shoulders Above Everyone

Madison, Wisconsin — In Wisconsin during the Democratic presidential primary campaign, voices  cautioned repeatedly on social media that a Hillary Clinton nomination imposed by Party commissars ran the risk of giving the state to a Republican in the general election.

So did RealPolitics. So did Bernie Sanders supporters the nation-over.

Democratic super-delegates didn't listen. State parties didn't listen. The Hillary Clinton campaign didn't listen.

So, the nation ended up with the corporatist Clinton as nominee and the rest is sordid history that we live today.

What do 1,000s of activists in northern and western Wisconsin know anyway?

For one thing, Wisconsin activists know a President Sanders is preferable to a President Trump.

This knowledge is spreading across the nation, and Bernie Sanders is now the leading voice for a progressive and effective alternative to the lunatic in the White House.

From Deirdre Fulton in CommonDreams:

As he tours the country hoping to give the Democratic Party an energy boost, yet another poll has shown Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to be extremely popular among the U.S. electorate.

A Harvard-Harris survey found that 57 percent of registered voters view Sanders favorably, according to The Hill, which reported exclusively on the poll this week. In fact, 'Sanders is the only person in a field of 16 Trump administration officials or congressional leaders included in the survey who is viewed favorably by a majority of those polled,' The Hill wrote.

Sanders fared particularly well among voters aged 18-34, who give him a 62 percent approval rating. And, reflecting—or supporting—his influence within the party, 80 percent of registered Democrats said they view the Vermont senator favorably.

On Tuesday night, Sanders reiterated to MSNBC's Chris Hayes that he does not consider himself a Democrat.

Neither do I, Bern. Neither do most Americans.

A new book out, Shattered (Allen, Parnes; (Crown), reveals the world had every reason to fear a Clinton nomination. Writes Michiko Kakutani in the Times review:

After a planned appearance in Green Bay with President Obama was postponed, the authors write, Clinton never set foot in Wisconsin, a key state. In fact, they suggest, the campaign tended to take battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan (the very states that would help hand the presidency to Trump) for granted until it was too late, and instead looked at expanding the electoral map beyond Democratic-held turf and traditional swing states to places like Arizona.

Clinton was so full of herself she and Party functionaries neglected the potential damage they were willing to inflict on the world.

Bernie has not forgotten.

Progressives, Neighborhood Activists Want Jason Gonzales for Mayor in Bellwether Wisconsin City

Jason Gonzalez is running for mayor in Fitchburg Wisconsin.
Jason is pictured with James Kilgore who helps people
traumatized by the prison-industrial complex try
to reclaim their lives, (Gonzalez for Fitchburg mayor).
Gonzalez is the first Latino to sit on the Fitchburg Common
Council and would be the City's first Latino mayor.

Fitchburg, Wisconsin—Jason Gonzalez is running for mayor in this small, fast-growing city in south-central Wisconsin, in the most progressive county in the state.

Gonzalez has amassed a broad coalition—typical in Wisconsin municipal campaigns—that includes Bernie Sanders progressives and independents, Democrats, Republicans, Greens, neighborhood activists and labor unions, (Wisconsin AFL-CIO).

Fitchburg is a bellwether, part of Dane county's jobs-creating engine that powers the state, socially liberal, activist and in the middle of a hot real estate market.

Gonzalez preaches "inclusion" and "collaboration," and would become the first Latino elected as Fitchburg mayor.

He's running against incumbent Mayor Steve Arnold, who calls himself a populist.

The progressive label seems ironic for a mayor who wants $100s in property tax increases, (nine percent), for working-class homes, higher rents for tenants and who seeks to privatize City services for those living in cul-de-sacs.

As though living in a cul-de-sac, a small home, or on a rustic road were a bad thing. Arnold also apparently doesn't like the bucolic look of residents' front yards, so he has divined a grand vision to pave over people's front yards. Walkable urban neighborhoods and pedestrian approaches, he says, (Wisconsin State Journal), (Fitchburg Star).

Arnold is fighting a City and a grassroots-backed candidate in Gonzalez that does not react well to commissars working to decide what front yards and neighborhoods should look like.

