If you were able to listen to all the podcasts that deal with this Iowa thing
that I have, you'd be as horrified by the perfidy of the party leadership as I
am. This was a plot to prevent Bernie from having momentum that he would have
had from clearly winning in Iowa, which would influence New Hampshire and
Nevada. And I listened to Lee Fang describe, on Useful Idiots, the incredible
financial influence that Bloomberg has and how he is poised to steal the
nomination in a brokered convention. 65 billion dollars! He's been backing
candidates and organizations and various projects for years with what seems
like a plan to cash in on all that influence he's bought.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, February 8, 2020 11:26 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: DNC in Disarray While the Sanders Campaign Gains
Momentum
It's a Circus! A One Ring Extravaganza, with two Ring Masters, one facing
Right and one facing the Middle.
"Ladies and Gents! Announcing, in the center of the one ring, two talented
candidates highly skilled in the art of walking the tight rope." Then, as the
two rope walkers climb to the top of a two foot tower, the Ring Masters perform
an act of magic, turning to face one another and suddenly melting into a single
figure.
As the two rope walkers inch along toward one another, a gaggle of Clowns rush
into the Ring and attempt to climb onto the rope. Two Giants tromp into the
Ring, wearing skin tight "T" shirts, one marked DNC and the other RNC, and
promptly begin smashing the Clowns and driving them out, much to the delight of
the audience.
The two rope walkers, one named Gentleman Joe and the other named Tiger Trump,
creep along toward one another. Then Tiger Trump bends down and, while
Gentleman Joe is waving to the audience, Tiger rubs peanut butter on the rope.
As Joe turns back, Tiger begins slowly backing up, causing Joe to move more
quickly. As he reaches the peanut butter, Tiger Trump grins and bounces up and
down. And Gentleman Joe does the most wondrous prat fall ever witnessed in
public.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/7/20, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
DNC in Disarray While the Sanders Campaign Gains Momentum By Norman
Solomon, Reader Supported News
07 February 20
As a center of elite power, the Democratic National Committee is now
floundering. Every reform it has implemented since 2016 was the result
of progressive grassroots pressure. But there are limits to what DNC
Chair Tom Perez is willing to accept without a knock-down, drag-out
fight. And in recent weeks, he has begun to do heavy lifting for
corporate Democrats - throwing roadblocks in the way of the Bernie
2020 campaign as it continues to gain momentum.
The fiasco in Iowa, despite its importance, is a sideshow compared to
what is foreshadowed by recent moves from Perez. For one thing, he
appointed avowedly anti-Bernie corporate operatives to key positions
on powerful DNC committees. The flagrant conflicts of interest have
included entrenching paid staffers for Michael Bloomberg's
presidential campaign on rules committees for the DNC and the upcoming
Democratic National Convention.
Perez soon followed up by abruptly changing the official rules to
allow Bloomberg to participate in the debate scheduled for three days
before the Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses. The egregious decision to waive
the requirement for large numbers of individual donors rolled out the
blue carpet for Bloomberg to the debate stage.
"Now suddenly a guy comes in who does not campaign one bit in Iowa,
New Hampshire, he's not on the ballot I guess in Nevada or South
Carolina, but he's worth $55 billion," Sanders said Thursday when
asked about the rules change. "I guess if you're worth $55 billion you
can get the rules changed for a debate. So, to answer your question: I
think that is an absolute outrage and really unfair."
Inconvenient facts - such as the reality that Bloomberg fervently
endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election in 2004 (in a speech
to the Republican National Convention, no less) or that as mayor of
New York he championed racist stop-and-frisk police policies - are
less important to party chieftains than the humongous dollar signs
that self-financing Bloomberg is bringing to the table.
The mayors of San Francisco, Washington, Anchorage and Albany, among
others, have already succumbed to Bloomberg's wealthy blandishments
and endorsed him, as has former Black Panther and longtime
disappointment Congressman Bobby Rush. To corporate elites, the moral
of the sordid Bloomberg story is that most people can be bought, and
Bloomberg might be the deus ex machina to lift them out of an
impending tragedy of Sanders as nominee.
The glaring subtext of all this is the now-frantic effort to find some
candidate who can prevent Sanders from becoming the party's nominee at
the national convention in July. Early corporate favorites like Beto
O'Rourke, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris fizzled and flamed out. Joe
Biden appears to be sinking. Amy Klobuchar staked her hopes on Iowa
without success. That appears to leave Pete Buttigieg and Bloomberg as
the strongest corporate contenders to prevent the corporate Democrats'
worst nightmare - the nomination of an authentic progressive populist.
A traditional claim by corporate Democrats - the assumption that
grassroots progressive campaigns are doomed - is oddly matched by the
assumptions of right-wing media and some on the left that the DNC can
successfully rig just about anything it wants to. Fox News has been
feasting on the Iowa meltdown, pleased to occasionally invite leftists
on the air to denounce the DNC, immediately followed by routine
denunciations of Democrats in general and Sanders in particular as
diabolical socialists eager to destroy any and all American freedoms
with a collectivist goal of tyranny.
Meanwhile, some progressives have such an inflated view of the DNC's
power that they propagate the idea that all is lost and Bernie is sure
to be crushed. It's the kind of defeatism that's surely appreciated by
right-wingers and corporate Democrats alike.
Perhaps needless to say, if Bernie Sanders had such a fatalistic view
of electoral politics, he never would have run for president in the
first place. People on the left who say the DNC's elite power can't be
overcome with grassroots organizing are mirroring the traditional
scorn from corporate Democrats - who insist that the left can never
dislodge them from dominance of the party, let alone end corporate dominance
of the nation.
Like millions of other progressives who support Bernie 2020, I realize
that the forces arrayed against us are tremendously powerful. That's
the nature of the corporate beast. The only way to overcome it is to
organize and fight back. That's what the movements behind the Sanders
campaign are doing right now.
In the words of a Latin American graffiti writer, "Let's save
pessimism for better times."
