More DNC Scandal - Trying to Put Bernie in the Frame

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Hey, happy Saturday! We are back in Santa Fe from our camping/kayaking trip to Lake Powell and Zion, catching up on chores.

Took a minute to read the headlines and some of the essays here on C99, and I just read something which surprised me. To be honest, it stunned me.

But maybe it's old news. Saw a headline in Google News and decided to take a peak even though it was in bloody The Hill.

Was scanning down it, urble burble, Democratic Party follies, Brazille OMG Clinton Rigged etc etc most of which has been discussed here at C99 already.

Then this. Had to read it twice.

Though Brazile’s revelations solidify Bernie Sanders’s longstanding assertion that the primaries were rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton, Sanders was no more honest. The Sanders campaign wrote a memo to the DNC just two days before California saying he would not contest at the convention, effectively conceding the nomination before California, provided that Sanders received a private plane and staff to be paid for by the DNC for fall campaigning in order to keep his democratic socialism movement alive.

and

Above all and unequivocally so, this comportment is obscene, dishonest, and represents a level of malfeasance we have not seen before. Today, I remain a Democrat. I am a centrist and I am committed to free market capitalism. I remain proud of my service to the Clinton White House between 1994 and 2000.

I believe that Democrats need to pull together at a time of unprecedented vulnerability of the Republican Party. There needs to be a complete and total housecleaning of the infrastructure of the Democratic Party. Ultimately, Hillary Clinton needs to go away, Bernie Sanders needs to go away, Donna Brazile needs to go away. They are all complicit. We desperately need a renewed understanding of ethics in politics. I am truly sickened by what I see today, but not just because of individual behavior, though the behavior of former Secretary of State Clinton is becoming increasingly egregious.

WTF? No link to the 'Sanders campaign memo'. Who signed it? So this revelation is worthless. Could not find anything else about it but still looking.

I told my wife jb to take a look at the article and she said 'Isn't that gj wrote about on C99, the guy that wrote Dems should stick with Wall Street?'

Bingo, sure enough, that's the d*ckw*d that wrote that neolib masterpiece bs op ed in the NYT cheerleading wonderful things Wall Street has done for the country and why the Dem Party should partner going forward.

Gag me.

Hope someone here can tell me more about this supposed Sanders campaign memo, if it really exists, and comment on it's import if any.

For sure I don't trust Schoen.

Have a good evening.

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snoopydawg's picture

love the how the red tree sticks out and draws the eye to it.

Yep. No link to back up his statement about Bernie making a deal with the DNC and it smacks of desperation.
How long before we see a diary on this at ToP? Heh, I've been trolling there and there's a diary on this DNC flame out might be another Russian plot.

"Right now the “DNC RIGGED IT!” theme is trending on DKos. There is a lot of pie fight activity…
Activity that is exactly the kind of pot-stirring that Russians have been engaged in through the whole 2016 election cycle."

Right, now Donna, Elizabeth and the others who are speaking out on this are part of Putin's plot to take away our democracy.
I'm not surprised that many of them think this way. After all they still believe that we have a functioning democracy....

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@snoopydawg @snoopydawg
The Russians are behind everything else that's wrong, so they're probably behind this too.

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native

@native

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

divineorder's picture

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg will push back on this memo stuff?

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@snoopydawg My current conspiracy theory is that the whole point of Brazile's tell-all is that it will soon be discredited, probably by some character assassination done on Brazile, and that this is actually a weird-ass way of her falling on her sword for Hillary and company.

It's just too hard to believe that a machine Democrat "team player" like Brazile, who handed Hillary debate questions ahead of time, is having an attack of conscience now.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal that she was wondering if she would be a target after Seth Rich was shot. Closing office blinds in fear of snipers (thought they were all in Bosnia?) and the like.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Personally, I think Brazile is covering her ass in front of something that is about to blow up. She's always been slimy though. I didn't like or trust her as a talking head well before I woke up to all the crap. I don't trust a single word out of her.

The most suspicious aspect of her screed is that she is still on the Russia-gate meme. That has been so thoroughly discredited IMO that I'm persuaded it is a deep state lie.

