Sanders as a third-party candidate.....might it work?

[Dawn Meredith]

We are voting for Jill Stein. It's time to put an end to the corrupt two party system.

[Cliff Varnell]

We are voting for Jill Stein. It's time to put an end to the corrupt two party system.

The Electoral College has gotta go.

Nothing retards the development of a 3rd party like the EC.

Ideally, both major parties break into 2 -- one left party, one center left, one center right, and one right.

The Electoral College prevents this natural evolution of the electorate.

[LR Trotter]

Regardless of one's thought about the Electoral College, it is what it is, and will elect the next US President and US Vice President with each state's winner take all electoral votes. And, in Texas, any non vote for the democratic nominee is a 1/2 vote for the republican nominee. No need to take my word for it, count 'em. For every 2 votes for an independent candidate, 1 republican vote is then not needed. As it is, unless a revolt occurs among republican voters, there will be no Texas electors in the democratic column, but independent votes are added insurance for Texas electors staying on the republican side.

[Peter Lemkin]

• • 
    

Alex Schaefer adjusted "Big Bernie," a likeness of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as protesters demonstrated in Philadelphia on Sunday, the day before the start of the Democratic National Convention. CreditMark Makela for The New York TimesPHILADELPHIA A large, impassioned crowd of Bernie Sanders supporters chanting "Hell, no, D.N.C., we won't vote for Hillary" marched on Sunday afternoon to the site of the Democratic National Convention, promising a week in which the party's divisions will be on vivid display in the streets.

More than 1,000 people from as far as Seattle and Florida participated in the first of what are expected to be many Sanders rallies during the convention, which formally begins Monday. The march, led by a banner proclaiming "Help End Establishment Politics, Vote No on Hillary," was far larger than any of the protest marches last week in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention.

Despite the size of the demonstration, it was a peaceful assembly with no signs of supporters of Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, and the police maintained a low-key, even casual presence. Marchers headed down Broad Street past fire hydrants spraying cooling jets in the sweltering 97-degree heat.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 2016 By NEIL COLLIER and AINARA TIEFENTHÄLER 3:55The Whole World Is Watching








But the unreconstructed anger at Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment was not cooled, despite Mr. Sanders's endorsement of Mrs. Clinton two weeks ago.

At the front of the parade was a flag with the Democratic donkey flying upside down. Further animating the protest was the release by WikiLeaks of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee showing party efforts to undermine Mr. Sanders's candidacy, reinforcing a widespread view among marchers that party leaders had stacked the deck against him.
"It's not just young people who are furious. There are people who have been Democrats for decades and are completely angry," said Kimberly Cooper, 59, of Florida. "Now with the WikiLeaks thing, I am finished supporting her."

Brandon Gorcheff, of Youngstown, Ohio, who held a handmade sign reading "Move Left" that spoofed the Clinton campaign's arrow logo, said nothing could get him to support Mrs. Clinton.
[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/polls.html"]


2016 Election Polls

[/URL]
Michelle Cyr, who flew to Philadelphia from Bath, Me., said, "The Democratic Party is so out of touch with its constituents."

Joshua Brown, an alternate delegate from North Carolina who supports Mr. Sanders, a Vermont senator, said he was concerned that people would desert the party in the fall, either abstaining or voting for a third-party candidate and bolstering Mr. Trump's chances.

"If Hillary is serious, she needs to work on convincing us to help her and I don't feel she's done enough of that right now," he said. "She got work to do."

Numerous marchers said they would support Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. They rejected the argument that not voting for Mrs. Clinton would help Mr. Trump.
Photo

Protesters including backers of Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday in Philadelphia, the site of the Democratic National Convention. CreditMark Makela for The New York Times
Pasu Tivorat, of Sacramento, who wore a Guy Fawkes mask, an anarchist's symbol, said Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton were equally bad choices. "If we nominate Hillary, then she can continue to abuse her base," he said. "Every progressive idea we come up with they throw under the bus."

