Dems' new fear: Sanders revolt could upend Democratic convention

[Bt1 5,213]

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a veteran of Democratic politics, says she never saw anything quite like this before.

Loud cursing, shouting, obscene gestures and vile insults, including crude comments about the female anatomy. It was all on display over the weekend as supporters of Bernie Sanders turned the Nevada State Democratic Convention into chaos.

"I was not able to stop these people for doing what they did," Boxer, a Hillary Clinton supporter, told CNN. "Apparently they've done it before. .... This group of about 100 were very vocal, and I can't describe it -- disrespectful doesn't even explain it, it was worse than that."

Boxer is hardly the lone Clinton supporter to experience such harassment on the campaign trail. Several top Democrats told CNN publicly and privately that the energy and enthusiasm of Sanders supporters has at times descended into incendiary attacks that threaten to tear apart efforts to unite Democrats against Donald Trump. Several female senators told CNN the attacks have been misogynistic.

What's more, many Democrats fear that if Sanders does not rein in his supporters, the same ugly scene that occurred in Las Vegas last weekend could replicate itself in the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

"He should get things under control," Boxer said of Sanders, saying it was worse than the vitriol during the Bush-Gore 2000 recount. "We're in a race that is very critical. We have to be united. He knows that. I have in fact, called him a couple times, left a couple messages. I'm hopeful he can get control of this."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said "I do" when asked if Sanders should drop out of the race after voting concludes on June 7, giving Clinton a chance to "pivot" to the general election ahead of the July convention.

"I think it would be most regretful if there becomes a schism," Feinstein said. "That's what Donald Trump should want: a schism in our party. ... It's the responsibility particularly of Sen. Sanders to see that that doesn't happen."

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said he had a "long conversation" with Sanders to lay out what happened in Nevada.

"He said that he condemns that. I'm confident he does," Reid told reporters. "This is a test of leadership."

Reid declined to comment when asked if he was worried that Sanders' backers could upend the national convention this summer.

But Sanders' statement Tuesday was defiant, saying that the Democratic Party "has a choice: It can open its doors and welcome into the party" his backers or "maintain its status quo."

"At (the Nevada) convention, the Democratic leadership used its power to prevent a fair and transparent process from taking place," said Sanders, adding that there have been "zero reports" of violence during his massive rallies across the country.

Nevada chaos

Sanders officials say that the Democratic Party should embrace the senator's supporters, not repel them. While they say they don't condone the behavior of some of their supporters at the Nevada convention, they blame leaders of the Nevada Democratic Party for shutting out Sanders' backers, prompting the chaos.

But new audio obtained by CNN shows a senior Sanders aide -- on the eve of the Nevada convention -- encouraging the senator's supporters try to "take over" the convention, change party rules and continue the "revolution" that Sanders has long campaigned on.

"You should not leave," Joan Kato, the national delegates director, told Sanders supporters in a meeting last week at the Rumor Boutique Hotel. "I'm going to repeat that, unless you are told by someone from the campaign ... that you can leave, you should not leave."

The Sanders campaign hasn't responded to a request for comment.

After Sanders supporters thought the convention was being shut down prematurely, loud shouting ensued and there were reports of chairs being hurled. The phone number and address of the chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party, Roberta Lange, was posted on social media -- prompting a flood of more than 1,000 calls, angry voicemails, text messages and even death threats.

"This is a citizen of the United States of America and I just wanted to let you know that I think people like you should be hung in a public execution to show this world that we won't stand for this sort of corruption," an unidentified male caller said on the message, provided to CNN and other news outlets. "I don't know what kind of money they are paying to you, but I don't know how you sleep at night. You are a sick, twisted piece of s--- and I hope you burn for this! .... You cowardless b---, running off the stage! I hope people find you."

 

Full Story : http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/17/politics/democrat-bernie-sanders-revolt/index.html

 

[Americano 31,061]

This won't happen. Obama and Clinton had a WAYYYY nastier primary and the party was just fine.

[FATCAT 60,971]

If you watch this video, you'll know why we're angry. This is clear evidence that the NV caucus was being rigged. We, as voters in the Democratic party, have a right to be upset.

 

If you can't watch the video, a more detailed account is below:

STEP BY STEP PROVIDED BY /U/duder9000/ on reddit.

