Hillary Over the Top, Sentencing Outrage

2,383: As voters go the polls in California and five other states this morning, Hillary Clinton is just a handful of elected delegates from the number that assures her the Democratic nomination for president. But the Associated Press reports that she already has enough “superdelgates” to put her over the top, making her likely to become the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major political party.

Clinton told a crowd in Long Beach, Calif. yesterday, “I got to tell you, according to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment.”

The question now turns to what Bernie Sanders will do. He has repeatedly pledged that the Democratic convention will be contested, although candidates sometimes save their strongest rhetoric for those last days before they fold. The Wall Street Journal reports that, “A split is emerging inside the Bernie Sanders campaign over whether the senator should stand down after Tuesday’s election contests and unite behind Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, or take the fight all the way to the July party convention and try to pry the nomination from her.”

Sanders said he will go to the convention and try to win over the superdelgates, the ones not pledged by election. The man from Vermont has complained that it’s a corrupt system, but Glenn Kessler wrote in The Washington Post that “without the superdelegate system in place, Sanders likely would be toast on June 7.” He said, “So Sanders is complaining about a system that is actually keeping hope alive for his supporters, on the theory that superdelgates can change their vote any time before the convention starts in late July. But it’s a false hope.”

Crime and Punishment: A recall has been initiated against the California judge who sentenced a former Stanford University swimming star to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting a young woman who was drunk and unconscious behind a dumpster on campus.

The judge’s decision shocked the victim, her family, and advocates, but not nearly so much as the pleading letter written to the judge by the father of defendant Brock Turner, which said, “His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve.” Dan Turner wrote, “That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.”

But the stunner of the entire case was the 12-page letter read to the court, and her assailant, by the victim. She said, “Your damage was concrete; stripped of titles, degrees, enrollment. My damage was internal, unseen, I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.”

And she said, “You have been convicted of violating me, intentionally, forcibly, sexually, with malicious intent, and all you can admit to is consuming alcohol.”

Shore Patrol: The Navy banned about 19,000 sailors in Japan from drinking and confined them to their bases after a drunk US sailor was involved in a car accident that injured two people on the island of Okinawa. Americans committing crimes in japan is a sore subject. All US personnel in Okinawa were confined to base after a civilian contractor was accused of murdering a local woman.

The Obit Page: Professional street fighter Kimbo Slice, one of the more popular characters in mixed martial arts, has died at age 42. No cause of death was revealed. Slice, whose real name was Kevin Ferguson, had a mixed record. Slice won a bout in February, but was stripped of the win when he tested positive for steroids.

Advertising Age: The website Buzzfeed announced that it will not accept advertising for Donald Trump’s candidacy during the presidential campaign. Although political advertising can be like shaking a money tree, BuzzFeed’s CEO Jonah Peretti said, “We don’t run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won’t accept Trump ads for the exact same reason.”

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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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