"I'd rather watch the D.N.C. burn," he added.
Earlier in the day, there was an equally large march supporting clean energy and environmental causes. It had the air of a street fair, with homemade peace signs and other colorful touches. Some participants were less adamantly in the "Bernie or Bust" camp.
"I think there's a lot of Bernie supporters here, and I hope they change their minds because the alternative is unimaginably awful," said Nad Rosenberg, a technical writer from Philadelphia. She would not bring herself to mention Mr. Trump. If enough Sanders supporters do not come home to Mrs. Clinton, she said, "the result will be a victory by he who must not be named."
The Sanders march proceeded down Broad Street four miles to a park facing the arena where delegates will meet Monday through Thursday. Speakers were scheduled into the evening. The City of Philadelphia expects 35,000 to 50,000 protesters a day, with marches and rallies in support of Mr. Sanders each day, as well as a bit of street theater, a "Mock Trial of Hillary Clinton," and a march to end homelessness.

A subway route follows Broad Street, and on Sunday many Sanders supporters, seeking a shortcut in the blazing heat, ducked underground and emerged at the end of the route. They passed police officers heading uptown, and the two groups exchanged friendly greetings.

[Peter Lemkin]

Wikileaks released about 20,000 emails from the DNC showing that there WAS a conspiracy to defeat and destroy Sander's chances!!!! Sander's backers are furious, with good reason! At this time, according to polls, Trump is quite a bit ahead of Clinton, but would still loose to Sanders.....but it ain't gonna happen that way. I'm not at all surprised, but having the proof in emails is very damning indeed and may destroy the Democrats....in fact this election could well destroy both main parties....

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Democratic National Convention is opening today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, amid massive party turmoil. Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has resigned following the release of nearly 20,000 emails revealing how the Democratic Party favored Hillary Clinton and worked behind the scenes to discredit and defeat Bernie Sanders. The emails were released Friday by WikiLeaks.
In one email, DNC Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall suggested someone ask Sanders about his religion ahead of the Kentucky and West Virginia contests. Brad Marshall wrote, quote, "It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist," unquote. In another email, Debbie Wasserman Schultz calls Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver a, quote, "Damn liar."
AMY GOODMAN: A third email shows National Press Secretary Mark Paustenbach writing, quote, "Wondering if there's a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess," unquote. Multiple emails show the DNC complaining about MSNBC coverage of the party and of Communications Director Luis Miranda once writing, quote, "F***ing Joe claiming the system is rigged, party against him, we need to complain to their producer," unquote, referring to Joe Scarborough. Other emails suggest the DNC was gathering information on Sanders' events and that a super PAC was paying people to counter Sanders supporters online.
On Sunday, Bernie Sanders reacted to the emails during an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I told you a long time ago that thethat the DNC was not running a fair operation, that they were supporting Secretary Clinton. So what I suggested to be true six months ago turns out, in fact, to be true. I'm not shocked, but I am disappointed. ... What I also said many months ago is that, for a variety of reasons, Debbie Wasserman Schultz should not be chair of the DNC. And I think these emails reiterate that reason why she should not be chair. I think she should resign, period. And I think we need a new chair who is going to lead us in a very different direction.