Spoiler

*BASIC STEP-BY-STEP OF WHAT WENT DOWN! *

It's easy to feel outrage, but difficult to SHARE outrage when you aren't confident about explaining to others what is going on. I did my best here to compile background info and a breakdown of yesterday's events so we can educate ourselves and, subsequently, educate others.

BACKGROUND INFO:

Nevada Caucus - has 3 tiers, 3rd tier wins state/delegates:

1st Tier (main televised caucus Feb 20th): Hillary won

2nd Tier (April 2nd): flipped to Bernie

3rd Tier (May 14th): last night's shitshow

(1st Tier Feb 20th problem: At the county level convention 20% of the voters at the original caucus were missing valid ballots. So 20% of the delegates were up for grabs. That means Hillary did not legitimately win the first round of caucus and that is an important factor everyone is leaving out. - Thanks to /u/vamub for pointing this out.)

Shady rule-changing prior to last night:

Nevada Democratic Party knew that based on the 2nd Tier vote, the 3rd Tier would probably go to Bernie. They didn't want this. So they changed some rules around!

Changed the Nevada Democratic Party rules so that Nevada's delegates would be awarded to the winner of the Feb 20th 1st Tier (ie Hillary).

However, they also knew that educated people would try to make motions at the convention to object to this rule, and that those motions would probably pass! So....

They also changed the Nevada Democratic Party rules so that all votes on the floor of the convention would be decided ONLY by a voice vote (all in favor say "aye", etc), and that the results of that voice vote would be decided ONLY by Nevada Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange, and that her say was FINAL.

When you heard people talk about "Temporary Rules" last night, it was referring to these rules.

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

"Temporary Rules" debacle:

Item #1 on agenda of convention was to vote for these "Temporary Rules" to pass. This was conducted by paper ballot.

Vote was supposed to be held after convention started, but instead it was held immediately at 10 am early at 9:30 when not everyone was inside the convention and not everyone who was inside had ballots. But you know who was inside and had all their ballots ready? All the Hillary earlybirds (early-hawks) that knew this vote was going to happen early. Vote passed.

Motion to have a re-vote of the Temporary Rules was demanded by citizens. Nevada Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange instead held a voice vote that the temporary rules would stay. Some AYES, resounding NAYS. But who cares! She votes to pass it. Video of that CHILLING MOMENT here, (PS the beginning of this video is confusing because Roberta Lange is on screen, but the voice is from a woman talking OFF-screen. The voice is of a concerned citizen demanding a re-vote.) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5srPXtJV0V0 

Sanders delegates debacle:

64 delegates were ejected from the convention because they didn't have "the proper credentials", even though they did. They weren't allowed to prove they were credentialed. Shady.

Most, if not all, of these ejected were Sanders delegates.

Therefore, Clinton won by 30 delegates. How convenient.

Highlights from the resulting daylong/nightlong shitstorm:

Barbara Boxer mocks Sanders supporters (who were objecting to how things were going down):http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/15/barbara_boxer_to_nevada_democrats_if_you_boo_me_youre_booing_bernie_sanders.html

Roberta Lange commandeered all mics and surrounded herself by police so that no Sanders people could get on the mic

Eventually Dan Rolle (NV 2nd Congressional District Candidate) was able to get on the mic and he made a motion to call for the removal of Roberta Lange as Chair. As soon as he made that motion, his microphone was cut immediately. Of course. Motion was ignored. Great explanation of why this motion was ignored, here. Thanks /u/wormhog!Happens at 42:40 here:https://www.periscope.tv/FenyxFX/1yNGawjozjrxjCRAP this periscope link expired - NEW LINK: Happens at 42:40 here:https://youtu.be/P48-SrmBHKw?t=43m24s 

Nevada Democratic Party employs stalling tactics and psychological tactics to try to force people to leave. Making them wait hours while nothing happened, playing music SUPER LOUD, charging $5 for tiny little bottles of water. People online started ordering pizza for those inside. Some pizzas got in, but once it was realized what was going on, police started intercepting the pizzas and throwing them in the dumpster. the pizzas had to be moved outside.

