Proof the DNC rigged the Democrat Primary

Bernie Sanders often complained that the Democrat presidential selection system was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton.  It sounded correct, but there was no smoking gun.  That may have just changed.


In a news story today, we learned that there are emails from high DNC representatives conspiring to create a story to make Sanders and his campaign look bad.  They were brainstorming a false story to release to the media which would claim that Sanders' campaign was out of control and not even complying with the various election law requirements.  The email was taken off the DNC computer system by hackers when that system was breached a few months ago.  Now, they are releasing what they found.

I'm not a Sanders' supporter, but this still makes me mad.  The party leadership has to be neutral in the presidential primaries.  Otherwise, the system truly is rigged.

This is a disgrace.

UPDATE:  More emails from those that were hacked at the DNC now show that DNC leadership tried to plant people to go after Sanders on his religious beliefs.  Things keep getting worse.

Munich Shooting Spree

There was something described by German media as a "shooting spree" at a shopping mall in Munich a few minutes ago.  We don't know who did it or why or even what actually happened.  Let's pray that it was just some firecrackers going off and that no one was killed or injured.

Of course, if this is the latest attack by Islamic terrorists, it will just reinforce everything that Trump said last night.  Germany, you see, has been welcoming so called "Syrian refugees" by the hundreds of thousands.  The total admitted so far is over one million.  If any of them are involved in the attack, it could be the end of that policy.  Why would any sane country take in people who it knows may be terrorists sent to kill its citizens?

Good For Them For Speaking Up

The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (the local police union) is protesting the Democrats' exclusion of the widows of slain police from their upcoming convention while at the same time giving prominent speaking slots to the mothers of people killed in confrontations with police.  Good for them.  They have it exactly right.

Let's be clear.  In each of the confrontations that resulted in the death of a suspect, there are different facts.  The guy whose death led to the Ferguson riots was at first supposed to have been unarmed and with his hands up to surrender.  Later, the forensics showed that to be untrue.  In fact, the guy was shown to have attacked the police prior to his death.  Freddie Gray who died in the back of a police van in Baltimore clearly died in police custody.  So far, however, there have been trials of four policemen who took part in that transport and NONE have been convicted.  It's rather obvious that there are no facts that point to police wrongdoing as the reason for Freddie Gray's death.

When it comes to dead police, however, we can tell that many of those deaths were nothing more than executions.  Five dead police shot by a sniper in Dallas had nothing to do with any wrongdoing or even alleged wrongdoing by police.  They were just targets of opportunity.

Obviously, we cannot know what happened in each of the many situations involved in this topic.  No one can know.  We do know, however, that the police killed in Dallas and Baton Rouge were innocent of any wrongdoing.  Their deaths are a tragedy.  Their loved ones who survive them deserve our support not our condemnation.  That is why the Philadelphia FOP is so right in what it is saying.  Snubbing the widows of the police while allowing the mothers of the people killed in confrontation with police shows a clear choice by the Democrats.  When it comes to any confrontation between police and other people, the Democrats always choose the side fighting the police.

Is This All The Left Has?

The reaction to Donald Trump's speech has been interesting to watch.  The Democrats and the liberal mainstream media has basically used two responses, one major and one minor.  First, the speech has been condemned as having a dark vision of America as a country in trouble rather than the optimistic tone that is needed.  The talking points from the Clinton campaign must have used the word "dystopian" to describe the Trump vision, because so many of the second rate pundits repeated it.  In fact, there was a lot more repetition among the liberal "pundits" than anything that Melania Trump may have repeated in her speech on Monday.  The first class libs, however, used their own words.  Today's New York Times has a banner headline across the top of the paper that begins with the wotds "Tone Dark" to describe the speech.

So will that attack on the speech work?  Will Americans move away from Trump because he said things in the USA are bad and getting worse?  Here's a clue.  The pollsters frequently ask Americans if the country is on the right track or the wrong track.  It's a way of learning if voters think things are getting better or getting worse.  The average of recent polls asking this question puts the number who think we are on the wrong track at 69% and the number who think we are on the right track at 22%.  That's an overwhelming majority of voters who agree with Trump's "dark vision".  For them, it's not correct to call it a "dark vision"; they would instead call it "the truth".  As for the other 22% who think things are getting better, they probably don't know much about the news (how could they?) so they won't even hear the portrayal of the Trump speech as dark.

The minor media response has been to attack Trump's accuracy in his speech.  Most of this is based upon a rather hilarious piece written by some so-called "fact checkers" at Bloomberg News.  These reporters try to twist the speech into being wrong, but no matter how hard they try, they really cannot.  One example of their effort shows just how wrong they can be.  Trump said last night that the number of police killed in the line of duty this year is 50% higher than last year.  "Not true" scream the fact checkers.  Then they admit that what they did is to look at how many police officers died this year from attacks in the line of duty and added in those who died in traffic accidents.  If you take out the traffic fatalities, the number of police killed in the line of duty in 2016 is 50% higher than was the case in 2015.  In other words, Trump was correct.