Word from the campaign front is Gonzalez is the on-odds favorite to defeat Arnold.

In the February primary Gonzalez won 47 percent of the vote to Arnold’s 37 percent. Marc Jones finished with 13.8 percent of the vote. Jones has since endorsed Gonzalez. The election is April 4, early voting begins March 13.

The Pocan Problem

In a dynamic that has progressives shaking their heads, an increasingly corporatized U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, (D-Madison) decided to endorse Arnold in early March.

The move echoes perhaps the worst image of 2016 broadcast from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last July. It features Pocan reprimanding the Wisconsin Bernie Sanders delegation for wearing "silenced by the DNC" tape over their mouths. Hundreds of Sanders supporters walked off the floor as Pocan and DNC hacks preached "unity," a heavy-handed move that did not work out well in November.

Corporatized Democrats like Pocan have not seen the April 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary results from Fitchburg that saw Sanders win easily. If they knew and cared about the results, likely they would be backing Gonzalez.

"This is our community. I know there is no easy fit for which member of the political spectrum supports a candidate for mayor in Fitchburg. But this is a strength of our campaign. We need wide collaboration now," said Gonzalez last January after knocking on a door. "I'm proud of the wide support we have received. People need to know they are being listened to. That's the basis of my campaign."

It's a little rich to read give-me-more-money Mark Pocan endorse Steve Arnold for Fitchburg, Wisconsin mayor. What attracts Pocan: Nine-percent property tax increases, higher rents or privatizing cul-de-sacs? (WISC-TV).

What is clear is that residents of Fitchburg are looking pretty small now-a-days from the D.C.-based, money-infused world of Mark Pocan.

Come to think of it, that's the problem with Arnold as well: People just don't seem to matter so very much anymore.

Jason Gonzalez is working to change this.

Here's How We Beat Those Frackers

Following the carnage in Wisconsin, a friend asked, "What the hell?  What's it take to beat those fuckers?"

The question and sentiment are legion across the country.

The answer is simple, organize a bit more, (Juan Cole). That's it, with the corollary that we ought to consider supporting those involved in organizing.

Some details include extirpating the DNC pukes and replacing the lot with the like of Rep. Keith Ellison, (D-Minnesota).

With respect to whites stupid enough to vote for Donald Trump, do not a cede an inch to these bigots and assorted human garbage. As a life-long Wisconsin citizen, I know these people.

Says Bernie this morning, "When my presidential campaign came to an end, I pledged to my supporters that the political revolution would continue. And now, more than ever, that must happen. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. When we stand together and don’t let demagogues divide us up by race, gender or national origin, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We must go forward, not backward," (NYT).

 Listen to voices such as Michael Moore, and John Pavolovitz.

And, ala spring and summer 2016, if assorted fools admonish we should all unify around Trump for the good of America, the same fools who have not apologized for their rally-around-Hillary-over-Sanders nonsense, ignore these asses and organize some more for progressives.

Vote for the Liar, Cheat and Whore Against Fascism

With him - Picture from 1932 in
Berlin, Germany shows
a large handshake billboard
for President Hindenburg
that says "With Him."
Source: The History Place (1996)

Update: 12.25.2018: Approaching the second year of Donald Trump whom Hillary Clinton bequeathed to America. Thank you for that, Hillary Clinton.
 ---
Across America there is apprehension about Hillary Clinton's weak candidacy against Donald Trump at the beginning of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, (CommonDreams).

Will Trump be defeated at the polls?

—'I sure hope so, I don't know,' is the most common and thoughtful response among political junkies in Dane County Wisconsin whom I have canvassed.

To be sure Hillary Clinton is a miserable, lying corporate whore, one whom this site is endorsing.

The X factor in the 2016 presidential election is what Chris Matthews calls the Scranton to Oshkosh vote: The heavily white, working-class and stupid vote.

Michael Moore calls it the Pittsburgh to Green Bay vote.

Magical, partial to mythical reenactments and beer, the white working class has a more authentically libertarian and less racist cousin in the rural American South.

With him, with her

This demographic is home to the permanent fascist base of American culture.