AMY GOODMAN: WikiLeaks has not revealed the source of the leaked emails, although in June a hacker using the name Guccifer 2.0 claimed responsibility for the hacking into the DNC's computer network. On Sunday, however, Clinton's campaign manager claimed the emails were leaked, quote, "by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump," unquote.
We go now to London for an exclusive interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy for more than four years. He was granted political asylum by Ecuador, but he fears if he attempts to go to Ecuador, if he attempts to step foot outside the Ecuadorean Embassy, that he will be arrested by British police and ultimately extradited to the United States to face, well, it's believed, possibly treason charges for the documents WikiLeaks has released.
Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you talk about this emailthese emails, these 20,000 emails you have released?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Yeah, it's quite remarkable what has happened the last few days. I think this is a quite a classical release, showing the benefit of producing pristine data sets, presenting them before the public, where there's equal access to all journalists and to interested members of the public to mine through them and have them in a citable form where they can then be used to prop up certain criticisms or political arguments. Often it's the case that we have to do a lot of exploration and marketing of the material we publish ourselves to get a big political impact for it. But in this case, we knew, because of the pending DNC, because of the degree of interest in the U.S. election, we didn't need to establish partnerships with The New York Times or The Washington Post. In fact, that might be counterproductive, because they are partisans of one group or another. Rather, we took the data set, analyzed it, verified it, made it in a presentable, searchable form, presented it for all journalists and the public to mine. And that's exactly what has happened.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Julian, your reaction to the announced resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz shortly after the release of these emails?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, I mean, that's interesting. We have seen that with a lot of other publications. I guess there's a question: What does that mean for the U.S. Democratic Party? It is important for there to be examples of accountability. The resignation was an example of that. Now, of course, Hillary Clinton has tried to immediately produce a counter-example by putting out a statement, within hours, saying that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a great friend, and she's incorporating her into her campaign, she's going to be pushing for her re-election to the Congress.
So that's a very interesting signaling by Hillary Clinton that if you act in a corrupt way that benefits Hillary Clinton, you will be taken care of. Why does she need to put that out? Certainly, it's not a signal that helps with the public at all. It's not a signal that helps with unity at the DNC, at the convention. It's a signal to Hillary Clinton partisans to keep on going on, you'll be taken care of. But it's a very destructive signal for a future presidency, because it'seffectively, it's expanding the Overton window of corruption. It doesn't really matter what you do, how you behave; as long as that is going to benefit Hillary Clinton, you'll be protected.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it's very interesting, because Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine appeared together, as Mike Pence and Donald Trump did the week before, on 60 Minutes. And Hillary Clinton distanced herself from all these emails and the DNC, saying, "These people didn't work for me." And yet immediately upon the forced resignation of Deborah Wasserman Schultz, she said she's a good friend, and immediately hired her. But, Julian, I was wondering if you can say, from your point of view, what do you think are the most significant emails that have been released, that you have released?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, actually, I think the most significant ones haven't been reported on, although The Washington Post late last night and McClatchy did a first initial stab at it. And this is the spreadsheets that we released covering the financial affairs of the DNC. Those are very rich documents. There's one spreadsheet called "Spreadsheet of All Things," and it includes all the major U.S.all the major DNC donors, where the donations were brought in, who they are, identifiers, the total amounts they've donated, how much at a noted or particular event, whether that event was being pushed by the president or by someone else. That effectively maps out the influence structure in the United States for the Democratic Party, but more broadly, because thewith few exceptions, billionaires in the United States make sure they donate to both parties. That's going to provide a scaffold for future investigative journalism about influence within the United States, in general.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Julian, on that issue, clearly, a lot of the emails talk about the actual amounts of money that were being offered to donors for the opportunity toI mean, asked of donors for the opportunity to sit at different events next to President Obama, especially, the use of President Obama as a fundraiser. Now, most people in the political world will consider this business as usual, but the actual mechanics of how this operates and the degree to which the DNC coordinates with the president, his marketability, isI don't think has ever been revealed in this detail. Would you agree?
JULIAN ASSANGE: That's right. And it's not just that the president holds fundraisers. That's nothing new. But rather, what you get for each donation of a particular sort. There's even a phrase used in one of the emails of, quote, "pay to play." So, yeah, I think it's extremely interesting. There's emails back and forth also between the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC. So, you see quite elaborate structures of money being funneled to state Democratic Party officers and then teleported back, seemingly to get up certain stats, maybe to evade certain campaign funding restrictions.
In relation to what has become the most significant political discussion as a result of the publication, which is that the DNC higher-ups, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz, were clearly against Bernie Sanders and trying to subvert his campaign in a whole raft of ways, that's true. That's thethe atmosphere that is revealed by hundreds of emails is that it's perfectly acceptable to produce trenchant internal criticisms of Bernie Sanders and discuss ways to undermine his campaign. So, whether that's calling up the president of MSNBCDebbie Wasserman Schultz called the president of MSNBC to haul Morning Joe into line, which it subsequently has done. I noticed this morning, Morning Joe actually discussed it themselves, trying to shore up their own presentation of, you know, a TV program that can't be pushed around. But, in fact, they did not mention the call to the president. That was something that is still unspeakable. And it was a 180-degree flip in that coverage.
And you see other, you know, quite naked conspiracies against Bernie Sanders. While there's been some discussion, for example, aboutthat there was a plan to useto expose Bernie Sanders as an atheist, as opposed to being a religious Jew, and to use that against him in the South to undermine his support there. There was an instruction by the head of communications, Luis Miranda, to take an anti-Bernie Sanders story, that had appeared in the press, and spread that around without attribution, not leaving their fingerprints on it. And that was an instruction made to staff. So, it wasn't just, you know, a plan that may or may not have been carried out. This was an instruction that was pushed to DNC staff to covertly get out into the media anti-Bernie Sanders stories. Another thing that
AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday, Hillary
JULIAN ASSANGE: Another aspect that is
AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, cited experts saying that the DNC emails were leaked by the Russians in an attempt to help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Mook was speaking to CNN. This is what he said.