Jesse Sbaih (NV 3rd Congressional District Candidate) gets on microphone and makes motion for a recount to resounding cheers. Motion is ignored (it is against the rules to ignore a motion). Happens at 16:50 here: https://youtu.be/8n2-u1P3uHM?t=16m50s 

Roberta Lange jumps onstage and in like 15 seconds makes a bunch of motions that basically say "all the shady votes that happened here tonight stand, the pro-Hillary delegate results stand, and this meeting is adjourned". She does voice votes on all this. NAYs are ridiculously louder every time. But she passes everything regardless, ignoring the nays, then runs off stage. COMPLETE CHAOS ENSUES Videos of this: From Periscope Superhero FENYXFX great video, 21:42 here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n2-u1P3uHM&feature=youtu.be&t=21m42s From Adryenn Ashley - great closeup video, start at 3:50 https://www.facebook.com/AdryennAshley/videos/10153761902337695/From Asia Zamora, this one well captures the pain and sadness of the aftermath of democracy being stolen from us, start at 2:30 though:https://www.facebook.com/asia.zamora.3/videos/1195756427101567/

Police come in and everyone is told to leave or they will get arrested. Here's a pic:https://mobile.twitter.com/Clyatt/status/731725898211151872 Video of DNC leaders running out side door:https://www.facebook.com/AlexanderLChambers/videos/1059531310749260/

RESULTS: By the rule change and delegate suppression there is a change of 8 net delegates. Instead of Bernie winning by 19-16, the result is 20-15 Clinton now. Thank you to /u/puppuli for this info!

https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/4jid77/basic_stepbystep_of_what_went_down_yesterday_at/

 

#BernTheConvention

[Warholian 6,880]

1 minute ago, FATCAT said:

If you watch this video, you'll know why we're angry. This is clear evidence that the NV caucus was being rigged. We, as voters in the Democratic party, have a right to be upset.

 

If you can't watch the video, a more detailed account is below:

STEP BY STEP PROVIDED BY /U/duder9000/ on reddit.

  Reveal hidden contents

*BASIC STEP-BY-STEP OF WHAT WENT DOWN! *

It's easy to feel outrage, but difficult to SHARE outrage when you aren't confident about explaining to others what is going on. I did my best here to compile background info and a breakdown of yesterday's events so we can educate ourselves and, subsequently, educate others.

BACKGROUND INFO:

Nevada Caucus - has 3 tiers, 3rd tier wins state/delegates:

1st Tier (main televised caucus Feb 20th): Hillary won

2nd Tier (April 2nd): flipped to Bernie

3rd Tier (May 14th): last night's shitshow

(1st Tier Feb 20th problem: At the county level convention 20% of the voters at the original caucus were missing valid ballots. So 20% of the delegates were up for grabs. That means Hillary did not legitimately win the first round of caucus and that is an important factor everyone is leaving out. - Thanks to /u/vamub for pointing this out.)

Shady rule-changing prior to last night:

Nevada Democratic Party knew that based on the 2nd Tier vote, the 3rd Tier would probably go to Bernie. They didn't want this. So they changed some rules around!

Changed the Nevada Democratic Party rules so that Nevada's delegates would be awarded to the winner of the Feb 20th 1st Tier (ie Hillary).

However, they also knew that educated people would try to make motions at the convention to object to this rule, and that those motions would probably pass! So....

They also changed the Nevada Democratic Party rules so that all votes on the floor of the convention would be decided ONLY by a voice vote (all in favor say "aye", etc), and that the results of that voice vote would be decided ONLY by Nevada Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange, and that her say was FINAL.

When you heard people talk about "Temporary Rules" last night, it was referring to these rules.

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

"Temporary Rules" debacle:

Item #1 on agenda of convention was to vote for these "Temporary Rules" to pass. This was conducted by paper ballot.

Vote was supposed to be held after convention started, but instead it was held immediately at 10 am early at 9:30 when not everyone was inside the convention and not everyone who was inside had ballots. But you know who was inside and had all their ballots ready? All the Hillary earlybirds (early-hawks) that knew this vote was going to happen early. Vote passed.

Motion to have a re-vote of the Temporary Rules was demanded by citizens. Nevada Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange instead held a voice vote that the temporary rules would stay. Some AYES, resounding NAYS. But who cares! She votes to pass it. Video of that CHILLING MOMENT here, (PS the beginning of this video is confusing because Roberta Lange is on screen, but the voice is from a woman talking OFF-screen. The voice is of a concerned citizen demanding a re-vote.) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5srPXtJV0V0 

Sanders delegates debacle:

64 delegates were ejected from the convention because they didn't have "the proper credentials", even though they did. They weren't allowed to prove they were credentialed. Shady.

Most, if not all, of these ejected were Sanders delegates.

Therefore, Clinton won by 30 delegates. How convenient.