It gives beer a bad name, and its mindlessness is a defamation of democracy.

The white working class will decide whether Donald Trump is elected president.

Trump is Trump.

No decent American should vote for the slime.

Bernie Sanders Should Stay and Fight

Bernie Sanders for president because our country and
our future are worth fighting for.

The failure of the corporate political press, emphatically MSNBC, to report Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC crafted the Democratic Presidential Primary to coronate Hillary Clinton ought not deter Bernie Sanders' run for the presidency.

Nor should the fact that the DNC has stacked the deck against Sanders at the Democratic National Convention by installing Clinton loyalists in key committees, (US Uncut).

Nor should the fact that the DNC employs Party commissars, aka superdelegates, precisely to halt progressive political campaigns like Bernie Sanders'.

Hillary Clinton has publicly trumpeted her amassed superdelegates since last August, effectively telling Democratic Primary voters the race is over, (Halperin, Epstein, Aug. 28, 2015; (BloombergPolitics)), months before the Iowa Caucuses and 11 months before the July 2016 Democratic Party Presidential Convention.

Bernie Sanders' supporters decided they would cast their preference in this republic anyway, the heck with Clinton's insiders and myriad Party careerists' support. Suckers for democracy are we.

Let's assume the Democratic Party's nominee against the lunatic Donald Trump is a genuine general election, and not prearranged theater like a wrestling match where the bad guy makes a lot of noise and throws the match to the good guy.

If Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC decide large swaths of American voters are neither welcome nor relevant to the Convention, and the evidence is such a decision has already been made, then Bernie Sanders, denied a fair shot at the nomination, should bolt in late July and make an independent or third party run for the presidency.

It's a democratic thing, and a welcome frack-you card to a corrupt and anti-democratic Democratic Party.

Sanders Wins WV, Party Commissars Look to Correct Voters at Convention

Bernie Sanders won West Virginia last night as Clinton surrogates on MSNBC stood ready to downplay Sanders' latest victory.

That voters for Bernie Sanders will deny Hillary Clinton the 2,383 pledged delegates to secure the nomination before the convention is a fact blacked-out by the corporate media, especially MSNBC.

Clinton was anointed by the DNC in a rigged primary front-loaded for Clinton by DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz who advocates the abolition of open primaries, (The Hill, The Washington Examiner,, Bloomberg Politics, U.S. Uncut, Mal Contends).

In service to Clinton, the Democratic Party commissars, aka superdelegates who will cast delegate votes at the convention, are tabulated by the corporate press as already voted and been won by Hillary Clinton. In reality-land, the Democratic National Convention is held July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

The latest Clinton loss to Sanders exposes Clinton's weakness among actual voters, and assuming no deal has been made between allies Clinton and Trump, highlights the weakest potential Democratic Party nominee in recent history as Clinton alienates younger voters, (TruthDig).

There is an explanation for Clinton's weakness.

"There exists nary a war of aggression, a corporate privilege, a privatization of public services or an act against the common good that Mrs. Clinton has factually opposed in her years of public self-service," notes Rob Urie in CounterPunch.

These are inconvenient facts about Hillary Clinton that must be ignored.

DNC's Chair Sounds Positively Soviet

The New Democratic Party

DNC-Clinton Alliance Spells Doom

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) has solidified her personal commitment to running an already corporatized political party like an old Soviet Union commissar.

Reports Lisa Hagen from The Hill: "DNC Chair "Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said if it was her decision, she would scrap open primaries and only allow voters registered as Democrats to participate in primaries.

"'I believe that the party's nominee should be chosen — this is Debbie Wasserman Schultz's opinion — that the party's nominee should be chosen by members of the party,' the Florida Democrat said during an interview with 'MSNBC Live' on Monday, according to The Washington Examiner,, [Anna Giaritelli]." See also Bloomberg Politics and U.S. Uncut.

Wonder how Wasserman Schultz' stated position plays with Wisconsin Democrats and Wisconsin's historical commitment to an open primary, first enacted by Robert M. La Follette in 1904 as a progressive Republican, (Wisconsin Historical Society).

In late March President Obama personally endorsed Wasserman Schultz against her progressive primary challenger, Tim Canova, (The Intercept).