Maybe it's just prefacing the downfall of Hillary, orchestrated by the deep state. Hillary has been out in the public waay too much and is making matters worse. She's a laughing stock. Amazon had to delete tons of negative reviews of her book and it is impossible to find out what her actual sales have been, but she wasn't a best seller.

You're right, Brazile has always been a little soldier. She has also been publicly abused by Hillary, so maybe it is giving her some satisfaction. The whole thing stinks.

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Big Al's picture

stating that he and his merry band of dem party supporters (because they did support his democratic party nomination) were ripped off and heads should roll? Doesn't look like it, looks like Gore in 2000, fully willing to let the duopoly do their thing and knowing that he was deceiving his supporters. Many felt, like me, he was a sheepdog from the beginning and knew exactly what he was doing and what was going on in the DNC. His silence now is telling.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Big Al

he stayed silent during the primary when he saw how it was being rigged for Her. He stayed silent when the states he won went to Hillary because of her deal with the superdelegates. This too is in the article I linked.

I had called out his foreign policy views all through the primary, but was told to shut up. I didn't vote for him, but did hope that he won if only to keep Her and Bill out of the WH, but I knew that our foreign policies weren't going to change. He had no problem with the Obama drone assassination program.

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@snoopydawg
He pretended as if foreign policy didn't really exist. That was convenient for him. I'm not sure he has one even yet.

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native

divineorder's picture

@native

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder

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native

divineorder's picture

@native FP had been added to progressive coalition goals like Med8care for All late in summer. Have to look for link. Brand New Congress an others tweeted about it before Sanders policy spoech.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

@native

but he was often asked about this country's foreign policies and he agreed with most of it. In one interview on this, he was asked if he would continue the drone program and he said he would. If he didn't see a problem with this, then I doubt that he would try to change anything in the Middle East. He did say that the Saudis should do more of the fighting there, but I never heard him say that we should bring the troops home.

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Wink's picture

@native
fuck about "foreign policy" when our domestic policy is poison? If we can't save ourselves how are we going to save anyone else? Bernie may be "weak" on "foreign policy," but so fucking what? America is circling the drain and people are worried about Bernie's foreign policy or lack of one? They're going to vote for the Repub becuz Bernie has no foreign policy?

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Lookout's picture

@Wink

is dependent on stopping all our wars (in my view) in order to provide the money to cure our social issues (medicare for all, free college, infrastructure development, green energy transition, and so on).

The other fatal flaw in our foreign policy is that bombing and droning people creates MORE terrorists. We need a national priority on ending our wars and promoting peace rather than conflict. Sadly Bernie has been very weak on these issues.

For example when the $hill attacked Bernie on his gun ownership views, why the hell didn't he ask her about all the arms trades she had promoted as SoS? Perhaps cause the deal was rigged from the start?

No matter the primary speculation, I think our foreign policy is extremely important and speaks to the nature of our country (war mongering, arms dealing, profiteers).

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Wink's picture

@Lookout
where Bernie will go re. his foreign policy should he get elected. One, I don't believe he's running, so the point is moot. But even if he does - and wins - dynamics change. Dynamics change, especially if the winner is rushed into Office on the winds of a voter mandate. So... his foreign policy views could change. Or not. But, for me - and the 15,000 crowds he drew - whether his views on foreign policy change doesn't much matter. The wars likely will continue on his watch. But, he can still "fight" those wars and cut the "Defense" budget at the same time. Cut the budget to pay for social programs. It's likely the only route he has to get any $$ from the Repubs. So... he Could continue the Repub wars on a Much smaller budget, using the savings to pay for social programs. Either way, or other ways, those 15,000 that showed up at Rallies didn't show up to hear Bernie talk about foreign policy. If he doesn't accomplish domestic policy goals he won't be there long. The war(s) for most people are "over there." Out of sight, out of mind. I suspect that if Obama couldn't end them that Bernie will do about the same. The only way to end them is to defund them. Bernie might be able to do that. Maybe. I would Love to see it. But if he doesn't...

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@snoopydawg that he has loved ones.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

@Big Al Maybe this time he can re-emphasize to the unwashed masses that he believes the primaries were "fair"?