ROBBY MOOK: What's disturbing to us is that weexperts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails, and other experts are now saying that they arethe Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump. I don't think it's coincidental that these emails were released on the eve our convention here. We also saw last week at the Republican convention that Trump and his allies made changes to the Republican platform to make it more pro-Russian. And we saw him talking about how NATO shouldn't intervene to defendnecessarily should intervene to defend our Eastern European allies if they're attacked by Russia. So, I think when you put all this together, it's a disturbing picture.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Robby Mook citing experts saying the DNC emails were leaked by the Russians. You were the one who released these 20,000 emails, Julian Assange. Where did you get them?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, what's not in that clip there by Robby is that, just afterwards, he was asked by Jake Tapper, "Who are these experts? Can you name them?" The answer was no, a refusal to name the experts. But we have seen one of the experts, so-called experts, that the Democratic Party is trying to base its incredible conspiracy theory on about WikiLeaks. And that is thiswhat we jokingly refer to as the NSA dick pic guy. He's a former National Security Agency agent who started to produce conspiracy theories about us in 2013, when we were involved in the Edward Snowden rescue, as a means to try and undermine the Snowden publications, subsequently embroiled in some amateur pornography scandal. That's why they don't want to name their experts, because they are people like this.
In relation to sourcing, I can say some things. A, we never reveal our sources, obviously. That's what we pride ourselves on. And we won't in this case, either. But no one knows who our source is. It's simply speculation. It's, I think, interesting and acceptable to speculate who our sources are. But if we're talking about the DNC, there's lots of consultants that have access, lots of programmers. And the DNC has been hacked dozens and dozens of times. Even according to its own reports, it had been hacked extensively over the last few years. And the dates of the emails that we published are significantly after all, or all but oneit's not clearof the hacking allegations that the DNC says have occurred.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Julian, I want to mention something else. In March, you launched a searchable archive for over 30,000 emails and email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was secretary of state. The 50,547 pages of documents span the time from June 2010 to August 2014; 7,500 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton herself. The emails were made available in the form of thousands of PDFs by the U.S. State Department as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request. Why did you do this, and what's the importance, from your perspective, of being able to create a searchable base?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, WikiLeaks has become the rebel library of Alexandria. It is the single most significant collection of information that doesn't exist elsewhere, in a searchable, accessible, citable form, about how modern institutions actually behave. And it's gone on to set people free from prison, where documents have been used in their court cases; hold the CIA accountable for renditions programs; feed into election cycles, which have resulted in the termination of, in some caseor contributed to the termination of governments, in some cases, taken the heads of intelligence agencies, ministers of defense and so on. So, you know, our civilization can only be as good as our knowledge of what our civilization is. We can't possibly hope to reform that which we do not understand.
So, those Hillary Clinton emails, they connect together with the cables that we have published of Hillary Clinton, creating a rich picture of how Hillary Clinton performs in office, but, more broadly, how the U.S. Department of State operates. So, for example, the disastrous, absolutely disastrous intervention in Libya, the destruction of the Gaddafi government, which led to the occupation of ISIS of large segments of that country, weapons flows going over to Syria, being pushed by Hillary Clinton, into jihadists within Syria, including ISIS, that's there in those emails. There's more than 1,700 emails in Hillary Clinton's collection, that we have released, just about Libya alone.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Julian, we cut you off earlier when you were talking about what you felt were the most significant emails that you have released. Is there any last one that you'd like to mention? And also, do you have any thoughts on Donald Trump? I mean, just before we went to air, a CNN poll came out that says Donald Trump is ahead by 5 percentage points of Hillary Clinton. Now, he did just come off of the Republican convention, but many called it the worst convention in history, so it's not automatic that he should have had this percentage lead. Of course, though, you have the crisis, the disarray, the Democratic Party is in because of these emails that you've released.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, you're asking me, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea? Personally, I would prefer neither. Look, I thinkyou know, we know how politics works in the United States. Whoeverwhatever political party gets into government is going to merge with the bureaucracy pretty damn fast. It will be in a position where it has some levers in its hand. And so, as a result, corporate lobbyists will move in to help control those levers. So it doesn't make much difference in the end. What does make a difference is political accountability, a general deterrence set to stop political organizations behaving in a corrupt manner. That can make a difference, because that changes the perception of what you can do or not do. And so, alwayswell, almost always, you should choose the principled position, which is to set a disciplinary signal about acting in a corrupt way, and take a philosophical position, which is our institutions can only be as good as our understanding of our institutions.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to
JULIAN ASSANGE: Now, are you askingthe other
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, go ahead, Julian.
JULIAN ASSANGE: The other top emails, well, as I said, I think this instruction by Luis Miranda, the head of communications, to go out and covertly spread anti-Bernie Sanders propaganda is a clear instruction combined with a chain of command. It's not simply expressing a sentiment. It is expressing an instruction within the DNC to subvert the Bernie Sanders campaign.
Then there's a lot of emails about the close relationship between the DNC and the mediaThe Washington Post involved in a co-fundraising party, an off-list co-fundraising for the DNC, calling up MSNBC during the middle of a program and saying, "Pull that segment now," Debbie Wasserman Schultz calling up the president of MSNBC in order to discipline Morning Joe, etc. That's, you know, of course, something that we've all suspected happens, but this is concrete proof of it.
But, you know, I really encourage people to research the more than 8,000 attachments that we put out, separate files, including more than 175 spreadsheets. That has the real core, the financial core, of the power structure and the exercise of monetary influence over the DNC. And that's something that's going to seed journalistic investigations for years.

