Although the voting didn’t go the way we had hoped last night in NY, the timing that made today 4/20 helped ease the pain.
Yes, today is the day known for the biggest pot parties around the country. The reason why is fascinating. Huffington Post‘s Ryan Grim got to the bottom of the origin of 420 as code for “weed”.
Deborah Newell joins in on Wed mornings to poke fun at our state of FloriDUH, but today, we took a detour to the Patients Out Of Time conference in Baltimore last week. Actually, she took the detour last week and told us about it this morning.
In the meantime, I got some juicy dirt from an anonymous listener this week about Florida’s Attorney General, the heinous Pam Bondi. It seems that a series of pictures of Ms. Bondi have surfaced around Florida of Bondi with a married businessman named John Wakefield looking very familiar. Apparently rumors have been flying that there’s more than just inappropriate photos going on…
But back to the really dirty stuff… hundreds of thousands of voters purged from the rolls in New York City – whole buildings and city blocks in Brooklyn just disappeared.
Hillary Clinton won New York by winning 50 of NY’s 62 counties. Bernie Sanders won everywhere else!
Every time I’ve reported on voting irregularities and problems over the last few weeks, I’ve referred to an email exchange I had with James E. Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson (the one who was responsible for releasing the infamous Mitt Romney 47% tape).
I asked him if we could get his grandfather to monitor US elections, and this was his response:
I’ve actually talked to my grandfather about why the Carter Center doesn’t monitor US elections. Basically, the US doesn’t meet the minimum standards required by the Carter Center for them to even consider monitoring. One of the major requirements is the the country have one election system for the entire country with the same rules. In the US there is a completely different system for every state and county. Some of these require voter id, some don’t. Some states regularly purge their voter registration rolls, some don’t. there’s just no way for them to do it effectively. Another one of the major requirements is that there is one independent and impartial Electoral Management Body that has authority over the elections. Attached is the handbook the Carter Center uses. (*download it here: cc-OES-handbook-10172014 )It’s laughable how poorly our election system compares to the international best practices.
That just might be the most depressing thing you’ll hear all year. We must fix this mess!
But the question on everyone’s mind today is what happens next? Dave Johnson of the Campaign for America’s Future joined me to share in the misery, but put things in perspective.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama in the NY Primary, 57.4 to 40.3. Last night, her margin of victory was smaller, beating Bernie Sanders 57.9 t0 Bernie’s 42.1.
And regarding delegates, the only thing that really matters in a primary race, Hillary Clinton netted only a 31 delegate gain.
Onward … Next Tuesday, people vote in five states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. We keep going through California on June 7, after which Bernie Sanders should be in the lead with pledged delegates. Keep the faith!
Here’s your 4/20 Preshow Music playlist:
And some cannabis education, courtesy of Robert Platshorn (who’ll join us Friday morning), Should Grandma Smoke Pot?