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

divineorder's picture

@Big Al

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder thanks, I followed the absurdly obfuscated link Wink to the article: Bernie Sanders Camp: The Fix Was in Against Us

The "evidence" there, as far as I can tell amounts to this:

Meanwhile, Jeff Weaver, the campaign's former campaign manager, dismissed the clause in Clinton’s agreement limiting engagement exclusively to general election activity as a fig leaf.

"Throwing this catchall at the end saying that this document doesn't say what it says is a little disingenuous," he said. "Anybody who suggests we were being treated the same way is playing semantic games."

Here's an article from medium.com about Alex, part of a series: How MSNBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald Colluded With The Failed Clinton Campaign

On February 8, 2016 — one day before the New Hampshire presidential primary — the Super PAC proprietor, Hillary Clinton ally, and former conservative provocateur David Brock issued a “call to arms.” The Bernie Sanders “purity bubble,” declared, must be burst. (It was reported that the impetus for this “call to arms” was an aggressive anti-Sanders diatribe by none other than Bill Clinton.) Within hours, Alex Seitz-Wald, a reporter at MSNBC, had published a story slamming Sanders’ alleged inability to uphold his own lofty notions of “purity.”
...

clinton tools will print anything?
on demand!

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Strife Delivery's picture

@Big Al Every day that passes is another exclamation point to the reality that Sanders is a useless sheepdog.

Any normal human being with balls and a conscience would have fought back. But he won't. A useless lickspittle to corporate power.

The man rails against the duopoly for years but when he has enormous power what does he do. Nothing. He in fact does everything to prop up the Democratic Party.

Every new revelation about the corruption and malice of the Democratic Party is another stab to the heart of those who followed this sheepdog. The Democratic Party is a cancer to this world that must be completely and utterly destroyed.

I'm sickened and saddened that I was conned by this man.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Strife Delivery Tangling with the Clinton/Bush political machine is no joke.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Strife Delivery I agree with you that he's a useless sheepdog. But you weren't so much conned as caught in the middle of him stumbling over his own feet. He clearly never thought he'd be able to come within a mile of beating her. He was just trying to keep part of the political spectrum from disappearing from the public mind.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Strife Delivery's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Well what about now?

Sure there are two different times to discuss events: Primary/General and After General.

We are far in After stage.

Bernie has shown, time and time again, to defend the Democratic Party. And time and time again, more gets revealed about the rot and corruption of said party.

I mean what is his next press release going to be? "We need to look forward and reform the party." Fuck that. He could, right now, kill the Democratic Party. I have a fairly firm belief that if he did a 3rd party, he could outright just kill the Democratic Party. But he doesn't do it. The Democratic Party is so weak right now. Just kill the damn thing. But he won't. The most powerful politician in the country is him and he refuses to do what is necessary.

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@Strife Delivery
He could destroy the Democratic Party. MAYBE he could walk away with more than half. But he could not win the presidency, let alone elect a substantial number of allies in Congress. The big winners would be Republicans with majorities large enough to gut Medicaid, increase copays and maybe even privatize Medicare, at least cut and maybe means test Social Security.

Bernie's destruction of the Democratic Party might make many people here feel good for a while. But it would do terrible, sometimes fatal, harm to a lot of hardworking people. First do no harm.

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Strife Delivery's picture

@FuturePassed @FuturePassed Yeah no going to completely disagree here.

To start, not only did during his run he get Democrats, but he got Independents and even Republicans.

So yeah let's say that he got half the Democrats. Check.
Well I'm going to go out on a limb and say he gets a boatload of Independents, Republicans, and also some non-voters who felt they had no option before. I mean there are several Republicans who would have voted Sanders but once he was gone went to Trump.

But really the reality of this 3rd party is to kill the Democratic Party. The thing is the Democratic and Republican Parties both require each other to survive. The only reason either one is alive is because the other one props them up during their low moments. Once the Dem party dies, the Republican party would be severely crippled and perhaps also be on its way to death.

The big winners would be Republicans with majorities large enough to gut Medicaid, increase copays and maybe even privatize Medicare, at least cut and maybe means test Social Security.

You mean all the things that Democrats have been pushing to do as well as we've seen under the Clintons and Obama?

