Taibbi: I Saw This Already. Bernie Is On The Same Path To Nomination as Drumpf.
(all bolding mine)
The words “eked” and “narrowly” are getting a workout in headlines today. There is a Yeah, but… passage in nearly every major media write-up of Bernie’s win. “Sanders cements his front-runner status, but his narrow margins… show how volatile this race is,” is how The New York Times put it.
In reality, the results for Sanders cut both ways. On one hand, it’s amazing he can win any state after years of propaganda depicting him as a half-dead cross of Hitler and Stalin (MSNBC before New Hampshire outdid itself with Looney Tunes commentary about “executions in Central Park” and a “digital brownshirt brigade”).
On the other hand, there are signs after New Hampshire that some of the relentless corporate messaging against Sanders is landing. This will inspire orgies of excitement — it’s already happening — as pundits revel in every storyline suggesting Democratic voters are scrambling to find an “electable” alternative.
Good. Let them. I saw this movie in 2016 and have a fair idea of how it ends. It just won’t be horrifying this time.
Read the whole thing. He lays out the case by comparing the 2016 Repug primary, in which the MSM similarly fawned faux praise on every next Flavor of the Month candidate while constantly and categorically dismissing the Orange Buffoon and this time Bernie.
In hindsight, those Republican challengers were so villainously terrible that none would have beaten Trump in a two-person race. Still, Bush’s backers knew their man was roadkill by New Hampshire, yet didn’t pull the plug. Kasich, who in a rare moment of self-awareness was ready to bail after Iowa (“If we get smoked up there, I’m going back to Ohio,” he fumed in New Hampshire), let himself be fooled by one surprise second-place finish.
All pledged to be committed to stopping Trump but accelerated his victory by staying in too long. Popular disgust was also enhanced by delusional news-media hype surrounding a succession of would-be “real” candidates.
All of this is happening all over again, only this time it’s Democrats who are committing ritualistic self-abuse, seemingly in a conspiracy with one another and the news media to push as many votes as possible to a hated outsider. I thought this outcome might be possible for Bernie nearly a year ago:
The 30,000-foot pundit view on Sanders’ chances should be that he, of course, has a chance, one rooted in the same logic that saw Trump win. He is an unconventional candidate with an at least somewhat insoluble base of support, running in an overlarge field of mostly traditional politicians, many of whom will take votes from one another.
Then he catalogs the same kinds of descriptions given to the shifting media favorites, with the same kind of clueless disconnectedness of what was going on on the ground.
This means once again, it will likely be (at least) a five-person race through Super Tuesday, this time between Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Biden, Sanders, and Mike Bloomberg, the detestable oligarch who has not even test-driven his eleventy-gazillion election-buying dollars yet. If Elizabeth Warren stays in [checks Twitter], the pie will be split in at least six big parts.
The Democratic Party’s argument against Sanders for years has been his alleged inability to grow beyond his base. Now, things have been arranged so that he may not have to dispel these notions before Super Tuesday. This may or may not be a good thing — beating Trump is important and the Democratic nominee should have to demonstrate the widest appeal — but the brutal irony of Bernie Sanders boosted by horse-race luck and conventional-wisdom miscalculation is difficult to miss.
As with Republicans in 2016, the defining characteristic of the 2020 Democratic race has been the unwieldy size of the field. The same identity crisis lurking under the Republican clown car afflicted this year’s Democratic contest: Because neither donors nor party leaders nor pundits could figure out what they should be pretending to stand for, they couldn’t coalesce around any one candidate.
It's all working in the direction of the panicked, hapless and venal Dems winding up in a situation in which they've eaten their own. Leaving Bernie the path to nomination.
These constant mercurial shifts in “momentum” — it’s Pete! It’s Amy! Paging Mike Bloomberg! — have eroded the kingmaking power of the Democratic leadership. They are eating the party from within, and seem poised to continue doing so.
For Sanders supporters, the calculation has always been simpler: Are you bought off, or not? Just by keeping to the right side of that one principle, Sanders will hold his 20-to-30 percent and keep grinding toward victory, “narrow” wins or not. It’s a classic tortoise-and-hare story. When you know where you’re going, you tend to get there.
