2016 elections - because it's never too early

[Admiral Yi]

Bill Clinton is a great man. He led America to an economic golden age that we've yet to see since he left office. He got us out of Iraq and kept our military commitments to a minimum.

I don't remember this.

[Jaron]

Bill Clinton is a great man. He led America to an economic golden age that we've yet to see since he left office. He got us out of Iraq and kept our military commitments to a minimum.

I don't remember this.

He ended the Iraq War. If ye be forgetful..

[Admiral Yi]

I don't get it.

[CountDeMoney]

This is precisely why super delegates exist.

A graying generation founded on peace and love finds its champion: Bernie Sanders
By Stephanie McCrummen May 30 at 2:30 PM
The Washington Post

MOUNT SHASTA, Calif. — It is a glorious day in Northern California, and Lewis Elbinger, a 68-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter, is feeling great — or, as he puts it, "high vibe." In the five decades since he first painted a white peace sign on his forehead, protested the Vietnam War and hitchhiked to India to become a monk, in fact, he has never felt more optimistic about the country than at this very moment.

"A consciousness is rising," he says.

A case could be made that this is not exactly so in the sense that Elbinger means it.

Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Hillary Clinton, according to everyone who is not a Sanders supporter, will be his Democratic opponent, meaning that Sanders is about to become the latest in a long line of progressive candidates to lose.

But that is not how things appear in Mount Shasta, where the light seems brighter, the air cleaner, the sky bluer, and where Elbinger is about to get into his car with two fellow Berners and drive 130 miles south. The destination is Chico, where he will try to become a Sanders delegate representing California at this summer's Democratic National Convention. Put another way, he will be the older, white-haired Jewish guy with steadfast 1960s values trying to win an election against all odds.

He is certain that Sanders can not only win the nomination but also ride the wave of rising consciousness all the way to the White House, ushering in the era of peace, love and prosperity that his generation has long imagined.

"We've been waiting for this our entire lives," says Elbinger, who retired after a 28-year State Department career that included a stint as a political adviser to Gen. David H. Petraeus at the U.S. Central Command in Florida. "I know this is going to catch fire."

He is dressed for the occasion like the Foreign Service officer he was and the unapologetic hippie he remains: gray blazer, forest-green oxford shirt, knotted tie, a large crystal draped around his neck, a "Feel the Bern" button on his lapel.

"Wow, you look spiffy!" says Christine Herbster, 59, as Elbinger arrives to pick up her and her friend Marcia Rey, 65, for the drive south.

"I saw a poll that said California is 61.5 percent for Bernie," says Rey.

"Let's work for 70 percent!" says Elbinger.

"I'm going for 90!" says Herbster. "We have an endless pool of hope."

"We are not giving up," says Rey. "The vibe is different here — we are progressing."

"We have sunshine!" says Herbster.

"And a lot of water!" says Rey.

"We have this glorious mountain here," says Elbinger. "Just look at it. I can see it right now."

The clouds have blown off Mount Shasta, which is still tipped with snow, and Elbinger draws in a long breath of fresh air. His mind is clear. His chakras are balanced. He likes to say he has a good filter to sift out negative thoughts before he might utter them and thus give them life in the world.

"All right!" says Elbinger. "We're off to Chico!"

"Right on!" says Herbster, and off they go.

***

As the 2016 presidential election heads toward its last big primary, in California on June 7, Bernie Sanders has achieved far more than anyone predicted, winning 20 primaries and caucuses and nearly 10 million votes. In recent weeks, more and more of those voters have become ever more strident and angry, believing that the primary process is rigged against Sanders. They have cursed and shouted down party officials and turned the slogan "Feel the Bern" into "Bern It Down" as a feeling spreads that Sanders should stay in the race no matter what. Such is the evolving devotion to a man who is called by some of his supporters "the candidate we've been waiting for."