Bernie Sanders has made clear he intends to contest the nomination of Hillary Clinton whom Wasserman Schultz has attempted to engineer as the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency.

Listening to Wasserman Schultz, it is easy to understand why.

Yesterday a poll showed Clinton losing to Donald Trump in a general election match-up, (Rasmussen Reports), though the predictive power of polls in May is weak.

Still, a Clinton nomination would depress turn-out sufficiently so Clinton's wished-for grand bargain with House Republicans is necessary, Clinton would say.

We need Bernie Sanders, and one hopes he fights until even the mopes at the Democratic Party see the folly of Hillary Clinton and her intended destruction of the FDR-Ike-LBJ-enacted social insurance, and Clinton's neo-con foreign policy.

If you live in Wisconsin, Myron Buchholz is fighting an entrenched Clintonesque jobs-killing New Democrat in Wisconsin's third congressional district.

Go Bernie Sanders and Myron Buchholz.

Sanders' Movement Kills Insiders, Can Realign American Politics

Not too late for Hillary Clinton to say 'bye-bye.'

Since declaring his run nearly a year ago, Bernie Sanders proclaimed his intention to build a powerful force for change in American politics and garner the nomination of the Democratic Party.

Sanders has achieved his first objective bringing in the younger voters who must turn out if the Republicans are to be defeated in the U.S. Senate and in a long shot defy the Republican-gerrymandered House.

Against this progressive movement, Nicholas Confessore notes today:

[h]undreds of the party’s 'superdelegates' have endorsed Mrs. Clinton, a signal of her broad support among the party’s power brokers. The Democratic National Committee now relies on Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising to provide a fifth of its monthly income, an arrangement the Sanders campaign has criticized.

And Mrs. Clinton is well positioned to block any proposals she would not want to defend in a general election. In January, the party chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, appointed dozens of Clinton supporters and advisers to the three standing committees of the Democratic Party convention. Of 45 potential members submitted by Mr. Sanders, she appointed just three ...

Since tying Sanders in Iowa, Clinton and her surrogates have called for her coronation in a repulsive display of the very anti-democratic, moneyed interests-rule maladies that Sanders has openly denounced.

Clinton has moved dramatically towards the FDR-Ike-LBJ domestic policy consensus harnessed by Sanders, but Clinton remains a corporatist in her outlook.

"I think what divides us is the understanding on the part of millions of people who are supporting my candidacy that it really is too late for establishment politics and establishment economics. We have to deal in very substantive way with income and wealth inequality. We need to understand that we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people, not to provide paid family and medical leave. We have to deal aggressively with a corrupt campaign finance system which allows big- money interests to buy elections. Those are areas I think of difference,” Sanders said Sunday on Meet The Press.

The argument advanced by Clinton's campaign that Sanders must now submit to the rigged Democratic Party primary is ludicrous.

To expect millions of Americans to disenfranchise their power is not only ridiculous, it is dangerous and risks a sure-thing victory of the off-the-charts Republican Party.

If come July 25-28 at the Democratic Party convention in Philadelphia and Sanders is not the nominee, Clinton will have to earn Sanders and millions of Americans' support by moving away from her neo-con and Wall Street alliances that Clinton still hides from scrutiny.

What Hillary Clinton does not get is these alliances are the problem.

Hillary Clinton Adopts Citizens United in Defense of Her Wall Street Millions

Hillary Clinton was paid $2.9 Million from 12 speeches
to huge banks, (Zaid, Jilani, The Intercept). Money for
nothing, assures Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton declined again last night to release her transcripts for talks to Wall Street for which Clinton was paid $2.9 million.

In fact in last night's debate Clinton refused to acknowledge the question posed twice by CNN's Dana Bash, who limited her question to the mere $100,000s for which Clinton was paid by Goldman Sachs.

CNN's DANA BASH: Secretary Clinton, if I may, Senator Sanders keeping bringing up the speeches that you gave to Goldman Sachs. So I'd like to ask you, so you've said that you don't want to release the transcripts, until everybody does it, but if there's nothing in those speeches that you think would change voters' minds, why not just release the transcripts and put this whole issue to bed?

