I am sorry, but "Trump is in office now, focus on that!" is a stupid idea. If we are being honest, focusing on Trump being in office means focusing on this story too.

Because he didn't get into office in a vacuum. It happened in an atmosphere of depressed turnout and serious questioning of the way Democrats were doing things.

You want to stop Trump? Make sure his opposition is never in such a position again. Hold their asses to the fire.

Whether or not one believes the Dem primary was rigged, Sanders supporters wanting their donations refunded is kind of like expecting the casino to refund your gambling losses.

...

Casinos are supposed to be rigged.

And like casinos, political parties ultimately serve their own interests. Not an ideal system, not necessarily democratic, but anyone expecting otherwise is like the old lady endlessly feeding quarters into the slot machine, expecting the jackpot. Sanders rolled the dice when he decided to run as a Democrat' despite the lack of any fealty between him and the party. Everyone who donated rolled the dice along with him.

Did you RTFA? Article V Section 4 of the DNC charter specifically says they are required to be impartial. They violated their own charter. That's fraud.

Honestly nope, traveling in an exotic foreign land, just talking off the top of my head, gotta go hit the beach now.

Ah, but now back from the beach and a couple of happy hour cocktails later, I'll add that, DNC rules notwithstanding, it's kind of pointless to keep waging this battle now, considering the bullshit we"re dealing with.

People around here are just so embarrassingly thirsty for change. I agree, let them drink Mai Tais.

Leaving the country for a bit is a good tonic too.

Sure, why fix it? It's not like we'll ever have another election to worry about.

Times we're not allowed to question the actions of Democrats:
When they're in office.
When their opposition is in office.

Well either they'll fix it or they'll die out. I guess it's up to the younger progressive folk.

Hence the lawsuit.

Since when is politicking impartial? Please. Does anybody think Hillary got shafted in 2007? Nope. They did the same shit then, as they did now. As does the GOP. They prop up who they think can win. It amazes me that people still think life is fair. Or politics is fair, or the justice system is fair or "just." Even if it's written in a "charter." Bullocks. It sounds like a lot of whining.

The judge asked the lawyer for the defendants this question:

"If a person is fraudulently induced to donate to a charitable organization, does he have standing to sue the person who induced the donation?"

Fraud is fraud, whether you're in a casino or Washington, DC.

If that's the standard then Clinton donors should get their money back too.

Sure, they should.

How is this news to anybody.

Apparently it's news to Bruce Spiva.

Another essay on the same story, with a few different excerpts from the court transcripts.

Given the arguments the DNC lawyer made in court, no one not part of the DC party establishment should ever give the DNC any money again. And the DNC deserves to die in the wilderness.

Or be hollowed out and worn as a husk by the real left.

Hillary *is* the real left, you turd bucket.

I'm sure she's the most progressive of Goldman Sach's high level employees.

What's the point of rehashing her oblique ties to Goldman-Sachs when the guy who won is actually hiring their top executives as his economic advisors?
Hillary is history. Time to deal with the present.

Blaming and shaming just never gets old.

Sure, because it's easy.

Is she, though? We'll see if the DNC doesn't force through someone just like her.

They will if they want to keep losing. But that's not what they want.

What they want is to win without compromising. We'll see how that goes.

Well that's really up to the electorate. If they continue along the same route they've been on they'll just get the same results.

"Hence the lawsuit."

People want change and they're doing what they can to force that change. That means calling them out on their bullshit. That means changing the standards of what's considered acceptable behaviour from our politicians. That means not making excuses just because it's your team.

The lawsuit, even if it somehow succeeds, is ultimately a symbolic gesture​. It's the votes that count.

This is SOP for defense lawyers of course - you move to dismiss and say: "your honor, my client did not kill those children, but even if he had, it would have been because they deserved it." The fact that this is the DNC's line of argument is a pretty poor reflection on them, though. They're as tone deaf and contemptuous of their own voters as ever.

Pretty much confirming what I've been saying for a while now: the DNC is a corrupt organization, available to the highest bidder. They don't care about the will of the people in the slightest- they only care about who contributes the most, in either cash or favors. Bernie didn't have quite enough wasta to make it through.

They're still a political organization and they care most about winning elections. After all, that's where the money and power is. If they thought Bernie could really win they would have backed him. This is the heart of the grievances. Was this ultimately a big miscalculation by the DNC? Who knows? Maybe. But at this point it's just a lot of crying over spilt milk.

The GOP loves manufacturing outrage to increase engagement. If you feel the DNC could use some change then this is a resource cache. Both parties need to shift to stay competitive and relevant. Both the GOP and the Democrats lost this last election. The GOP is just getting paid for leasing their branding to Trump. The long term damage to the brand though is going to be bad.

Now the DNC is looking weak and irrelevant with each embarrassment the current administration blunders into. "You lost to this clown" is the clear message. Both parties lost to a demagogue, and while its understood that people in office help themselves to the gleanings the office provides, this banana republic shit is way worse. The GOP is just going to blunder into another strongman nativist after Trump. It fits their profile and they're happy to cash checks and let someone else worry about governing.

Whats the DNCs response? They lost partly because they not only don't enthuse voters, but not even their constituents. The threat of "we're the only game in town" doesn't cut it, demonstrably so. Their calculated loses and ceding of territory as irradiated is self limiting. This is an opportunity, if the DNC doesn't take it, someone else will and i don't want to know what the Leftist version of Donald Trump is going to look like.

Sure, but it's also important to remember that the DNC isn't really the party. The Democratic base is fired up now, even as the leadership founders. With or without them, the ship may right itself.

What I find funny is that for the longest time, the GOP was playing lobbying politics. They bought their way into power through wall street and corporate influence. The DNC decided to play the same game, and now are being lambasted because of it. What the fuck do you think got Obama elected for two terms? I'm not suggesting the clintons are clean as a whistle, but they played the game under the rules of the time. Their failure to adapt is one thing, but blaming them for playing the money game seems like misplaced anger. Remember, they didn't conduct the election in a vacuum. The GOP re-framed the game and the DNC ignored it - taking their chances that any logical, rational person would see the disaster that is trump. In that they failed, and were complacent in the 8 years of Obama.

Bernie didn't pass muster because he's a self professed socialist. In retrospect, considering how race, bigotry, and xenophobia was highly influential in propelling dumpster to the oval office, does anybody really think a socialist jew was going to compete against the epitome of capitalism?

Bernie didn't pass muster because he's a self professed socialist. In retrospect, considering how race, bigotry, and xenophobia was highly influential in propelling dumpster to the oval office, does anybody really think a socialist jew was going to compete against the epitome of capitalism?

Who was our last president again? A black man with the middle name Hussein who had other side calling him a secret muslim, a socialist, and manchurian candidate terrorist that was going hand over america to al qaeda. And then he was reelected.

Bernie would've been fine. I know plenty of Trump voters that would've voted for Bernie but were never going to vote for Hillary and I'm not talking about Bernie Bros. Straight up southern democrats that were never ever voting Clinton ever again.

Bernie didn't get the nomination because as is often the case, the conservative southern democrats have a massive pull in the primaries, but are vastly outnumbered in their areas in the General Election. Hillary Clinton won the nomination with states she wasn't getting in the General Election. This shouldn't have a been a surprise to anybody. This is not the first time it's happened to the Democrats, it probably won't be the last.

I think it was just Trump and his crew that changed the game - the GOP mostly stood against him until he was the last man standing, then they got on board. But the congressional GOP is still same old shit, there is no Trump caucus, nor anybody who seems to understand wtf he's doing.