This kind of bogus fact checking never works absent something amazingly egregious.  Few people read the stories and even fewer care about them.

Trump's speech appears to have been an overwhelming success.  The quick polling shows that the public really liked it and that it had the effect of moving the needle in Trump's favor.  Now that I can see the left's feeble response, it seems that the speech will be paying dividends for a long, long time. 

The GOP Convention -- Day 4 -- Donald Trump's Acceptance Speech

The balloons have all fallen in Cleveland.  The confetti is on the floor.  The delegates are filing out of the hall.  The GOP convention is over.  It was an amazing final night.  Donald Trump gave his acceptance speech which overshadowed everything else.  Before we get to that speech, however, it is worth taking a moment to talk about the speech that preceded it.  Trump's daughter Ivanka introduced her father.  She is the fourth Trump child to speak, and it's clear that they saved the best for last.  She was an amazing presence.  I kept wondering how Donald Trump would be able to concentrate on his own speech after the inevitable burst of pride at seeing his daughter perform so well.

Trump's speech had more detail in it than usual.  It lasted over an hour (mostly due to a lot of cheering.)  There were high points and some times when it seemed to drag.  Most of all, however, it had one message:  Donald Trump pledged to go to Washington as the representative of everyday Americans, ALL Americans.  And he is going to Washington to CHANGE things.  He promised that he would do more than talk about problems; he would actually fix things.  That may not be a unique political position, but in 2016 it is an essential one.  Indeed, since Trump's opponent is Hillary Clinton who only lists 1) talking and 2) failing on her resume, his self portrayal as a man of accomplishment and of action is even more important than normal.  If it is believed by the American people, it will be a winning message.

It's going to take a while to see the reaction from across the country.  I think it's going to be a happy one from Trump's perspective.  The Democrats have a tough assignment in Philadelphia at their convention next week.  After eight years of disasters, they have to somehow convince America that their tired policies will suddenly start working after failing to work in the past.

The Weird World of Twitter

Twitter is a medium filled with nonsense, stupidity, anger, illiteracy and many other less than wonderful things.  Despite that, every so often a tweet passes by that really hits the nail on the head.  Here's one such exchange that merits mentioning.

Hillary Clinton (remember her?) tweeted out "Vote Your Conscience".  It was Hillary's way of trying to make something out of Ted Cruz' appearance at the GOP convention last night.  It's a line from Cruz' speech, but it really doesn't make much sense coming from Hillary.

Nevertheless, Hillary's tweet got a quick response from Jill Stein who is the Green Party candidate for president.  Stein's response:  "Hillary Clinton understands if you can't vote for a warmongering corporatist like her. #VoteYourConscience"

There's a big discussion on Twitter right now about how Stein shot down Clinton.  None of it means anything, but it does show a rather inept performance by Mrs. Clinton.

Will Philadelphia See Big Demonstrations?

Last week, we kept hearing breathless reports on TV of the impending clashes in the streets in Cleveland during the GOP convention.  The reporters were disappointed, however, as everything remained peaceful in the designated protest areas.  There have been fewer arrests in Cleveland over the first three days of the convention than in a normal Monday to Wednesday in July in Cleveland.  It seems thus far, that the previous story line pushed by the mainstream media that Trump encourages violence at or near his events has evaporated.  But here's a big question:  will there be violence when the Democrats meet in Philadelphia?  This is not a silly question.  According to reports from the Philadelphia police, they expect close to 50,000 demonstrators to gather in the park across the street from the convention hall for the four days of that event.  To be clear, nearly every one of the expected demonstrators is a Bernie Sanders supporter.  Will they use the convention to express their displeasure at Hillary Clinton's defeat of their favorite?

There's also the issue of the super delegates.  To Sanders' supporters, the words "super delegates" are not to be spoken in polite company.  There's going to be a move in Philadelphia to change the rules to eliminate the power of these party elites.  After all, the super delegates alone have about a third of the total needed to nominate at the convention.  That means that a candidate who wins the super delegates could conceivably lose in the primaries by 58 to 42% and still easily win the nomination.

Usually these days in the USA, when there is a riot, it is conducted by a group identified with the left.  The Tea Party came from the right, but there was no violence there.  The pro-life groups hold annual marches across the country, but there's been no violence at those marches during their entire 40 year existence.  On the other hand, we've all seen violence jump out of a demonstration by Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and many of the other left wing groups that are mainstays of the Democrats.  This means that there really is a risk that the massive Philadelphia demonstration will descend into violence.

It will be interesting to see what happens if there is trouble.  The head of the Philadelphia police union is protesting to the Democrats their decision to allow mothers of people who were shot by police to speak at the convention.  The mother of Michael Johnson of Ferguson Missouri will speak even after the investigation showed that he had attacked the police and was shot in self defense.  If the Sanders' forces decide to storm the convention hall, will the Philadelphia police step in to protect the convention?  We will have to wait to find out.