CLINTON: You know, let's set the same standard for everybody. When everybody does it, OK, I will do it ... .

SANDERS: Well, let me respond. Secretary Clinton, you just heard her, everybody else does it, she'll do it. I will do it.
(APPLAUSE)
I am going to release all of the transcripts of the speeches that I gave on Wall Street behind closed doors, not for $225,000, not for $2,000, not for two cents. There were no speeches. ... (CNN Transcript of Democratic Debate)
---
Now, as Glenn Greenwald notes: The "key argument of the right-wing justices in Citizens United has now become the key argument of the Clinton campaign and its media supporters to justify her personal and political receipt of millions upon millions of dollars in corporate money: 'Expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption' — at least when the candidate in question is Hillary Clinton," (The Intercept).

In other developments, Michael Hudson, Bill Black and Jaisal Noor have an exclusive at Countpunch revealing why Bernie Sanders is right about breaking up the banks, and the New York Daily News is a sham.

Hillary Clinton—'Uniquely Unsuited to Confronting Fossil-fuel Companies, Climate change'

"Hillary Clinton is uniquely unsuited to the epic task of confronting the fossil-fuel companies that profit from climate change."

So writes Naomi Klein, The Nation.

Here is a must-read for any American with even a vague hope for the next generation.

Wisconsin Post-Election Notes

Updated - Some notes from Wisconsin's April 5 presidential primary:

Bernie Sanders' resounding victory over Hillary Clinton and virtually the entire state Democratic Party establishment shows anew Sanders' ability to bring citizens into the electoral process who are young, independent and suspicious of concentrated wealth and special interests.

Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin's attempt to obstruct voters was successful. A legal counter-attack is pending and is expected to include new affidavits and data from last night in the federal case, One Wisconsin Institute et al v. Nichol, (Case No. 15-cv-324), expected to be heard next month in May 2106.
---
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisconsin) was caught on video explaining Wisconsin's photo voter ID law is going to help turn Wisconsin into a red state, (Benson, WTMJ, Wright and Scott, CNN).

Republicans still engage in the lie a vast number of voters impersonate other voters, although they remain unable to point to one case. The real objective of suppressing the vote remains clear: Keeping as many non-Republicans from voting as possible to keep Republicans in power.

A veteran election inspector, Al Potts of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, said partisan-inspired changes to Wisconsin election law in the last five years caused him to call it quits before the presidential primary.

“I won’t help perpetuate a fraud on voters," said Potts.

The Fitchburg Star has the story. 
---
"Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Caused Major Problems at the Polls Last Night, Students waited hours to vote and longtime voters were turned away by the state’s new photo ID law," notes Ari Berman in The Nation.

Bernie Sanders Is a Wisconsin Progressive

A March for Bernie Sanders in Waupaca, Wisconsin on
the weekend before the April 5 presidential primary election.
(Facebook)

There is one clear choice for the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency—Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The stakes have never been higher.

What we have is a life-long civil rights activist and economic justice worker, Bernie Sanders, against a corporatist whose campaign is a gargantuan funnel for special interests.

Democratic Party establishment insiders have largely fallen in line against the progressive Sanders. So what?

Bernie Sanders stands out for his decency, and his fearless work for a nation in which living in a democracy means citizens should be the decision-makers, and not the special interests dominating the Democratic and Republican Party establishments.

The Clinton camp would have voters believe her special-interests campaign would represent a strong top of the Democratic Party ticket. All polls show this to be untrue, as Sanders outperforms Clinton by significant margins as the Democratic Party nominee, (RealClearPolitics), and has for months.

Even as Wisconsin is decimated by a sociopathic governor and a gerrymandered legislature, the progressive state will never give up the fight.

For president, Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders Will Win Wisconsin

Forget the Hillary-bots.

They follow orders.

Vote for the true progressive Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

At some point, later I'm guessing, it will dawn on the so-called superdelegates Hillary Clinton is not worth it.

Racketeers, Hacks and Followers

The Greenpeace A.E. Bates thermal airship flies over Seattle,
Washington on March 25, 2016, urging Hillary Clinton
to reject fossil fuel money in her campaign.
Photo by Marcus Donner, Greenpeace.