Of these, few have been waiting longer than Lewis Elbinger, a proud member of the Woodstock generation that forms the solid, ever-hopeful core of the Sanders coalition. These are the true believers who have always sought out some version of him, whether that was Dennis Kucinich in 2004 or Ralph Nader in 2000 or Jerry Brown in 1992, and who include the trio now hurtling toward Chico in a station wagon, a pouch of feathers dangling from the rearview mirror.

"Us old hippies," says Rey.

"This is just the beginning," says Elbinger, who cast his first presidential vote for the anti-Vietnam War Democrat Eugene McCarthy in 1968, the year that Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, cities were rioting, and Elbinger was sure that his country had "gone crazy."

He was 20, and trying to make sense of such a world. He headed to Vietnam as a photojournalist, then hitchhiked to India, where he was living on pot and bread and setting up an ashram when something happened that changed the course of his life. A copy of Life magazine drifted into his hands, a whole issue devoted to Woodstock — page after page of half a million muddy hippies reveling in music, peace, love and drugs for three days on a farm in Upstate New York, which made him think something had shifted for the better.

He returned home to Detroit, met his wife, had a daughter and joined the State Department, which turned into a long career of postings in Kenya, Pakistan, India and other places. All of it led Elbinger to his fundamental belief in the oneness of humanity, and finally to Mount Shasta, where he opened a place in town called the Silk Road Chai Shop.

When he is not there, he is working on an opera based on the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.  He lives in an apartment overlooking the mountain and meditates in a chair facing his chakra chart. He takes long walks in the forest and says prayers for a better world in a particular spot at a particular time when beams of sun hit his forehead just so. He sets a cellphone alarm for 12:12 p.m. each day, and when it rings, he asks himself, "Are you doing what you're supposed to be doing?"

He loves this life in a town that can at times feel like an actual Shangri-La, a place where shops sell kama sutra oil, crystals and books about dissolving your ego, and it's normal to overhear "I used to buy that incense by the box" or "Where do you keep your Buddha?"

Which is not to say that Elbinger is cut off from reality as most people know it; he toggles easily between worlds and was watching a debate last year when he became enthralled with Bernie Sanders, or as he sometimes calls him, Mahatma.

"The 'maha' means great, the 'atma' means soul — Great Soul," he says, and in the car, his passengers could not agree more.

They zip along the highway, past blurs of green fields and sprays of orange poppies and a full and glittering Lake Shasta, winding down toward the Central Valley that Elbinger calls "the real world."

"Imagine a painting, a Norman Rockwell painting that looks so idealistic," says Rey, a retired graphic designer, looking out the window. "Living in a place like this, you're in the painting. . . . It's just a different way of being, and that's what Bernie stands for. A quality of life for everybody."

"No matter how poor your parents were," says Herbster, a retired Air Force mechanic.

"People don't know it but those rights are actually enshrined in the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights," says Elbinger, who likes to say that if this life is a dream, as the Buddhists say, then "let's make it like a Walt Disney musical — why make it like a nightmare?"

"Do you have anything better to do than to try to make it better?" says Rey.

"That's why we're here," says Elbinger, who has a remarkable ability to fold information he deems negative into his unified theory of ever-rising human consciousness.

For instance, the rise of Donald Trump: "He's needed — we are detoxifying, purging our system of the racism that occurred in the past."

Hillary Clinton: "She's representing the dying forces of the 20th century."

Pundits who say it's over for Sanders: "No, it's just beginning," Elbinger says, explaining his view that the system is rigged against Sanders and if it weren't, the true extent of his popularity would be unleashed.

What's happening is an evolution, he says, which reminds him that he wishes Sanders would stop using the word "revolution."

"I think he should drop the 'r,' " he says. "The word 'revolution' scares people. It literally means to go in circles. Evolution means to spiral upwards, and that's what we're doing."

At least this is how it feels at this very moment, winding through miles of walnut groves.

"There's nothing more I would love than for California to be the one that really stepped up for Bernie," says Rey.

"It's going to be," says Elbinger.

"I feel like I haven't had someone feel and think the way I do in a long time," says Herbster, and soon they are arriving in Chico, pulling up to an old wooden Grange Hall for the election.

"Oh," says Elbinger. "Look at all the cars."