As Phillips says to Moore, The Joker is essentially about lack of kindness and empathy, with an intention to "comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable."
Roger Waters: ‘The U.S. Is Not a Fool’s Paradise, It’s a Fool’s Hell’
When the moderator, BMG’s John Loeffler, said, “I was equally moved [in the film] just to see kids all over the world getting the message that they’re not alone,” Waters explained that he’d like to see Americans more upset by the government.
“Funnily enough, they are [connecting to that message], but unfortunately not fucking here,” he said. “Because if they were, you wouldn’t have Donald Trump as a president, you wouldn’t be having all this nonsense with the Democratic primaries, with them trying to destroy the only candidate who can possibly win against Donald Trump, Sanders.” Members of the audience, which was mostly media, cheered.
“We’re living here in a fool’s hell,” Waters said. “The United States of America is not a fool’s paradise; it’s a fool’s hell. And watching [the film], it reminded me that the great battle is the battle between propaganda and love. And propaganda is winning. And sadly, the buttons of the propaganda machine are being pushed by people who are fucking sick. These sick, sociopathic fuckers, all of them, every single one of them. Believe it or not, Donald Trump is somewhere down here, floundering around in the muddy water at the bottom of the oligarchic pool...
Then the moderator complimented Waters’ passion and anger and said that the message was about love, the former Pink Floyd member joked, “Wait till you see the new show.” Waters will be touring this summer, on a trek dubbed “This Is Not a Drill,” for which he’ll be performing in the round.
At the press event, Waters also joked about how he’d rather not sing one of his biggest hits again. But after rewatching the film, its lyrics rang true to him in a different way. “I was sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, Christ, if I ever have to sing ‘Wish You Were Here’ again, I’m gonna shoot myself,” he told the audience to laughs and “awws.” “But, obviously, I will, because actually I really like the song.… Yes, we did exchange a walk-on role in the war for a lead role in the cage. We all live in a fucking cage, and it is a walk-on role. And it won’t become the opposite of that — which is to not remain enslaved — until we all, we the people, say, ‘No, this is fucking bullshit.’ … Obviously, somehow they’ve managed to convince enough of us that this is a good idea, that we’re prepared to support it.”
“From the time I was 15 to 18, I was stopped and frisked 60 to 70 times”#BloombergIsARacist https://t.co/iQsWiUN3Qy
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) February 13, 2020
Comments
Still one of the best by far, Matt is.
Just a few pieces that caught my interest.
I'm soon turning in for the night, comrades.
Even the normie mostly moderates at the Reddit /politics site can see through the ruse of Bloomberg paying off all and sundry and blaming everything on minorities. He's not long for this thing. I don't care how much fucking money he has to spend.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
MfQ: I love Pink Floyd and own vinyl LPs of
their work like Meddle. I've seen PF live, and have tix for the Waters show this summer down here in FL. Should be righteous. I'm sure he's not a happy camper about BoJo and Brexit. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Fuck Bloomberg
Guy goes up to Bloomberg for a selfie...
Not quite as good as this one but a good start:
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
must reading?
Ryan Grim's Intercept article:
https://theintercept.com/2020/02/13/bloomberg-spending-local-state-campa...
Title: Mike Bloomberg is hiring so many operatives local and state campaigns are starving for help."
Bloomie already has 125 field offices, staffed with experienced campaign operatives and not so experienced as well. Bloomie's getting them by 1) paying well above market rate and 2) guaranteed salary through November. At least one who left Sanders' campaign for Bloomie's, remains committed to voting for Bernie, but couldn't pass up the bucks Bloomie's paying. All the news media are salivating over the prospect of Bloomie' bucks, and therefore, will become contortions to rationalize a billionaire buying the WH.
This by NY For Sanders #Bernie 2020:
https://twitter.com/NYforSanders/status/1227986644747325440
I've got another take.
What if some or a good bunch of these campaign operatives are just taking the money and running?
Or better yet, accpeting the big payday with an eye toward some subterfuge?
Yeah, a lot of them are just political junkie mercenaries and likely to go head first in hopes of creating a resume-builder if they win. But some just have the albatross of loans to pay off and know that this shit ain't right, that there's something wrong that he could just buy off the whole process.