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@Strife Delivery
it hasn't occurred to you that a significant number of Democrats who voted for Bernie would never have done so if he hadn't promised he would support the party's nominee. The idea that they would see the action as a breach of faith, vote for Hillary, and hold Bernie and the left even more responsible for Trump than they do now is inconceivable.

Make yourself a stiff drink and lurk at the GOS for a while. Read the people still defending Bernie. How many of them do you think would have voted for Bernie as a third party candidate?

I don't consider the efforts of Presidents Clinton and Obama to triangulate bills with near universal support from Republican members of Congress and a minority of Democrats an indictment of Democrats who opposed the bills.

The destruction of the Whig Party by the Republicans didn't destroy the Democratic Party.

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Strife Delivery's picture

@FuturePassed

it hasn't occurred to you that a significant number of Democrats who voted for Bernie would never have done so if he hadn't promised he would support the party's nominee. The idea that they would see the action as a breach of faith, vote for Hillary, and hold Bernie and the left even more responsible for Trump than they do now is inconceivable.

Make yourself a stiff drink and lurk at the GOS for a while. Read the people still defending Bernie. How many of them do you think would have voted for Bernie as a third party candidate?

I don't consider the efforts of Presidents Clinton and Obama to triangulate bills with near universal support from Republican members of Congress and a minority of Democrats an indictment of Democrats who opposed the bills.

The destruction of the Whig Party by the Republicans didn't destroy the Democratic Party.

Again I'm talking about now, not during the 2016 general. As I told Can't Stop, there are two different time events (Primary/General and well Now). Each one of those has their own set of arguments.

Daily Kos is a cesspool. A reactionary pool of wealthy, old people.

They are mad at whatever Sanders does. If he ran 3rd party or ran in the Dem party. Fine, then just go 3rd party. Would all Democrats go to Sanders for 3rd party? No. But again it is irrelevant. You have Democrats, Independent, Republicans, and non-voters.

I would have to look at favorability ratings of the parties 150 years ago, but I don't think both parties are as hated and despised as they are now.

I mean didn't half of the Dem senators vote for the Iraq war?
Instead of single payer, they triangulated us over to RomneyCare.
Republicans believe climate change is a hoax whereas Democrats know it exists but just don't care.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@FuturePassed

but, IMO, it's difficult to argue that SD's statement (below)

You mean all the things that Democrats have been pushing to do as well as we've seen under the Clintons and Obama?

doesn't have a great deal of merit. Ok

As a matter of fact, it's the reason that I've chosen to once again include the Bowles-Simpson proposal--The Moment Of Truth--in a signature line.

One example of the hypocrisy (of Dems) is the current brouhaha over the mortgage interest tax expenditure. By proposing this reform, Repubs are including one of the recommendations of the Dems and 'O's' own Catfood Commission, headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson--to close loopholes and broaden the tax base, in order to (offset and) lower tax rates.

IOW, the B-S proposal recommended that the current cap of 1 million dollar (for a first home) should be lowered to $500,000. It's in their proposal, which I've linked to below.

IMO, the only reason that Dems are squalling about the Repubs' tax plan, is because Repubs haven't called for the same expansive cuts to entitlements that B-S recommends. Which is to say (IMO), Dems are simply furious that some major tax expenditures (or loopholes) will be closed, without slashing entitlements. After all, that was the entire purpose of the Catfood Commission, which was set up by a Dem President, not a Republican.

To be clear, I'm not in favor of the B-S proposal, period. But, I find the Dems' duplicity sickening.

Bottom line, both parties are corrupt, and deserve to fail. Corruption--that was the reason that me and mine left the Dem Party in 2004, after witnessing the Dem Party PtB/MSM destroy Dean's candidacy--a candidacy which we had not only supported, but had worked for tirelessly.

Otherwise, I almost always agree with your views. Pleasantry

Mollie

The "Grand Bargain" isn't dead--it's being implemented incrementally through piecemeal legislation. Please read the 2010 Bowles-Simpson proposal, "The Moment Of Truth."

"The standard of living of the average American has to decline. I don't think you can escape that."
--Paul Volcker, The New York Times, October 18, 1979, Page 1.