***

A few hundred people are lining up at the doors. Some of them are young, but many more are of Elbinger's generation, men and women with graying beards and ponytails who have come from all over California's 1st Congressional District, which is mostly Republican, and which gives the gathering the slightly awkward air of a coming-out party.

"Nice button," a young man says to an older woman wearing a Feel the Bern button.

"Isn't this wonderful?" an older woman says to another.

"So, you're a candidate? Bless your heart," a young nurse says to Elbinger.

"I am — Lewis Elbinger," he says, shaking her hand, then turning to the man behind him.

"Hi, I'm Lewis Elbinger — I'm going to be on the ballot," he says, his confidence in all of this rising as the line moves into the auditorium.

"Kimberly Butcher?" an official calls out as the candidates begin making their pitches.

A nervous young woman comes to the stage.

"I'm a fairly new Democrat who's always felt apathetic to the process," she begins, her voice shaking.

"Don't worry! You're among friends!" an older voice booms back, and one after another, the candidates stand on stage to declare their passion for Sanders.

"I have personally seen the cost of poverty, of these children being disenfranchised from the economic system," begins a young mental-health worker named Randall.

"I'm Native American, and Bernie's the only one who's ever cared about us," says a young man named Erik.

"Bernie's our only hope you guys," says a mother of four named Karissa, her voice rising as she explains that she is overwhelmed with bills and is about to lose her house and that she is shouting because she is terrified. "I will stand with him for hours! I will stand with him for days! I will stand with him until my feet are bleeding, my knees are buckling! I will stand with him until I'm exhausted and fall down, and then I'll grab one of you guys to stand me up to stand with him some more!"

A 67-year old woman recalls hearing Martin Luther King speak at the March on Washington in 1963. A man in his 70s recalls attending the tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. A Legal Aid lawyer recalls marching against the Vietnam War.

"Many of you remember those times," he says.

In the audience, Elbinger is nodding, because of course he does. He remembers everything about those times, and that is the reason why he is here, walking up to the stage, a white-haired, 68-year-old Jewish man still clinging to all the ideas that first inspired him.

"All right, Lewis!" Rey calls out.

"Yeah!" Herbster yells.

"Wow! Look at this crowd!" he begins. "My name is Lewis Elbinger, and I'm a retired Foreign Service officer. I've traveled all around the world, and I'm telling you that people all around the world are hoping for Sanders!"

His voice is rising.

"God knows we need him here, but the whole world is looking at us!"

He is gesturing.

"This is about voting our conscience! Getting trust and values back into the government again!"

He is on a roll.

"So the only question is, will this delegate switch over to Hillary Clinton at the contested convention?" he shouts. "And the answer in my case is no!"

The crowd is clapping and cheering him on, and he is looking out at their faces. It is not exactly a half-million muddy hippies at Woodstock, but to Elbinger the moment feels similar to what he felt all those decades ago, like something is shifting for the better in America.

"I'm expecting Bernie to win!" he yells. "Why? We are California guys! We can do this!"

People clap and cheer as Elbinger steps off the stage and sits back down, and when the speeches are over, Rey and Herbster tell him how great he was.

They cast their ballots, and soon they are back in the car, winding their way through the walnut groves, past green fields and swaths of orange poppies and on into the mountains.

"What an experience," Elbinger says, pulling onto the highway.

"It was awesome," says Rey.

They talk about how good it felt to be around so many people "who listen with their heart," and their shared belief that this election and in fact all of existence comes down to a choice between love and fear, and how sure they are not only that love will win, but that the movement to elect Sanders will win, too.

"It's ever growing," says Elbinger, and as they round a curve they can see their home in the distance.

"There's Mount Shasta!" Elbinger says.

"Yeah," sighs Herbster.

"As beautiful as all this is, that's the place I want to be right there," he says.

And soon, that is where they are.

Elbinger drops off his friends at the Silk Road Chai Shop.

"Mission accomplished!" says Herbster.

"Thank you, Lewis!" says Rey.