From Greenpeace: "According to data compiled by Greenpeace’s research department, Secretary Clinton’s campaign and the Super PAC supporting her have received more than $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry during the 2016 election cycle. Eleven registered oil and gas industry lobbyists have bundled over One million dollars to her campaign"

But Hillary Clinton persists in her lies, assuring all of her noble intentions, as congressional democrats fall in line. The latest: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), (Madison.com).

Baldwin fails to note in her piece Sanders consistently outperforms Clinton in match-ups against Repulbican general-election opponents, concluding nevertheless, "To me, the choice is clear. I voted early for Hillary this week. On Tuesday, I hope you will vote for her, too. There is simply too much at stake."

Not persuasive, and a worse argument than Wisconsin citizens have a right to expect from Baldwin as Sanders has a consistent progressive record, and Clinton certainly does not. Baldwin certainly knows Sanders is the progressive, civil rights activist in this campaign against the corporatist Clinton who on the campaign has moved towards Sanders' positions across the board.

As Rob Ganson put it this morning: "A note for (Wisconsin) superdelegates. Superdelegates who wait for the primary and reflect the vote of their constituents are representatives. Those who pledge their super-duper votes prior to their primary are racketeers," (Facebook).

Or one might say, hacks or followers.

Politically, Tammy Baldwin has sold out. This is what D.C. does to people and it took Tammy Baldwin all of three years.

Hillary Clinton and Her Support for the Nicaraguan Contras

What about it, Hillary Clinton: You agree Reagan's training and support for the Nicaraguan Contras were a disgrace and a human rights violation, correct?

Most who came of age during the age of Reagan, (1981-89), remember the creation of the CIA, the Nicaraguan Contras, remnants of the U.S.-supported dictator, Anastasio Somoza.

The Contras, a group of U.S.-financed terrorists went after soft targets—schools, daycare centers and healthcare facilities—and were among the most vile death squads in 1970s-80s Latin America, terrorists drawing bi-partisan but not unanimous American support, (Greenwald, The Intercept).

Among the supporters of the Contras were the politically ambitious Hillary and Bill Clinton, and last month at a debate Hillary Clinton sounded precisely like Ronald Reagan, (and not unlike Henry Kissinger), (Greenwald, The Intercept).

Love to see a question posed of Hillary asking if the Contras, Latin American death squads and dictators were repulsive terrorists that no decent American should have ever supported.

As noted by Glenn Greenwald after a March 10 debate co-sponsored by Univision, the Washington Post, and Facebook at Miami-Dade College:

Vehement opposition to Reagan’s covert wars in Central America, as well as to the sadistic and senseless embargo of Cuba, were once standard liberal positions. As my colleague Jeremy Scahill, observing the reaction of Clinton supporters during the debate, put it in a series of tweets: 'The U.S. sponsored deaths squads that massacred countless central and Latin Americans, murdered nuns and priests, assassinated an Archbishop. I bet commie Sanders was even against Reagan’s humanitarian mining of Nicaraguan waters and; supported subsequent war crimes judgment vs. U.S. Have any of these Hillarybots heard of the Contra death squads? Or is it just that whatever Hillary says must be defended at all costs? The Hillarybots attacking Sanders over Nicaragua should be ashamed of themselves.'

So, what about it, Hillary Clinton: You agree Reagan's support for the Nicaraguan Contras was a disgrace and a human rights violation, correct?

On Wisconsin—Walker's Budget Mired in Disaster, Sanders Moves Ahead of Clinton

Donald Trump trashed Scott Walker over Wisconsin's declining fiscal health under Scott Walker, saying "[Walker] is not doing a good job ... ," (Vitali, NBC News).

Actually, Wisconsin's fiscal health is much worse; Jake the macro-Econ man, has the breakdown in a piece entitled, February revenues collapse, Wisconsin budget even more on the edge.

Meanwhile in the 2016 presidential Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders is plowing ahead of Hillary Clinton who has left Wisconsin for a fundraiser from the Wall Street crowd.