“If we can divide the electorate this way, we can have them expending their energies fighting amongst themselves, over issues that for us, have no meaning whatsoever."
--USA Bankers Magazine, August 25, 1924

"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."
--Author Unknown

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

@Unabashed Liberal
I'm not sure how much we disagree. I think there are a fair number of Democrats and virtually no Republicans who agree with us enough to be worth our support. They are pressured to do things they don't want to do and face exile if they don't go along. There is also an apparently ever growing number of elected Democrats who seek elected office as a path toward personal wealth.

I've been trying to square the circle. Sometimes I imagine a third "Working People's Party" that would endorse Democrats who passed some litmus tests, ignore Democrats straddling the line, and run someone to oppose the Ben Nelson's of the world. Better a temporary Republican with an open space in the Democratic Party than a permanent Republican mole in the Democratic caucus.

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SnappleBC's picture

@FuturePassed

Why does that matter? If Bernie had run as an independent then he would've picked up whatever votes he did and, more importantly, the populist movement would've gotten off it's feet more strongly. Why should it matter if we win or lose any one election? I expect the people to lose quite a few more elections before we start winning.

Insofar as GOS... yes look at them. They are entirely not representative of the general public. They are the worst of the kool-aid drinkers mumbling scary stories to themselves to keep the bad spirits at bay. At last count, the "independent party" had almost double the number of people as either Democrats or Republicans. I'm all for trolling what few free thinkers there may be among the Democrats and rallying all those independents. And then, of course, there is the youth.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Strife Delivery Since they told him to cut it out--which IMO was the content of that call from Obama to Bernie right before the CA primary--he's been doing as they say.

Remember Mook et al said in those leaked emails that they had "leverage" over Bernie. Well, they do. They own him.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Wink's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
keep part of the political spectrum (what's left of The Left) from disappearing from the public mind."
Agree, and have said so often. Bernie may be walking a tightrope, but he has done so without totally trashing the Dem party and Still maintain a positive prominence (approval rating) in the political marketplace, Still keeping some sort of "movement" alive. Try that sometime. Try walking that tightrope. The longer Bernie plays this out the more he becomes Superman - a political genius - in my view. He walks out of the charred remains of the 2016 election not only smelling like a rose but as the "most popular" politician of the day.
He may be a useless sheepdog in some eyes, but in many more he is "the man," the leader of an undefined "movement" bent on reshaping politics in our lifetime. I've never seen him as the cheerleader of the party, but as a cheerleader of the "movement" he singlehandedly started.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Wink Yes, but we don't altogether agree, Wink, because I don't think what's left of the Left can survive within the Democratic party. This fact is not refuted by statements about the efficacy or power of third parties. What third parties are, or are not, has no effect on what the Democratic party is, or is not. If it's not a place where left-wing ideas and people can exist, it's not.

The reason we have been shoved out of the Democratic party for the past thirty years (most recently with the Perez purges) is that Clinton Democrats have had control since the late 80s, and Obama chose to side with the powerful and not reverse that trend. Obama's victory (and the corresponding victories in Congress, which gave massive majorities to the Democrats in both Houses) showed us all clearly that no amount of successful political work was going to change the people running the party--neither in the sense of converting the ones already there to our viewpoint, nor in the sense of removing those people and replacing them. We added an Obama wing of the party to the existing Clinton wing, and what we ended up getting out of it was the Iran agreement. Worth getting, certainly, since the other foreign policy option was PNAC foreign policy, but a mighty small return given that Obama ensured the continuation and expansion of all the other Bush policies, from tax policy to budget policy to torture and assassination to financial deregulation and bailouts to war. All those policies should now be called the Bush-Obama policies, or perhaps the Clinton-Bush-Obama policies.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

orlbucfan's picture

is doing a classic Covering Her Ass tactic here. Sanders tried to help out the country. This nation has been going to hell in a handbasket for over 35+ years. Sanders understands what 'public servant' means. You need to look the term up. Rec'd!! @Strife Delivery

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Wink's picture

@Big Al
is blabbing their dirty laundry all over the teevee, Rule 1., you shut up and let them keep blabbing. There's absolutely no need for Bernie to say anything.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@Wink

Bernie on CNN are mostly Republicans, not Democrats. Meaning--that amongst the Cable TV talking heads, Republicans believe [or pretend to believe] in far greater numbers than Democrats, that Brazile's claims are credible. Obviously, there may be some mischief-making afoot. Wink At any rate, it's not necessarily 'the other side' that's working against his interests.