He drives through the town he loves, where people shop for little Buddhas and incense and a tourist holds a crystal in his palm while a man asks: "Can you feel it? The vibrations are really strong."

And now he is back home, sitting in his meditation chair and facing the chakra chart. He looks out of the window — a view of blooming flowers and the mountain beyond. It is sunny. It is glorious. Eventually it is 12:12 and his alarm goes off.

"Are you doing what you are supposed to be doing?" he asks himself then, and at this point in a life he sees as spiraling ever-upward, he is certain. The answer is yes.

[garbon]

Why did WaPo write an article on this guy?

[CountDeMoney]

They're really trying to extend Sanderspalooza, what with the California primary coming up. 
I guess we have to be reminded that the very same dirty ass Summer of Love self-absorbed hippie potheads that never trimmed their pubes and destroyed the economy are still alive and relevant.

You notice how Donald Trump tweets a pic on eating Mexicanish food and say he loves Hispanics, he catches a ration of shit...but when Sanders says the California primary is "the big enchilada", there's nothing?  C'mon.

[citizen k]

You notice how Donald Trump tweets a pic on eating Mexicanish food and say he loves Hispanics, he catches a ration of shit...but when Sanders says the California primary is "the big enchilada", there's nothing?  C'mon.

California is kinda shaped like a big enchilada. 

[citizen k]

Media Bubble Says Ignore The Obvious Signs Of Doom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-MrUnndg84

[Jaron]

Poor Dear Leader can't muster the energy to stay awake through a Memorial Day service.

[Tonitrus]

Are you sure he's not just bowing his head in respectful remembrance?

[Jaron]

You could make that argument if his whole body wasn't slouched over. Everyone is sitting up and attentive.

[Phillip V]

I would also fall asleep sitting in the sun with periods of silence or droning speeches.

[alfred russel]

I would also fall asleep sitting in the sun with periods of silence or droning speeches.

I bet he would have perked up if one of the speeches started to extol the crews of the Aurora or battleship Potemkin.

[Jaron]

The sad part is Bernie just showed up to the event to score some political points. The least he could do is drink a rockstar to stay awake through it.

[jimmy olsen]

If this actually drives down Hispanic turn out then we deserve what we get.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/immigration-raids-latinos-sanders-clinton-223671#ixzz4ADLiGeVR

Dems fear Obama immigration raids could hurt Latino turnout

Clinton and Sanders are jockeying for their votes, but the administration crackdown is hurting outreach.

By Seung Min Kim
  | 05/30/16 05:01 PM EDT

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Donald Trump and his incendiary immigration rhetoric was supposed to send Latino voters to the polls in droves for Democrats this fall. But the Obama administration's controversial immigration raids are threatening to weaken the Democrats' advantage.

The volatile issue of immigration and the power of the Latino vote is coming into sharper focus in advance of the June 7 primary in California, where Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are showing off their pro-immigrant bona fides in their increasingly contentious nomination fight.

But a running undercurrent is the firestorm over the raids launched by the Obama administration earlier this year and reportedly renewed this month targeting immigrants here illegally. Advocacy groups say they're concerned that enthusiasm from Latino voters and volunteers is getting sapped because of the furor stemming from the controversial enforcement operations.

"People are fatigued and outraged about the raids, and just when things should be turning to creating clean lines between the candidates, the Obama administration is dampening enthusiasm," said Cristina Jimenez, the co-founder and managing director of United We Dream, a leading advocacy group led by young undocumented immigrants.

She added that the raids are "definitely making it harder for United We Dream Action and other groups engaging in Latino and immigrant voters."

Motivated by a presumptive GOP nominee who has promised to expel the more than 11 million immigrants here illegally and erect an impenetrable wall along the southern border, Latino interest in this fall's presidential elections have been more intense than ever. Donald Trump has a staggeringly high unfavorable rating among Hispanics, and the launch of his presidential campaign last summer was marked by controversial comments toward Mexican immigrants.

Immigrants are also becoming naturalized at much more rapid rates. Statistics released last week from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services show more than 250,000 immigrants have applied to become naturalized in the first three months of this year. That's a 28 percent boost from the applications submitted during the same period in 2015.