Saw that Bloomberg ironically cost the Dems a Senate seat in PA when he hired away one of its top advisers and then dropped like $11mil to the Rep competitor, b/c he was a gun check guy he liked. Reminding us that it can effect things. But also that the Dems will sell their souls and make excuses for anyone who they think can beat Bernie - even the most heinous, crass oligarch who has no charismatic appeal whatsoever.
But Bernie's not a Democrat, right? Lemme remind those not from here that this motherfucker made our city into a serious and unsettling military zone for the 2004 RNC (vivid images of military trucks and machine-gun sentinels on every street corner all throughout Midtown seared into my head, and during which I was arrested for protesting but took vestige from the 300k comrades we had in the street), at which he gave an endorsement speech for Bush. This guy is a flip-flopping fascist to the max, with a very serious authoritarian streak ala some other rich cocksucker from NYC.
Here's what I think: given his late start, the conditions are rife for loads of confusion, disorganization and unchecked opportunities for some subterfuge, coupled with a slow burn realization that his whole campaign will be viewed by the voting public as literally the embodiment for all that is wrong and corrupt about politics. Then there's the recent and continued pummeling on Twitter which has been exposing him as a serious racist, misogynist frat boy friend of Trump's, conniving briber who's just another con man.
And the debates? He's going to be literal chum for both the sharks who are starving, Warren and Biden, and sustenance for the gaining Centrist Corporate Clowns, as well as the fucking diametric and diabolical opposite of every ounce of everything Bernie is and stood for. The fight to rip him to shreds will be glorious to watch, and just may unite the country around Bernie, the sympathetic feelings engendered of which the DNC can't seem to get out of the way of setting up for him again and again.
He'll be sunk before you know it, no matter how many bullshit ads he's running.
Which isn't to say he won't have any impact. But could you imagine him just doing enough to thwart Bernie from getting all the delegates needed and then have a contested convention in Milwaukee? It will be the ultimate shredding of the last tattered vestige of pretending that we're some God-appointed democracy instead of the Banana Republic we really are.
I don't think I'll be the only one headed there with a flickering torch.
Drip, drip, drip...
Did I neglect to mention that this motherfucker has the personality of a smushed and soggy pretzel just about to be run over by an anarchist bicycler?
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
a couple of considerations
Bloomberg also dropped big bucks in the 2016 NH Senate race; so, did he cost Republicans that seat? He's also a Republican which should disqualify him from consideration for the Democratic nomination far more than wherever he put his big bucks in play in 2016 senate races.
We have no way of gauging how much, if any, Bloomie bucks impacted the 2016 PA Senate race. Toomey's campaign spent $31 million to McGinty's $16 million; so, at a glance it Toomey had an advantage. However, that spending was dwarfed by the outside spending. $46 for McGinty to $41 for Toomey and most of that was negative, $35 million opposing Toomey and $28 million opposing McGinty. I didn't follow that aspect of that campaign; only that both candidates were weak and in PA presidential cycles, the incumbent Senator has for decades been the winner and it didn't matter which presidential candidate won in PA. Hence, Gore carried PA in 2000, but weak incumbent Republican Santorum also won.
In 2016 "swing states," the presidential and senate winners were from the same party. That pattern was detectable early in the general election in FL, CO, OH, NC. I found it much harder to read if NV and NH would be swing states and could see that Trump was working both of them (and apparently hasn't gotten over not carrying NH) and the polling on the Senate races were very close. In the end NV wasn't that close, but NH was extremely close, and could have gone either way in both the presidential and senate races. (However, unlike 2000, NH could only have been decisive in combination with NV.) What I never did was put PA in the swing state category; thus, expected narrow wins for HRC and Toomey. Wouldn't however reject the possibility that all that pac and super pac money that went in negative campaigning in the PA senate race bubbled up to the presidential race.
In the end, did 2016 Senate races hinge on pac and super pac spending? From this decent enough recap - sunlight foundation - no conclusion can be drawn, IMO. Looks like a no in PA, NV, and NC and a yes in all the others. Not so many potential Senate seats to flip in 2020. So expect the big money to move on to Congressional races. The democratic and republican billionaires will most likely reach parity -- after all, what else can they buy with all the cash/wealth they've accumulated by not paying workers or taxes? (Musk is going for Mars as if it's like 19th century swampland.)