Also, aside from Warren's monosyllabic 'yes' when Tapper threw out a question at the very end of their interview, most Dems/surrogates/shills are either dismissive of Brazile's claims, or, they claim that her revelations had absolutely no impact on the outcome of the primary election, regardless of any so-called irregularities.

Ironically, this is exactly what Symone Sanders claims. Go figure.

Mollie

"The standard of living of the average American has to decline. I don't think you can escape that."
--Paul Volcker, The New York Times, October 18, 1979, Page 1.

“If we can divide the electorate this way, we can have them expending their energies fighting amongst themselves, over issues that for us, have no meaning whatsoever."
--USA Bankers Magazine, August 25, 1924

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

A protege of Dick Morris/Mark Penn. Harvard grad. An engineer of Clintonism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Schoen

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native

divineorder's picture

@native more Wall Street shills.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder

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native

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

In the context of Hillary controlling the DNC and Obama and Biden and Reid being unwilling to help Bernie move against her, I'd consider this not malfeasance but getting the best deal you can. It was clear that Bernie was not going to be allowed to get the nomination, no way, no how.

If there's anything to be pissed at here, it's Bernie breaking his word to his supporters that he would take it all the way to the convention. But I'm inclined to consider this matter in light of the phone call Bernie got from Obama right before the CA primary. I thought at the time, and still do, that Obama was likely warning him off making any noise at the convention.

Could Bernie have been braver, and told all of them to go fuck themselves, and weathered the consequences? Sure. That's not who he is. Again IMO, he never thought he could get that close to the nomination, but entered the race merely to keep certain political ideas alive. That fits with his behavior. Then suddenly the American people were more ready for him and his ideas than he thought, and he was placed in the position of entering into a mortal (politically speaking) combat with the Clinton/Bush political machine. Like most people, he wasn't prepared to do that.

But in any case, Bernie breaking his word to us is not "malfeasance" on the same level that illegally altering people's voter registration data is malfeasance or purging people off the voter rolls because they might vote for your opponent is malfeasance.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

That's not who he is. Again IMO, he never thought he could get that close to the nomination, but entered the race merely to keep certain political ideas alive. That fits with his behavior.

This is also in keeping with Schumer's remarks to the National Press Club in November 2014--after the Dem's 2014 mid-term shellacking. At that time, Schumer--the Dem's main election strategist--laid out the Party's 2016 platform, etc.--to a 'T,' I might add. I posted excerpts from those remarks on several occasions. Unfortunately, both the audio and the transcript of that address have been removed from the NPC website.

Mollie


"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures--they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive."--Gilda Radner

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers

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travelerxxx's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

This is also in keeping with Schumer's remarks to the National Press Club in November 2014... Unfortunately, both the audio and the transcript of that address have been removed from the NPC website.

I found a transcript of Shumer's remarks here.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@travelerxxx

one to have, in that it illustrates what the Dem Leadership really thinks about tax reform. (This speech was in 2012.)

Anyhoo, at a glance, it appears that Schumer told the NPC that he and the Dems are willing to strike a 'Grand Bargain' with Republicans--raising taxes or spending, in exchange for cutting 'entitlements'--if the deal is revenue neutral, of course. I totally missed this speech; so, 'thanks.'

Pleasantry

Mollie

The "Grand Bargain" isn't dead--it's being implemented incrementally through piecemeal legislation. Please read "The Moment Of Truth."

"The standard of living of the average American has to decline. I don't think you can escape that."
--Paul Volcker, The New York Times, October 18, 1979, Page 1.

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travelerxxx's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

Here's a C-SPAN video of Schumer (D, Wall Street) speaking at the National Press Club on November 25, 2014. The video is over an hour long, and as I'm on the road, I haven't had time to watch it. No luck so far with a transcript of this.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@travelerxxx

I've also found a couple of articles about the 2014 speech. I'll either use them, or, when I have more time, cut a couple of clips from the original video that you've found. (Conveniently, one of the articles I found includes a short video clip.)

