Yesterday I was musing on this:

At the same time it does seem like all this shit is just backfiring on these feckless and venal corporate lackey clowns heading the DNC. They’re even starting to lose moderate Dems. When that begins to reach critical mass with voters they’re going to start flocking to the only genuine, authentic and honest candidate in support. It’s doubtful that the short term boon out of this Pete depravity will amount to anything. Ultimately it will totally be their undoing as the public sees for all time how corrupt the whole process really is.

And now today there's this:

This is the best thing you'll see all afternoon. pic.twitter.com/XChFhuhXuW

— This handle kills fascist rats (@BethLynch2020) February 11, 2020

“The reason I went for Bernie is because of MSNBC.

I think it is completely cynical to say that he lost 50% of his vote from the last time when there were two candidates. Now there are multiple wonderful candidates who would be great Presidents and people that we could unify and get behind.

But the Stop Bernie cynicism that I heard from a number of people that I watch on MSNBC, which I watch constantly. So I heard this from a number of commentators.

Yesterday made me angry.

And I said, ‘OK, Bernie’s got my vote.’

I think we're about to see a lot more backlash voting like this. People know what's up, and they don't like bullying, unfairness or cheating - especially when the person being treated that way is the pinnacle of trustworthiness and authenticity, as he is as the most popular politician in the country by far.

Amy Goodman on Democracy Now today was more indignant than I'd heard her in a while about the Democratic primary. Recalled for me how she rightfully pointed that during 2016 Trump's empty podium got more coverage than a Bernie Sanders primary victory speech (I think it was her who I first heard say it).

She let loose here (14:30):

...it's just astoundingly....the corporate media, I'm not talking about
Fox, I'm talking about MSNBC and CNN, are so anti-Bernie it's just remarkable.

Yesterday I think one of the commentators used the term, let's talk about all the candidates: 'Bernie obviously has flatlined at number one.' They say flatlined at number one. I was trying to think, 'how do you say number one in a negative way, flatline?' So there's nothing to talk about. 'Amy Klobuchar, she has really risen in the polls - at something like four to seven percent. And then they talked about the 'Amy Surge.' And I'm just wondering.

I mean today on MSNBC in the morning, they're right there in Manchester, Trump had just spoken and there was Bernie at a rally of 7,500 people. Of the six people in their little circle none had been to Bernie Sanders event last night, which was not far away, but they've been many different places. And there was John Heilemann talking about the very significant 7,500 people at Bernie's rally last night. Mika Brzezinski said, 'yeah, but who knows if any of them are from here' or something like that, if they're from from New Hampshire

Then Goodman plays the by now infamous Chucky Todd clip of the corporate sieve lacking the discretion to not read an irresponsibly incendiary quip by some clown named Jonathan Last at some place called Bulwark. Rather, as the good German corporate stooge propagandist that he is he can't help himself in doing the bidding of his owners, which was to, as we've seen in countless examples, further taint Bernie with the most negative brush. But in this case it was a particularly egregious, vicious anti-Semitic slander against the only candidate who has family killed in the Holocaust.

Then turned to Norman Solomon:

I would boil it down to a five-year corporate media assault on Bernie Sanders.

There was a notorious one-day period that FAIR, the media watch group, documented on the eve
of the pivotal Michigan primary in 2016, where the newspaper owned by the richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos, The Washington Post published 16 negative articles about Bernie Sanders in 16 hours. And that pattern has continued.

And what we've seen in recent weeks, as Bernie's strength has risen, is an escalation of the war on Bernie. Not a hundred percent war on Bernie, but the vast preponderance of coverage of Bernie from corporate media.

And people need to remember that if you, for instance, don't trust Comcast why would you trust a network that is owned by Comcast? These are class interests being worked out, where the top strata of ownership and investors hires the CEO, hires the managing editors, hires the reporters.

So what we're seeing, not to be rhetorical about it, but we're really seeing a class war underway.

And Bernie Sanders is very clear about who he aligns with he aligns with, working people. He aligns with the elderly, aligns with children who need neo-natal care, nutrition from 1-5 (yrs), he is fighting for people who don't have power in the society and suffer from lack of power. And he's fighting against those who have too much power.

So the net effect is, it's not only the Democratic National Committee that Bernie is up against, I think even more significantly, the Bernie Sanders campaign which now is I think truly a movement or a constellation of movements, the Bernie Sanders campaign is up against the oligarchy. And that oligarchy's biggest and strongest arm are the corporate media outlets.

And what's this from Market Watch, "Opinion: Bernie Sanders isn’t a radical — he’s a pragmatist who fights to un-rig the system"?

As Bernie Sanders continues to increase his standing in the Democratic primary, and his opponents in both parties feel the pain, there is an effort to paint him as an extremist of some sort. Someone who might even lose to Trump because of this alleged “radicalism.” But it’s not that easy to make the case on the basis of facts.

He has a 40-year track record as a politician. The things he is saying now are mostly what he has shouted from the mountain tops for pretty much the whole time. The main difference is that now, other Democratic politicians have joined him: on a $15 minimum wage, student-debt relief, free tuition at public universities, expanding Social Security, reducing income inequality, and some even on Medicare for All.

Get ready for the predictable slew of backhand Bernie-defending pieces from unexpected places. It's all in the game of keeping the race interesting with some weird sense of balance, which is really only a strategy of keeping their advertisers happy for as long as possible. Drama, sensationalism, etc.