While Sanders was in Madison on Wednesday for several appearances including a town hall meeting, Clinton was scheduled to be in New York City at a fundraiser hosted by former Morgan Stanley Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat.

Sanders' campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, noted the candidates' divergent approaches in an email to supporters on Wednesday. 'Hillary Clinton left the campaign trail for yet another high-dollar fundraising event on Monday,' he wrote, 'but she shared some news about the state of the race that we agree with: she said the trail to the Democratic nomination 'goes through Wisconsin.' (Fulton, Common Dreams).

Also worrying is the uber-hawk, Hillary Clinton.

In the Huffington Post, Oliver Stone sets the record straight on Hillary Clinton and her foreign policy  earning Clinton elsewhere the moniker, the Queen of Chaos.

Notes Stone:

Hillary’s record includes supporting the barbaric 'contras' against the Nicaraguan people in the 1980s, supporting the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia, supporting the ongoing Bush-Iraq War, the ongoing Afghan mess, and as Secretary of State the destruction of the secular state of Libya, the military coup in Honduras, and the present attempt at 'regime change' in Syria. Every one of these situations has resulted in more extremism, more chaos in the world, and more danger to our country. Next will be the borders of Russia, China, and Iran. Look at the viciousness of her recent AIPAC speech (don’t say you haven’t been warned). Can we really bear to watch as Clinton 'takes our alliance [with Israel] to the next level'? Where is our sense of proportion? Cannot the media, at the least, call her out on this extremism? The problem, I think, is this political miasma of 'correctness' that dominates American thinking (i.e. Trump is extreme, therefore Hillary is not). 

Clinton's foreign policy is the same as the Cruz-Trump line, just delivered more delicately.

Clinton's domestic fiscal policy comes straight from Wall Street.

To the extent these facts are known, Clinton's political fortunes will decline.

Hear the Sound of Hillary Clinton's Campaign Disintegrating

AP: "Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon declined to comment Wednesday."

The Hillary Clinton email story has turned out to be a blockbuster after-all:

Newly released emails show a 2009 request to issue a secure government smartphone to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was denied by the National Security Agency.

A month later, she began using private email accounts accessed through her BlackBerry to exchange messages with her top aides.

The messages made public Wednesday were obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal advocacy group that has filed numerous lawsuits seeking the release of federal documents related to Clinton's tenure as the nation's top diplomat. ... 'These documents show that Hillary Clinton knew her BlackBerry wasn't secure,' Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said Wednesday. 'The FBI and prosecutors ought to be very interested in these new materials.' (Michael Biesecker, AP).

Wonder why the big rush from Clinton surrogates to get behind Hillary Clinton?

We note again it would be very difficult for the FBI and U.S. DoJ to release the results of ongoing probes, or prosecute the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for any crimes.

So, Clinton needs the premature designation as presumptive Democratic Party nominee.

Hillary Clinton has unfavorable v. favorable ratings of minus-12 points, (updated daily at Huffington Post).

This new development won't help.

Next Up for Dems: Arizona, Idaho and Utah

The message emitting from Hillary Clinton's campaign continues.

Same as the message from August 2015: Hillary Clinton is the one, and to borrow from the Clinton campaign's words fed to the media last year, "At the Democratic National Committee meeting in Minneapolis, where Clinton spoke on Friday, senior Clinton campaign officials are claiming that she has already secured one-fifth of the pledges needed to win the Democratic presidential nomination," (Bloomberg Politics).

The delegates-won total at this point is: Clinton-1,112 delegates, Sanders-806 delegates; with 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination. The delegate figures exclude superdelegates who won't vote until the Democratic Party Convention held the week of July 25, 2016. (RealPolitics).

Next Tuesday are elections in Arizona (winner take all), Idaho and Utah. The first three of 29 more Democratic Party elections and caucuses Clinton's campaign and surrogates want the media to believe won't matter.

"The second half of the calendar appears more favorable to Sanders than the states that have voted so far," notes Nate Silver this morning. That's an understatement.

Silver wants to believe in a static contest, a bizarre notion that he cannot believe to be true.

