Thousands March In Philadelphia for Climate, Clean Energy And Bernie Sanders

Voices of the people ignored by Corporate Democrats who run the DNC

“Hell No, DNC, we won’t vote for Hillary”

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong,
You don’t wanna save me, sad is my song

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, yeh, yeh ~~~ “Superstition” Stevie Wonder

[Update below]

There were two large marches today in Philadelphia designed to send a message to a corrupt DNC and the likely nominee Hillary Clinton on the eve of the Democratic National Convention which starts tomorrow.

I joined the People Over Pipelines crew on the Riverline train ride down, but was on bicycle and we split at Camden.

The heat was stifling (97 degrees and humid) but the mood was festive and a good vibe. The crowd was diverse – impressed with large number of young people. The police were surprisingly respectful and deployed mostly on bicycles or on foot in regular uniform – not even a hint of violence or tactical military intimidation that we’ve seen so often. I spoke with several officers who understood what was going on and a police Captain spoke with a black man at the Black Men for Bernie rally.

The Climate, Clean Energy, Ban Fracking focused march rallied in the quad of City hall and began marching around 1 pm. There were many Sanders’ signs and a large majority of the march were Sanders supporters.

The Bernie support march rallied across the street later in the day and march a little over 4 miles to FDR Park. I had a violent touch of food poisoning, and had to leave before festivities began at FDR Park. Thankfully, the porta-potties were in the right place at the right time.

I didn’t see any Hillary supporters in either crowd – Philadelphia police estimate 10,000 people for the climate march and about half that for the Sanders march.

The NY Times story emphasized the Sanders v. Clinton conflict. The Real News live streamed.

[Update: 7/25/16 – Democracy Now! did a segment on the clean energy march.

Remarkably, only two Gov.’s were targeted for criticism – Pa Gov. Wolf and NY Gov. Cuomo – despite the fact that TWO NJ based activists were interviewed and Gov. Christie – who has a horrid climate and energy record – is in Trump’s inner circle! Watch:

And we want to stop fracking now, immediately, Governor Wolf, in Pennsylvania. […]

Right now there’s, you know, attempts to bailout the nuclear industry going on across the country, including in New York State, where Governor Cuomo is trying to build a reputation for himself as a clean energy Governor, is trying to do a seven point — include a $7.6 billion ballot to nuclear power plants in a supposed clean energy standard that he wants to pass in a week.

That is further evidence of the failed climate, energy and pipeline strategy of NJ activists, who have refused to publicly criticize, or remained silent, or failed to target Gov. Christie, even when he was – and still remains – in the national spotlight as a close advisor to Trump. ~~~ end]

Some photos to try to give a sense of the day (both events combined as they shared common themes):