"People are becoming citizens because they want to vote against Donald Trump," said Ben Monterroso, the executive director of Mi Familia Vota, a Latino civic engagement group.

But on the ground, advocates say that the raids are making it more difficult to contact potential Latino voters. Though immigration enforcement officials may be targeting a relatively narrow swath of people, other immigrants can get swept up during the process, advocates say.

That means immigrants are increasingly afraid of opening the door and interacting with strangers — throwing more hurdles in voter outreach efforts. This is particularly an issue with mixed-status families, when one person could be a U.S. citizen and eligible to vote while others are here illegally.

"There is a hope that at the very least, people will come out and vote against Trump," said Marielena Hincapie, the executive director of the California-based National Immigration Law Center. "One of the questions and concerns is, does the fear and confusion of the raids result in suppressing the vote so much that people are unsure about coming forward?"

Monterroso pointed to another obstacle in outreach efforts caused by the raids.

"Volunteers that are doing the best work to talk to the voters is where I see the disappointment and frustration," he said.

The administration has so far declined to confirm specifics about the latest round of raids, which were disclosed in a Reuters report this month. According to a document obtained by the news agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have told agents across the country to prepare for a 30-day "surge" of arrests targeting mothers and children who have recently arrived in the country illegally but have been told to return to their home countries.

The latest operations follow the two-day raids that occurred in January — a strategy so aggressive that Trump took credit for the idea when news of it broke.

"It defies political logic that the administration would do anything to weaken Hispanic support for the Democratic nominee," said Kevin Appleby, the international migration policy director for the Center for Migration Studies, a Catholic-based institute and think tank.

The raids in January were targeted toward North Carolina, Texas and Georgia, but there has been scant confirmation this time around about where the operations will be concentrated. The Obama administration has focused on deporting immigrants who arrived here illegally after January 2014 and have also exhausted all legal grounds for being able to stay.

Lawyers working at two detention facilities in Texas say they've met with 16 families from Central America who have been detained since the latest raids were disclosed. They have come primarily from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, according to the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project.

"As we have stated repeatedly, the Department of Homeland Security must enforce the law consistent with our enforcement priorities," ICE spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said Friday. "Our highest priority is public safety and border security."

Shortly after the raids were disclosed this month, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said "this administration is serious about enforcing the law."

"I recognize that our political opponents don't like to acknowledge that fact," Earnest said. "But we've made clear how we're going to use law enforcement resources to enhance or border security and to enhance the security of communities across the country."

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said he believed the raids were being leaked now to deter a significant surge of Central American immigrants at the southern border this summer — which could spiral into a broader humanitarian and political problem for Democrats, like the border crisis that erupted in 2014.

The number of women and children being apprehended at the southern border plummeted dramatically in January — soon after the Obama administration announced the raids. But since then, the figures have been ticking upward.

"Why would you announce raids that are not really numerically not significant? Why such a focus? Because the news goes from here to the press conferences, straight to the homes of the Salvadorans, the Guatemalans," Gutierrez said. "Here's the problem. It's not going to work."

Both Clinton and Sanders strongly condemned the latest round of deportation raids almost immediately after they were revealed. Sanders denounced what he called the "painful and inhumane business of locking up and deporting families who have fled horrendous violence in Central America and other countries." He pushed President Barack Obama to grant temporary protected status to immigrants coming from that region.

Clinton, meanwhile, detailed her opposition to "large scale raids that tear families apart and sow fear in communities" while stressing the need for proper legal counsel, especially for minors.

The two are running close in California polling. Numbers released May 25 from the Public Policy Institute of California showed Clinton up by just 2 percentage points over Sanders in the June 7 contest, although other primaries held that day are sure to put Clinton over the top in terms of delegates.

There are about 4.1 million registered Latino voters in California, which is nearly one out of every four voters in the state, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

"There is always the concern that what this administration does could potentially affect participation and turnout," said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "But I think if it does, I think it would be very minimal."