[David Guyatt]

Wikileaks released about 20,000 emails from the DNC showing that there WAS a conspiracy to defeat and destroy Sander's chances!!!! Sander's backers are furious, with good reason! At this time, according to polls, Trump is quite a bit ahead of Clinton, but would still loose to Sanders.....but it ain't gonna happen that way. I'm not at all surprised, but having the proof in emails is very damning indeed and may destroy the Democrats....in fact this election could well destroy both main parties....

Destruction of both would be a beautiful thing. Both are almost beyond salvage as they currently stand; supine to special interests, corrupt, pro-war and blind to their own citizens.

It's an awful state of affairs for what is supposed to be a nation that favours a democratic system of governance. Change is needed.

[Peter Lemkin]

It's an awful state of affairs for what is supposed to be a nation that favours a democratic system of governance.

:: ::headbang::::puppet::::

[Peter Lemkin]

Search the DNC email database

Today, Friday 22 July 2016 at 10:30am EDT, WikiLeaks releases 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from the top of the US Democratic National Committee -- part one of our new Hillary Leaks series. The leaks come from the accounts of seven key figures in the DNC: Communications Director Luis Miranda (10770 emails), National Finance Director Jordon Kaplan (3797 emails), Finance Chief of Staff Scott Comer (3095 emails), Finanace Director of Data & Strategic Initiatives Daniel Parrish (1472 emails), Finance Director Allen Zachary (1611 emails), Senior Advisor Andrew Wright (938 emails) and Northern California Finance Director Robert (Erik) Stowe (751 emails). The emails cover the period from January last year until 25 May this year.

https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/

I am, however, disappointed in the [so far] mild response by Sanders himself - who should demand for the freeing of the superdelagates and a rollcall vote [which he just might win at this point]. Why he does not only he knows...fear of assassination or other I can not say. His campaign was CLEARLY poisoned more by the Clinton/Establishment-Dems camp than the Republicans - by far!!!!! A few nice tricks they tried was to tell their media assets to not pass on /promote /report any good news about Sanders and concentrate on the negative; to stress that he might be an atheist to some and Jewish to others - whichever would raise the most dislike to the group in question...and the dirty tricks go on and on and on and on. The one person in the DNC most responsible for this [though certainly NOT alone - there were hundreds behind this conspiracy] has resigned and been immediately hired to run Clinton's campaign...so in fact she keeps her key job under a new disguise - sick stuff!!! Sick America with two such horrible candidates and all the possible good ones done in with dirty tricks - new and as old as the system since 1776. Oh, and the DNC to deflect attention is claiming 'Russia hacked the emails and gave them to Wikileaks' TO HELP TRUMP

Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign as DNC chair as email scandal rocks Democrats

• Bernie Sanders made renewed call for resignation after email leak
  
• Clinton campaign blamed WikiLeaks release on Russian hackers
  
• Democratic convention: fight for America's soul moves to Philadelphia
  

[URL="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/24/debbie-wasserman-schultz-resigns-dnc-chair-emails-sanders#img-1"]
[/URL] DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation on Sunday. Photograph: Scott Audette/ReutersDan Roberts in Philadelphia,Ben Jacobs in Washington and Alan Yuhas in New York
Monday 25 July 2016 07.10 BSTLast modified on Monday 25 July 201616.18 BST

The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has announced her resignation on the eve of the party's convention, dealing a blow to hopes of demonstrating unity in the face of the threat from Donald Trump.

