Was There a Primary in DC Yesterday?

DC was yesterday. DC? Isn’t that a comic book? Or a type of electricity? Yeah, with AC, it was a rock group, right? Digital Camera? Dot Com? Date Created? Doctor of Chiropractic? Oh, wait! I know: “Don’t Care.” Yeah, I know. We didn’t even pretend to care that yesterday was the final primary—in the District of Columbia.

One reason was that we were all so distracted by the Orlando shooting. We can hardly seem to think of anything besides the nation’s historic worst shooting spree. But it’s also because the DC primary made no difference. Donald Trump is over the limit, and DC Republicans already voted back in March. And on the Dem side, DC was not enough to push Hillary Clinton over the top, anyway.

Of course, it didn’t hurt her to win resoundingly, with 78.6% of the popular vote, and getting 16 of the 20 delegates. Clinton can now say that she regained the momentum. For what that’s worth.

But there are still things to report. Such as Bernie Sanders’ (you know, “the socialist’s”) strength among the military.

Sen. Bernie Sanders may fall short of winning the Democratic presidential nomination, but it won’t be for lack of support from ranks of the U.S. military.

Sanders has gotten more contributions from those who work for the Department of Defense or a branch of the military than any other candidate, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign funding.

Sanders has received $374,600 from the military, surpassing $247,649 raised by presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump’s $15,502.

To observers, the donations reflect the youth of service members and Sanders’ resonance among their age group.

“Sanders is crushing everybody with young voters,” said Jon Soltz, a former U.S. Army officer in Iraq and chairman of the liberal veterans group VoteVets.org. . .

But Clinton’s supporters. . .including Rep. Seth Moulton, a Salem Democrat, the study’s significance is Trump’s apparent lack of support within the military.

Of course, the lack of donations to Trump could be that he said he was self-financing his campaign. Or it could be that the young military is more pro-Bernie than anti-Trump.

But recent polls contradict the point.

In an unscientific poll of subscribers, Military Times found Trump leading Clinton, 54 percent to 21 percent. Trump also leads in a hypothetical match-up with Sanders, 51 percent to 38 percent.

A Morning Consult poll of 951 active duty troops, reservists and National Guardsmen last month had Trump leading Clinton, 47 to 38 percent.

And the end of the primary season doesn’t mean we’ve heard the last of Bernie.

Bernie Sanders held a press conference on Tuesday calling for reform of the Democratic party—starting with the ouster of Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz—and said he would remain in the presidential race until the end.

Speaking ahead of a planned meeting with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Sanders said, “The time is now—in fact, the time is long overdue, for a fundamental transformation of the Democratic party.”

We need a party which is prepared to stand up for the disappearing middle class, for the 47 million people in this country who are living in poverty, and take on the greed of the powerful special interests that are doing so much harm to this country, who have so much power over the political and economic life of our country,” he said.

“We need, obviously, to get rid of superdelegates,” he added.

And there it is. On another page, I noted that Donald Trump was adamantly against the unfairness and arcane nature of the GOP primaries—until he won. Now, he thinks unfairness is just fine. I wondered if the Dems would also forget about straightening out the system on their side. Apparently, Bernie has the power and the dedication at least to try.

Also in the news, Bernie and Hillary met Tuesday night, reportedly to discuss Bernie’s upcoming influence.

When asked why he was refusing to endorse Clinton, he said: “I think that what has to happen and what this fight has always been about is transforming America. It is standing up for working people, it is fighting for a progressive agenda which serves the needs of working people and not powerful corporate interests and we are going to take that fight into the convention in Philadelphia.”

Well, duh. Why would Bernie endorse Hillary now? He has power as long as they have to please him—as long as he has almost half the convention hanging on his every word. After all, what have you heard lately from those other guys. . .who were they? Mickey Rubio? Tom Cruz? And that guy from, where, Ohio?