I did my part today. Spent a couple of hours today phone-banking from my kitchen table. Had some good conversations with folks in NH. One was a union rep who told me how Bernie would come over for their meetings. Another said he was disappointed that some in his family had fallen for the corporate, Platitudes Over People, CIA Rat. Others said they had convinced loved ones and friends to vote Bernie also. Overall, there was a good feeling about tonight. Felt good to talk to people and hear what they were saying.

Then I read this...

Al Johnson Spent His Last Hours On Earth Making Calls for Bernie

Al was born and raised in the projects in Quincy, son of a Kentucky Coal Miner. He was drafted into the U.S. Army, and in 1969, after receiving orders to go to Vietnam, was arrested outside of Fort Devens in uniform protesting the Vietnam War with a group of Quakers. Al considered himself a Conscientious Objector but the army didn’t agree and he spent a year in military prison, separated from others and in solitary confinement most of the time so that he would not influence the other GI’s. Due to the support and legal advocacy from the Quakers, Al was honorably discharged from the army in 1971.

Al was a math teacher at Madison Park H.S. in Boston. The headmaster there thought very highly of Al because he successfully tutored many students so they could pass the MCAS exam, when previously they had failed it, sometimes multiple times. While teaching, Al attended Law School and passed the Bar Exam. He worked as an attorney often doing pro bono work for social justice causes.

In 2009 he became a member of the Smedley Butler Brigade, which is Boston’s chapter of Veterans for Peace. For years he was co-coordinator of VFP.

Al’s last passion was getting Bernie elected. He drove to New Hampshire nearly every weekend, canvassing, organizing and inspiring others, especially young people. All this time he was struggling with the discomforts of Stage 4 cancer. He helped organize a local Bernie affiliate group in Dorchester. He raised thousands of dollars for the campaign from his attorney friends on the golf course and had a mission to give every volunteer a Bernie T-shirt. The day before he went into the ICU, he made 200 phone calls for Bernie from his hospital bed. Al had a profound impact on the lives of many people and his legacy lives on.

Goosebumps.

Sanders Crushes Trump by 18 Points Among Independent Voters in New National General Election Poll

In head-to-head matchups incredibly #BloombergIsARacist polls at the same as Bernie, 4pts ahead of Trump. But today Twitter blew up with that hashtag and it's a pretty good bet that this is just the tip of the iceberg that will sink his campaign. There's no way he's going to attract minorities. There's sooo much shit on this guy, including his endorsement speech at the RNC for Bush in 2004 and many examples of casual authoritarianism and racism.

76 Percent of Democrats Say They'd Vote for a Socialist for President, New Poll Shows

When it came to candidates who were socialists, Democrats were most likely to answer that they would vote for them. Seventy-six percent of Democrats said they would back a socialist candidate, compared with 17 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independents.

Being a socialist was the only characteristic to receive "majority opposition" from most Americans, according to Gallup. That is, a plurality of Americans said they would not vote for a socialist. About 53 percent of Americans said they would not vote for a socialist, while 45 percent said that they would. The percentage of those who would vote that way was down 2 points from a 2015 Gallup poll that asked the same question.

Yeah, well, how would they vote if it was a fascist? No one is going to self-define that way so we'll never know. But the real story is that for the first time ever, if Bernie is the nominee, "socialism" will be discussed in a very open way. And I'm not sweating that at all. As Bernie frequently reminds people (paraphrasing), "Trump's a socialist too. We just have different views on it. He's a corporate socialist who thinks we should be giving free money to billionaires. I'm a Democratic Socialist who thinks we should be helping working people with things like free healthcare and college."

Listen to various reports from the ground and you'll hear amazing stories like this everywhere abut the Bernie campaign's incredible diversity and dedication, invariably with stories of people from all over the world.

These folks give me strength:

“For us it’s quite normal. You have to rally4this. For us it’s just common sense”

PLS listen2her! Esp the end. She came w/group from HOLLAND to support #BernieForNH Feel free to pass interview on to Chuck Todd & Chris Mathews #NHprimary2020 #NewHampshire pic.twitter.com/yBGF7KZ9Zm

— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) February 11, 2020

“In the end we are interdependent. And that’s why we came from Netherlands. Because things you do in the U.S. does impact other people as well”

Bernie is a global candidate. Ppl from many countries in support of #BernieSanders in #NewHampshire #BernieForNH #NHprimary pic.twitter.com/8fKZsySleV

— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) February 11, 2020

This is the same kind of thing that happened in '08 with Obama - and you remember how that went. He spoke in Berlin to 60k. And he won BIG.

But Bernie's campaign is potentially truly a worldwide movement. It's much deeper than Obama's smooth charisma and celebrity appeal. It moves people in a more fundamentally spiritual way to identify with the downtrodden and maligned, those who have also been steamrolled by the 1%. Its appeal is to those who are tired of manufactured division and long for a real sense of solidarity with their counterparts all across the world.

uh, wait...what's this? Just in:

BREAKING: At 1% reporting, Pete Buttigieg has just declared victory in the New Hampshire primary. Press conference with CNN forthcoming.

— Caroline the Bernie Broette (@berniebroette) February 11, 2020

Heh...

C'mon New Hampshire.

Let's crank this up!