Schultz said she would step down after the convention. She has been forced to step aside after a leak of internal DNC emails showed officials actively favouring Hillary Clinton during the presidential primary and plotting against Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders.
"Debbie Wasserman Schultz has made the right decision for the future of the Democratic party," Sanders said in a statement, adding that the party leadership must "always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race".
The Sanders campaign has long claimed that the party establishment had its "finger on the scales" during the bitter and surprisingly long primary, but the embarrassing new revelations proved to be the final straw for a figure who had been a lightning rod for tension within the party.
The DNC chair, whose named is emblazoned at the top of thousands of convention credentials, was originally expected to play a central role in the four-day meeting of delegates and party leaders. But as the convention prepared to get under way in Philadelphia on Sunday, there were already reports that Schultz had lost a prestigious speaking slot and would only "gavel-in" proceedings.
Internally, the resignation may reduce tensions, removing from the stage a figure who was almost certain to have been greeted with boos by sections of the large pro-Sanders delegation. Nevertheless, the turmoil risks undermining public attempts to show that Democrats have come together as a party and draw a contrast with chaotic scenes at on the floor at the Republican convention in Cleveland last week.
It will also raise new questions about the source of the leaked emails, which emerged on Friday and are the latest in a batch of documents believed to have been hacked from DNC computers earlier this year.

"What's disturbing to us is that experts are telling us Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails, and other experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of actually of helping Donald Trump," Mook told CNN.
In June, Wasserman Schultz called the breach a "serious incident" and said Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm brought in by the DNC, had "moved as quickly as possible to kick out the intruders and secure our network".
The Trump campaign has angrily denied the suggestion that it is being promoted by the Russians, though it has taken a noticeably softer line toward Vladimir Putin than most other western parties and politicians. Crowdstrike experts who examined the first release of hacked emails several weeks ago suggested they bore the hallmarks of a government-sponsored hacking attempt.
More immediately, the Schultz resignation may inflame anger among Sanders supporters, many of whom had resisted the idea that the only way to stop Trump is by supporting Clinton.
The most explosive new revelation from the WikiLeaks release was an official's suggestion that Sanders' religious faith, or lack thereof, could be flagged as a way to dissuade voters from backing him in Bible belt states.
"I think I read he is an atheist," the DNC chief financial officer, Brad Marshall, wrote in one email. "This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist."
Sanders, who is Jewish, spoke little of religion during the primary, but the sight of a supposedly neutral body apparently seeking to weaken one of its own party candidates caused particular anger among progressives.
Schultz, a congresswoman from Florida who is herself Jewish, is not thought to have been directly involved in this email exchange, but she was seen in other messages writing dismissively of the Sanders campaign.
On Sunday, she said she had discussed her decision with Barack Obama, who appointed her in 2011, and with Clinton, in the interests of helping the party secure the election in November.
"Going forward, the best way for me to accomplish those goals is to step down as party chair at the end of this convention," Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.
"As party chair, this week I will open and close the convention and I will address our delegates about the stakes involved in this election not only for Democrats, but for all Americans," she said.
"We have planned a great and unified convention this week and I hope and expect that the DNC team that has worked so hard to get us to this point will have the strong support of all Democrats in making sure this is the best convention we have ever had."
Earlier, Sanders told ABC: "I think she should resign, period."
"I don't think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC," he added to CNN. "Not just because of these emails, which revealed the prejudice of the DNC, but also because we need a party that reaches out to working people and young people. And I don't think her leadership style does that."
The senator's campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said the emails proved his suspicion that the party establishment was biased against Sanders.
This spring, Sanders and Wasserman Schultz had clashed over alleged improper access to a DNC voter database, the scheduling of TV debates during the primary campaign and the angry reaction of Sanders supporters to a Nevada nominating convention.
In May, the feud reached such an acrimonious level that the senator promised to support her opponent in the Democratic primary race this fall.
But Democratic leaders praised and thanked Wasserman Schultz in emphatic statements. "For the last eight years she has had my back. This afternoon, I called her to let her know that I am grateful," Obama said in a statement.
Wasserman Schultz, the president said, "brought Democrats together not just for my re-election campaign, but for accomplishing the shared goals we have had for our country". Obama also saluted her role in "supporting our economic recovery, our fights for social and civil justice and providing health care for all Americans".
Clinton paid extensive tribute to a "longtime friend", adding: "there's simply no one better at taking the fight to the Republicans than Debbie."
"I look forward to campaigning with Debbie in Florida and helping her in her re-election bid," the presumptive Democratic nominee added. "Because as president, I will need fighters like Debbie in Congress who are ready on day one to get to work for the American people."
Staffers also had praise for the representative, despite the controversy around her. "Regardless of the circumstances, you got to feel for someone who has logged the hours DWS has over the last five years," a former DNC official told the Guardian. "Leaving under these circumstances is a shame."
However, the same official pointed out that "no one is elected DNC chair for life. She overstayed her welcome and this result was a matter of time".