Highlights from the resulting daylong/nightlong shitstorm:

Barbara Boxer mocks Sanders supporters (who were objecting to how things were going down):http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/15/barbara_boxer_to_nevada_democrats_if_you_boo_me_youre_booing_bernie_sanders.html

Roberta Lange commandeered all mics and surrounded herself by police so that no Sanders people could get on the mic

Eventually Dan Rolle (NV 2nd Congressional District Candidate) was able to get on the mic and he made a motion to call for the removal of Roberta Lange as Chair. As soon as he made that motion, his microphone was cut immediately. Of course. Motion was ignored. Great explanation of why this motion was ignored, here. Thanks /u/wormhog!Happens at 42:40 here:https://www.periscope.tv/FenyxFX/1yNGawjozjrxjCRAP this periscope link expired - NEW LINK: Happens at 42:40 here:https://youtu.be/P48-SrmBHKw?t=43m24s 

Nevada Democratic Party employs stalling tactics and psychological tactics to try to force people to leave. Making them wait hours while nothing happened, playing music SUPER LOUD, charging $5 for tiny little bottles of water. People online started ordering pizza for those inside. Some pizzas got in, but once it was realized what was going on, police started intercepting the pizzas and throwing them in the dumpster. the pizzas had to be moved outside.

Jesse Sbaih (NV 3rd Congressional District Candidate) gets on microphone and makes motion for a recount to resounding cheers. Motion is ignored (it is against the rules to ignore a motion). Happens at 16:50 here: https://youtu.be/8n2-u1P3uHM?t=16m50s 

Roberta Lange jumps onstage and in like 15 seconds makes a bunch of motions that basically say "all the shady votes that happened here tonight stand, the pro-Hillary delegate results stand, and this meeting is adjourned". She does voice votes on all this. NAYs are ridiculously louder every time. But she passes everything regardless, ignoring the nays, then runs off stage. COMPLETE CHAOS ENSUES Videos of this: From Periscope Superhero FENYXFX great video, 21:42 here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n2-u1P3uHM&feature=youtu.be&t=21m42s From Adryenn Ashley - great closeup video, start at 3:50 https://www.facebook.com/AdryennAshley/videos/10153761902337695/From Asia Zamora, this one well captures the pain and sadness of the aftermath of democracy being stolen from us, start at 2:30 though:https://www.facebook.com/asia.zamora.3/videos/1195756427101567/

Police come in and everyone is told to leave or they will get arrested. Here's a pic:https://mobile.twitter.com/Clyatt/status/731725898211151872 Video of DNC leaders running out side door:https://www.facebook.com/AlexanderLChambers/videos/1059531310749260/

RESULTS: By the rule change and delegate suppression there is a change of 8 net delegates. Instead of Bernie winning by 19-16, the result is 20-15 Clinton now. Thank you to /u/puppuli for this info!

https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/4jid77/basic_stepbystep_of_what_went_down_yesterday_at/

 

#BernTheConvention

You're awful.

[FATCAT 60,971]

Just now, Warholian said:

You're awful.

How does pointing out election fraud make me awful?

[Whispering 18,865]

Procedural problems don't give you the go-ahead to insult, threaten and berate people. The problem with ideological purity is that it results in no compromise, which leads to cynicism and the notion that everything is rigged against you and is corrupt. 

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

8 minutes ago, Warholian said:

You're awful.

Don't bother. He believes a clearly fabricated conspiracy theory assembled with proof that amounts to the pitch of people's yelling, "shadiness", and a healthy dose of rhetoric which he read over the Internet.

Whats worse is that rather than denouncing their actions while maintaining disapproval regarding the process, he agrees with this sort of behavior. It's disgusting. I haven't seen this **** in the Middle East. This isn't democracy. This is rioting when things don't go your way and begging for excuses to make a fuss.

This is our very own Tea Party.

[FATCAT 60,971]

2 minutes ago, LebaneseDude said:

Don't bother. He believes a clearly fabricated conspiracy theory assembled with proof that amounts to the pitch of people's yelling, "shadiness", and a healthy dose of rhetoric which he read over the Internet.

It's not a fabricated conspiracy theory. WATCH THE VIDEO. THE EVIDENCE IS RIGHT THERE.

If you can't see it, or at least see that that was an inconclusive vote, your bias goes beyond the stars.

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

4 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

It's not a fabricated conspiracy theory. WATCH THE VIDEO. THE EVIDENCE IS RIGHT THERE.

