I have to smile when I see your admonition to hand-count ballots. We just had a Canadian Federal election, all votes in our elections are hand-counted. Because — well, machines. You’re correct. Machines can break down, get hacked. Hand counting is a better way. Sometimes it feels as though the US system is set up to be as corrupt and as corruptible as possible.

I’m a Canadian progressive, so I watch the election process with interest. Believe when I say I’m on your side — I’m for social justice, economic justice, human rights. Obviously I can’t vote in your election, and I have no axe to grind except I want Trump out as much as you do, probably, seeing as he has disrupted the progressive agenda of the Canadian government, as well as our foreign relations, for as long as he has been in power.

And he just murdered 60 Canadian citizens and residents, those who died in the shooting down of the Ukrainian Airlines flight; a direct result of his ill-considered assassination of Suleimani and the subsequent escalation of tensions.

So try to stay calm when I say the following:

If Bernie doesn’t win the nomination, he hasn’t been “robbed.” He’s lost the nomination. I understand the passionate support of Bernie and his ambitious policies, but you have to play the short-term game for long-term gain. You have to be strategic. If the DNC decides someone else is a better choice to WIN, you have to put your personal choices aside and support your party. There really are few “hold your noses” candidates for the nomination, they all have merits, any one of them would be like rays of sunshine after smog.

Support the DNC’s choice. Understand why the choice is made. Otherwise, I fear you will be in for a shock. And the shock does not stay safely contained within US borders. It bleeds.

DR