Sanders called for abolishing the CIA

[Peter Lemkin]

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[TD="width: 84%"]The Answer to the Question: Why on Earth Would Anyone Vote for Bernie NOW?

By jenny miller [/TD]
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Thereason we are writing in Bernie is because he is the person who won theprimary, and we believe in democracy. Even after all the election fraud we sawhappening in state after state during the primaries, Bernie still won the first-floor vote at the DNC convention, and some observers say there were actuallytwo floor votes that he won. It was only when the superdelegates were trottedout, representing no one but themselves and their corporate colleagues, that itwas made to appear that Hillary had won the nomination. Not only did Bernie winthe primary, all polls show Bernie coming in ahead of any other candidate inthe general election, even when he's not technically running. Isn't that whatour democracy is? The candidate that the most people want to have as presidentis the one who is voted into office?

Bernie Sanders, June 2015

Voting for Bernie is not a feel-good protest vote. Bernie still has a path tothe White House. (The other progressive favorite, Jill Stein, does not have thepossibility of winning in this election cycle.) The path is sometimes describedas "opdeny270" and was first brought to widespread attention by Michael E.Sparks ("the independent thinker" on wordpress). To summarize this strategy:most states are winner-takes-all: whoever gets the most votes wins that state'sentire Electoral College vote. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win. IfTrump and Clinton are running neck and neck, as they currently are, one stategoing to Bernie could prevent either of them from getting the 270 votes. Themost likely state for this to happen in is VT, where a polls conducted bywrite-in phonebankers a week ago showed Bernie significantly ahead of the othercandidates (Bernie 48%, Hillary 11%, Trump 16% and Jill 5%). Although Michael E. Sparks originally calledfor the write-in campaign to focus on Vermont, it has since morphed into a muchwider campaign, which includes all the states where state laws would allow awrite-in for Bernie to be counted.
There are twelve states that will definitely count write-in votes even if thecandidate did not sign up or register. These are Vermont, CA, WI, WY, OR, WA,AL, IA, NH, RI, NJ plus DC. The deny270 strategy is for people to vote forBernie in these states, and Jill Stein in the remaining ones, where votes forBernie will not count. If no one gets 270 votes, the vote for president thengoes to the newly-elected House of Representatives. There will be newBerniecrats in office. The Republican leaders hate Hillary with a passion andmost of them have been denouncing Trump in recent weeks, since they feel he isdestroying their party. By law, they would have to choose from the top threeelectoral vote-getters so that would leave Bernie. He has a unique ability toappeal to people across party lines. (Some people have wondered why Jill Stein couldnot end up in the third-place position for consideration in The ElectoralCollege? That won't happen. because at best, Jill Stein's supporters are hopingshe'll get 5-15% of the vote. She is largely unknown to most Americans andthere is no chance she will come in ahead of all other candidates in any ofthese "winner-takes-all" elections.) The only other possibleElectoral College vote-getter would be McMullin in Utah, but the latest pollsdo not show this to be a real possibility.

As far as the oft-heard refrain that "Bernie does not want to be presidentany more," it's hard to for me to fathom how anyone can seriously believethis. He sacrificed what are supposed to be his and Jane's relaxing retirementyears to campaign his heart out, giving sometimes two speeches a day to crowdsof thousands all over the country. Even his younger aides couldn't keep up. Theprimary was stolen from him in many states and again at the convention. (Statisticiansat U.C. Berkeley and Stanford concluded that, based on the exit polls, thepossibility of Hillary having won the primary without election fraud were onein 77 billion). Bernie got stomped--and, wanting to retain his position of powerin the senate, he endorsed Hillary. BERNIE NEVER DROPPED OUT OF THE RACE. Henever conceded to Hillary at the convention. He did not call for a vote byacclamation, but instead recommended that Hillary be "selected" asthe nominee, a fitting way to describe the victory of someone who didn'tactually win. And when a write-in organizer recently called the FEC to see ifBernie was still listed as a candidate, they replied "Yes he is. He wouldhave let us know if he was dropping out." Bernard Sanders is still listedon their website as a candidate for President.


Although Bernie is unable to officially endorse the write-in effort withoutlosing his position in the senate if Hillary were to win, he did actually sayon video recently that he thought it would be fine if people in Vermont wrotehim in--which, as I explained above, is the key state for this strategy to besuccessful. He also said on the Bill Maher show a couple weeks ago that he wishesit was him that was campaigning for President all over the country right nowinstead of Hillary. Doesn't sound likesomeone who no longer wants to be President.

There are many other clues as to his true feelings, some of them coming fromJane Sanders' tweets: When saboteur named Nicole Guerin, who was pretending tobe a write-in-Bernie organizer, announced to the world that she privately metwith Jane Sanders, and that Jane told her that people should not write in Bernie(which caused tsunamis of despair to ripple across all the Bernie write-incampaigns), Jane Sanders immediately sent out a tweet to set the recordstraight. Jane said the story was completely fabricated, was untrue, and shewould never tell people not to support Bernie, or whom to vote for. A write-inBernie activist named Donald Kronos had a chance to talk to Bernie when he wasin CA last month. He told him he was a CA Bernie elector (Electoral Collegeelectors are a CA technical requirement for a write-in vote for Bernie to becounted), and Bernie responded with a yuuuuge smile and words of appreciationand gratitude. You can see Donald Kronos' description of this encounter onyoutube, which he posted as an introduction to a clip of the Bill Maher tape Imentioned previously. I'll end my article by describing a dream that someone posted on facebook. Shewas at a large legislative-like meeting, sitting next to Bernie Sanders.Suddenly, in the middle of the solemn proceedings, she stood up and shouted"Bring Back Bernie." And to her amazement all the legislators in theroom then stood up and shouted "Bring Back Bernie." The drumbeat isgrowing. Whether he will be brought back via the Electoral College, or becauseHillary is indicted, or because the people demand that the true winner of theprimary be allowed to take his rightful place--many people still believe Berniewill be our next President. There's still time for people, no matter where theylive, to phonebank to VT and the other key states (go to bernievote.com oropdeny.com). There's still time to call the DNC. There's still time to vote,and convince your friends to vote. Election-fraud investigators Greg Palast andRFK Jr. recommend in "Steal Back Your Vote" that you go to yourelections office or other designated early-voting site to vote in person priorto the actual day of the election, assuming that your state permits earlyvoting. If you signed up to be anabsentee voter and decide to vote in person, you need to bring the ballot youreceived in the mail, and the return envelope it came with, plus your ID. Insome states, like CA, the write-in vote is actually entered on the envelope flap,where there is a place designated for this.

In ancient days, presidents were chosen based on a bird augury--hence our wordinauguration. The bird tribe has alreadyindicated who our next President should be. Bernie took his campaign as far as he couldtake it before he hit a brick wall. Now it's up to us to take it the rest ofthe way.