Thank you!

Good

Mollie

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@Unabashed Liberal thanks, I can't believe I still have the bookmark but here it is from readersupportednews.com, I didn't look for the original salon version:

By Josh Eidelson, Salon
27 November 13

Bernie Sanders tells Salon it "remains to be seen" if Clinton "will be a forceful advocate for working families"

...
The Burlington Free Press reported that you're open to running for president if there isn't a good enough alternative in the race. What do you think you could accomplish by running?

Well, let me just tell you, Josh, I don't wake up every morning with a huge desire to be president of the United States. I gather there are people who do. I don't.

But what I do wake up believing is that this country is facing more serious crises than we have faced since the Great Depression. And if you include the planetary crisis of global warming, the situation today may even be worse. And given that reality, what distresses me enormously is that there is very little discussion about these major crises, and even less discussion about ideas that can resolve these issues.

And this is not just a crisis within the political establishment - it's certainly a crisis within the media establishment, because media seems to be far more concerned about looking at politics as a game, or looking at personality and celebrity life, rather than kind of analyzing the problems that we face. Let me just give you just a few examples …

The great moral and economic and political crisis facing this country, which gets relatively little discussion, is the growing disparity in income and wealth that exists in America. We are in a situation where we have not been since the late 1920s, before the Depression, where the top 1 percent owns 38 percent of the financial wealth of America, while the bottom 60 - six zero - percent owns 2.3 percent of the wealth in America. That is obscene beyond belief. The worst wealth inequality in the entire - of any major country in the world. And in terms of income, the last statistics we have seen from 2009 to 2012 tell us that 95 percent of all new income in this country went to the top 1 percent.

So what you have there is obviously [a] horrendous economic situation, but it is very dangerous to our political system. Because big money interests are putting huge amounts of money into the political process through Citizens United. And these are issues that have got to be addressed, or else in my view the United States will move very rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society when our economic and political life is controlled by a handful of billionaires.

I see this as a huge moral issue, an economic issue, a political issue. There is virtually no discussion about that, virtually none. I don't know how we can be a serious nation when this issue is not front and center, and there are not real ideas out there on how we address it. That's just one issue.

The second issue is the crisis of unemployment in this country. Real unemployment is not 7.2 percent - it's close to 14 percent, including those people who have given up looking for work, and who are working part-time. Youth unemployment, youth unemployment is close to 20 percent. African-American youth unemployment is close to 40 percent. These are crises. And yet day after day, we hear about the deficit - which is a serious issue - and we hear almost nothing about the unemployment issue, which among other things is having a horrendous impact on the current young generation, the kids who have graduated high school and college. So we need a lot of discussion on that.

And certainly it is beyond comprehension - although the scientific community is almost unanimous in telling us that global warming is man-made, that it is already causing disastrous problems, and that those problems will only get worse in years to come - that we have almost no movement at all, virtually no movement in Congress on this planetary crisis.

And lastly, I would say that while the American people feel very strongly - and this is, by the way, across the board, Democrats, Republicans and independents - in opposition to cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, inside the Beltway, the political establishments, there is support for cuts to those terribly important programs.

So those are some of the issues that are out there that need discussing. We have a middle class that is disappearing, and somebody has got to be speaking strongly to defend our middle class.

there's more but I already overquoted
gosh i love bernie
without him who would be talking

Nobody 2018

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divineorder's picture

@eyo He’s still walking the walk and talking the talk more than any other politician I know of.

....

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

who wrote that thing about Sanders' malfeasance in the first place.

I really shouldn't respond to parts of an essay before I read all the way through!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Unabashed Liberal's picture

the nomination or the platform at the convention, in real time. IIRC, they first pulled out of contesting the nomination, saying that they would only contest the platform; and Bernie proceeded to endorse FSC. Then, they conceded that they would not contest the platform after all. It didn't surprise me, so I didn't bookmark anything.