If you can't see it, or at least see that that was an inconclusive vote, your bias goes beyond the stars.

What evidence? That 100 people were so ****ing loud they made any attempt at dialogue impossible?

I don't see ****ing evidence. Just loud booing And a lot of yelling.

How about the new evidence that a Sanders senior aide was actively inciting disorder? 

Talk about sheep. You believe anything that supports your cause? 

[FATCAT 60,971]

Just now, LebaneseDude said:

What evidence? That 100 people were so ****ing loud they made any attempt at dialogue impossible?

I don't see ****ing evidence. Just loud booing And a lot of yelling.

How about the new evidence that a Sanders senior aide was actively raising disorder? 

 

 

The vote was called 30 minutes BEFORE it was planned to. There was no discussion. They attempted to make a preliminary count the final count, with tons of people still coming in the convention. You see discourse from illegal actions. If I was there, I too would have been angry, and I would ask my fellow sanders and Clinton democrats to ask for a recount of not just the illegal passing of the bi-laws, but the preliminary vote as well. More than just Sanders supporters were upset.

It's preposterous that you're defending these people. You may be on their side today, but they're taking your voice away from you. WE HAVE VOICE VOTES IN 2016. WTF.

[FATCAT 60,971]

11 minutes ago, LebaneseDude said:

 

Whats worse is that rather than denouncing their actions while maintaining disapproval regarding the process, he agrees with this sort of behavior. It's disgusting. I haven't seen this **** in the Middle East. This isn't democracy. This is rioting when things don't go your way and begging for excuses to make a fuss.

This is our very own Tea Party.

You edit your posts way too often, I can't respond to so many edits.

I don't support the name-calling and rude behavior. I never said I did. Now you're just telling lies.

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

2 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

You edit your posts way too often, I can't respond to so many edits.

I don't support the name-calling and rude behavior. I never said I did. Now you're just telling lies.

I didn't see you denounce it either.

[PaperIz 7,354]

Good. The whole system sucks.

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

14 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

The vote was called 30 minutes BEFORE it was planned to. There was no discussion. They attempted to make a preliminary count the final count, with tons of people still coming in the convention. You see discourse from illegal actions. If I was there, I too would have been angry, and I would ask my fellow sanders and Clinton democrats to ask for a recount of not just the illegal passing of the bi-laws, but the preliminary vote as well. More than just Sanders supporters were upset.

It's preposterous that you're defending these people. You may be on their side today, but they're taking your voice away from you. WE HAVE VOICE VOTES IN 2016. WTF.

What is THAT supposed to imply? All of Hillary's supporters were lying in wait? Even if they did start early, you can't assume it favored Hillary at all. What the ****? You're assuming that the end result would benefit you when it wouldn't.

And guess what? Many Clinton supporters did not show up AT ALL for the second round too because they were told to not show up. **** happens. Shit gets muddled. That's how these things go. Did you see Clinton supporters make a fuss about it? Nothing ever goes "perfectly as planned".

Stop trying to victimize the situation. The entire point of my post wasn't that there could have been no wrongdoing, even though I don't see any. It's that the blatant barbarism and lack of civility to the approach of demanding one's rights is offensive to the democratic process and contributes nothing. It ultimately ended up with the chair doing what she had to do to get things moving. 

I feel sorry for her. Must have felt like an elementary school auditorium.

[FATCAT 60,971]

3 minutes ago, LebaneseDude said:

What is THAT supposed to imply? All of Hillary's supporters were lying in wait? Even if they did start early, you can't assume it favored Hillary at all. What the ****? You're assuming that the end result would benefit you when it wouldn't.

And guess what? Many Clinton supporters did not show up AT ALL for the second round too because they were told to not show up. **** happens. Shit gets muddled. That's how these things go. Did you see Clinton supporters make a fuss about it?

Stop trying to victimize people. The entire point of my post wasn't that there could have been no wrongdoing. It's that the blatant barbarism and lack of civility to the approach of demanding one's rights is offensive to the democratic process and contributes nothing. It ultimately ended up with the chair doing what she had to do to get things moving. 

I feel sorry for her. Must have felt like an elementary school auditorium.

58 of Bernie delegates were purged from the records. He lost by around 30 delegates. They weren't allowed to prove they were delegates, even though they had paperwork to back it up. More delegates for Bernie showed up, but Clinton won because of a rigged system. 

The chair did what she wanted to do, not the democratic thing to do.