The Sanders campaign has long claimed the party establishment had its finger on the scales' during his primary against Hillary Clinton.The former DNC staffer added: "Moving forward, Hillary Clinton has an opportunity to select someone as chair who will complement the ticket and serve as yet another high-level surrogate. Remember, [vice-presidential pick] Tim Kaine served as chair [from 2009-2011] when he was a runner-up in the veepstakes. The candidates Clinton just vetted could all be assets more so than Wasserman Schultz would have been in the closing months."
Another former DNC staffer simply told the Guardian that he high-fived former co-workers when he heard the news, which he described as the "best thing to happen to the party committee in years".
Others revealed even wider schisms within the party. "Wasserman Schultz was a disastrous and divisive chair," said Lis Smith, a veteran Democratic operative and former deputy campaign manager for Martin O'Malley.
"Her resignation is good news for Democrats, and great news for anyone who believes the DNC needs wholesale reform. Hopefully we can all learn from her little experiment this past primary season and never repeat it as a party."
John Morgan, a major Democratic donor from Florida and longtime critic of Wasserman Schultz, rejected the praise offered her by the president and Clinton. He said in an email that the representative's leadership "was a gift for Trump, the definition of polarizing".
Morgan then accused Wasserman Schultz of betraying Clinton in 2008. "She is for herself first, second and third. She was with Hillary until it became apparent Obama was going to win."
He added: "She is not someone you would want in a foxhole with you."
Trump's first comment on the scandal came in a tweet contrasting Democratic leadership with that of the RNC chair: "Today proves what I have always known, that Reince Priebus is the tough one and the smart one, not Debbie Wasserman Shultz" [sic].


THE TAKEAWAY IS THAT NO DECENT PERSON WILL EVER BE ALLOWED TO BECOME/REMAIN PRESIDENT IN THE USA - THIS IS MADE SO BY AN OLIGARCHIC SYSTEM TO EXCLUDE, TAINT, AND DIRTY TRICK THEM - EVEN SHOOT THEM WHEN NEEDED - AS WITH JFK & RFK

[Drew Phipps]

The "Russia hacked our emails" story concedes an admission of authenticity of those self same emails.

[Cliff Varnell]

It's an awful state of affairs for what is supposed to be a nation that favours a democratic system of governance. Change is needed.

Change can only come from below.

Gays have the right to marry in America because the issue was forced from grass roots pressure.

The internet is a utility ensuring "net neutrality" only because of pressure from the grass roots.

Black Lives Matter is a major civil rights force.

I enjoy a rent-controlled apartment in the Upper Haight only because the people of San Francisco long ago demanded rent control.

Yeah, Hillary is a puppet of the banking institutions but I see no reason why the Sanders Revolution can't remain cohesive after Inauguration Day 2017
and apply pressure from below along a wide range of issues.

Hillary needs to be torn between her Globalist instincts and political self-preservation, and the only way that is going to happen is if the Bern pressure going on today in Philly at the Dem Con is maintained.

Or, a guy beholden to Russian Oligarchs and racist Dominionists could win, in which case the Bernie Revolution is looking at getting rounded up.

Nasty choices, but still a clear choice.

Lesser of two evils?

Life is full of choices between the lesser of two evils!

Putin's bitch Trump must be stopped above all else.