Call me "unrealistic" as Clinton supporters are apt. But consider on June 7 alone California and New Jersey vote (along with four other states), and California and New Jersey alone comprise 39 percent of the 2,382 delegates needed to win.

The New Dealer-Ike-LBG-Great Society Bernie Sanders is in to stay. Last night shows why.

"Sanders continued to bolster his electability argument in tonight’s contests. Among groups that hold special significance in general elections, like young voters and independents, Sanders performed particularly well," notes Tom Cahill.

Sanders' domination of young voters was overwhelming last night again.

Delegate Math Favors Surging Bernie Sanders

By James Rottering (Facebook)

In the heavily front-loaded Democratic primary of 2008, a number of delegates equal to 89% of the total needed to win nomination had already been awarded by the end of Super Tuesday (February 5th). 1,886 delegates had been awarded, 2,118 needed to win. Clinton was about 45.5% of the way to the ultimate goal, and Obama was slightly behind at 43.5%.

Here in 2016, as of today only 54% of the total delegates needed to win have been awarded. (1,290 out of 2,382 needed). Clinton is 31.4% of the way to the finish line, while Bernie Sanders is 22.75% of the way there.

After tomorrow's contests (FL, IL, NC, MO, OH), 83.42% of the total delegates needed will have been awarded.

It won't be until after NEXT Tuesday's contests (AZ, ID, UT (March 22)) that we finally get to the same point in the 2016 primary where we were on Super Tuesday 2008: 89% of the total delegates needed to secure nomination will have been awarded.

Bernie Burns Hillary and Pollsters

Hillary Clinton is the Scott Walker of national politics: Identifying special interests with big money and pitching 'give me money, I'll do whatever you want.'

But the desperation of the coronate-Hillary Clinton-now project is now apparent.

As noted at In These Times, (Daalder):

Michigan represents the largest turnaround yet. RealClearPolitics’ average anticipated a Clinton win by 21.4 percent.

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight noted that, before Sanders' [Michigan] ’victory, 'the candidate with the largest lead to lose a state in our database of well-polled primaries and caucuses was Walter Mondale, who led New Hampshire by 17.1 percentage points but lost to Gary Hart in 1984.' Now, that candidate is Hillary Clinton.

The Democratic Party primary map is now Sanders-favorable, (Mother Jones), after the front-loaded southern states have already held their elections.

Look for Hillary dirty tricks and an effort to demonize Sanders, ala Clinton's work against Obama in 2008.

Sanders' win in Michigan demonstrates his FDR-Ike-LBJ domestic populism is alive and well, and the Hillary Clinton's corporatist sell-out is increasingly viewed with distrust.

Laurence Shoup traces The Clinton Dynasty and the Shadow Government (subscription required) at Z-Magazine noting the Clintons sucked up some $ 3 billion mainly from banks, hedge funds, securities firms and insurance companies.

This $ 3 billion tracks the 40 years since Bill launched his first run for Congress in 1974, and the Clintons peddled their idea in the 1970s of enlisting Wall Street in the Clinton's corporatist vision of the Democratic Party.

"The Clintons’ fundraising operation — $3 billion amassed by one couple, working in tandem for more than four decades — has no equal," notes Shoup in a piece in the Washington Post last year.

Throw in the neo-cons with whom the Clintons are politically intimate, and a Clinton foreign policy would see a closer allegiance with the savage Sunni dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, Egypt ... , and the ultra-rightwingers in Israel. This means more war.

So Clinton has major elements of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex behind her candidacy. This fact helps explain why congressional democrats are humiliating themselves on the national stage.

However, as Hillary Clinton's me-or-the-highway approach to American politics becomes more apparent with each passing day, even superdelegate sell-outs in Congress and Democratic Party hacks will look askance at overruling the popular vote for Bernie Sanders in June.

To overrule the American voters would split the Democratic Party and throw the general election to Donald Trump. Hillary's sense of entitlement may allow this, but not even elected congressional Democrats would abide.

By the way, Hillary Clinton's unfavorable v. favorable ratings is at minus-12.3 points, (Huffington Post). Don't see that changing much after 40 years of sleaze.

Road to the Democratic nomination, (Mother Jones)