For what it's worth, though, a quick web search did bring up this AP piece--stating that the Sanders campaign would not contest the platform, which was after they declined to contest the nomination--

SANDERS WILL NOT PURSUE MORE PLATFORM CHANGES
By CATHERINE LUCEY | Jul. 13, 2016 5:55 PM EDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)Bernie Sanders won't pick a fight over the Democratic Party's policy platform at the nominating convention in Philadelphia, his spokesman said Wednesday.

"We achieved almost everything we wanted in what will be the most progressive Democratic Party platform ever," spokesman Michael Briggs said in an email, calling the current draft of the official party policies, "a remarkable testament to the strength of the grassroots movement energized by Bernie's campaign." . . .

After his platform victories, Sanders endorsed presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Tuesday in New Hampshire and committed to campaigning for his former rival. He chose not to continue the platform fight, which he could have extended by submitting what are called "minority reports" and forcing votes on the convention floor.

According to Wikipedia, the dates of the California State Convention (2016) were July 25-28, 2016. The date of the piece above is July 13. But, that alone doesn't prove Schoen's contention.

Frankly, I doubt seriously that anyone in the Democratic Party who would be privy to any such letter--if there is one--is going to come forth with it. Every Dem I've seen, lately--including Bernie's former staffers--are desperately trying to shut this story down.

IOW, "move along--there's nothing to see here," is the prevailing attitude of both the Clinton and Sanders wings of the Party (among talking heads, etc.) They appear to be mostly concerned about party 'unity,' and defeating DT in 2018--not rehashing the 2016 election. Also, I haven't seen anything from Bernie's himself regarding this kerfuffle.

Mollie


"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures--they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive."--Gilda Radner

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers

Fences For Fido Screenshot.png

Fences For Fido

When a dog is unchained, a transformation begins.

It starts with what we call “zoomies:” The running, jumping, exuberant joy our Fidos display once unchained – many for the first time in years.

That visible happiness puts smiles on the faces of our volunteers and most importantly, on the faces of our client families who through this process being to connect with their pets in a more meaningful way.

Meet 'Cupcake' - FFF's 1000th Zoomy!

[video:https://youtu.be/wmTPDjXW8gE width:250 height:150]

Thank You 'Fences For Fido' Volunteers - You Are All Saints! Give rose

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divineorder's picture

@Unabashed Liberal ...

Love it!

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@divineorder @divineorder

are doing--implying, "nothing to see here, move on." What I'm talking about is actually addressing the veracity (or not) of some, or all, of Brazile's allegations.

For instance, after Symone Sanders downplays Donna's allegations, she frequently adds that 'the election was not stolen.' (I've posted a piece with that headline from a year or two ago. She still stands by that.)

IOW, she claims that nothing transpired which changed the outcome of the election. Frankly, I would be curious to know if Bernie believes this, as well.

Hey, DO--gonna find a couple transcripts/links and post them below (from CNN).

Glad you Guys had a nice camping trip. Love the gorgeous photo you posted!

Mollie

The "Grand Bargain" isn't dead--it's being implemented incrementally through piecemeal legislation. Please read the 2010 Bowles-Simpson proposal, "The Moment Of Truth."

"The standard of living of the average American has to decline. I don't think you can escape that."
--Paul Volcker, The New York Times, October 18, 1979, Page 1.

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I love the Santa Fe area and have been there many times. Lake Powell is another story... did you know that Katie Lee, a former actress, song writer and environmental activist, just dies at age 98. Her biggest environmental activity was trying to save Glen Canyon from being drowned to make Lake Powell. I watched a video of all the incredible places that Glen Canyon housed, including native american wall arts, little side pools and gorgeous terrain. Here is a link to info on Katie Lee...
http://knau.org/post/remembering-katie-lee-goddess-glen-canyon-1919-2017...

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

divineorder's picture

@Fishtroller 02 Hayduke lives!

All dams in this country need to be evaluated and most removed imo. Until that time, I will be a fool for the reflection in the water of those many beautiful geological features of Glen Canyon NRA.

Thanks for that link and the comment.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Lol, that's what they do - get outrageous lies out, accusing others of doing what they do themselves and just keep repeating the Big Lies until enough people accept it.

I'll bet they think they're just adorable...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.