Beautiful, Mark.
Keep 'em coming. I read this article earlier. Taibbi rocks. Period. He has really stepped up. These young, brave reporters are standing up for us because they ARE part of the 99%.
I'm hoping. It's all I can do. I don't have any faith in the dnc keeping this a fair process - luckily they are cheating out in the open and shouting their disdain at every opportunity - but I'm hoping.
Peace, brother.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Agreed, always quick to read anything he writes
Also the "Useful Idiots" show he does with Katie Halper:
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/rolling-stone/useful-idiots
The center cannot hold
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Published in 1919, a century ago.
The DINO/RINO party is falling apart. Voters aren't yearning for the status quo. They just want to see the world burn.
And they're going to get what they want.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
Thanks for the Yeats, WD
It reminded me of this, from the I Ching ...
I am always amazed at how such obviously perceptive thought can be buried in blinding hysteria.
The world burning...
is actually what they're trying to avoid.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
People seem to be deaf on stop and frisk
I'm seeing lots of people saying that "I hear what you're saying, but we have to beat Trump."
Or
"Sooner or later everyone needs to move on from what happened to them."
Even if they got harassed by cops for no reason and had their civil rights abused. I don't think white peoples can in anyway understand what that would be like. You are just going about your day and a bunch of plain clothed cops pull up and start assaulting you just because they have power over you.
This is a great piece by Taibbi.
Here is a twitter thread on how Bloomberg buys people's votes and lots of the other things he did to get them behind him.
I'm appalled that so many people are even thinking of voting for him, but especially the ones who grew up being hassled by the Man. How many blacks went to prison on false accusations and got stuck in the system. Just one is too many.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
how can we convince people Hillary lost?
this whole "oh no, Bernie would lose and we should never nominate a lefty because it would be disastrous" is sad since the people arguing such a thing apparently cannot reconcile that the Dems lost 1000 seats nationwide with Obama and lost a Presidential race to Trump.
Any simple statement "Hillary lost in 2016 and she's not a lefty" is met with "and it was because of Bernie". It makes me not want to associate with those people.
The proper reply to "it was because Bernie" is
Yes, and it will be again if you fail to nominate him. That is the reason why he and he alone has the best chance of beating Trump.
Then point out: Many Berniecrats feel that if Hillary had won, then today there would be no chance of Bernie winning. The Democratic incumbent would be unassailable. The same is true now. If an Establishment Dem wins, then a lefty candidate is locked out of the WH for 8 years. But if Trump wins, then a lefty can be back in the running in just 4 years.
Berniecrats see Trump beating the Establishment Dem as a victory for the left and an Establishment Dem victory as the worst case scenario.
So ask yourself: Can YOUR candidate win if the Berniecrats defect to Trump or will Bernie win if you back him against Trump.
Cuz you're NOT getting our votes just because Trump.
I'll add this bumper sticker text :
Bernie would support another nominee,
but he wouldn't be able to sell spoiled goods. And that is clearly what his top competitors are again.
They want to win, they will have to be a person voters can cast a vote for.
Hammer this over and over
Rising showed a Trump ad in one of the states Hills lost. Less than 10 secs of Her calling black predators. Now imagine what he can do with the clips we have been seeing of Bloomberg's attacking those who had no power and praising the banks.
Here is one comment defending Bloomberg the oligarch;
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
2020 Dem Primary...
in a nutshell:
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Taibbi's piece makes sense to me
It was a viewpoint I hadn't thought of. I hope he is right.
There Is One Difference Between Drumpf & Sanders That I'm
having trouble shaking and rectifying with the ideas shared by Taibbi...
Drumpf took them on head first. Smashing the oligarchy with reckless abandon. A big "Fuck You!" to the blue checkmarks and their corporate sponsors. So did his people, delighting in their deplorable-ness.
Bernie is not taking the same tack, and some of his people are standing up for themselves, not all of us are, and very few are reveling in their deplorable-ness. I know I'm not. I've self censored a bunch of times, did it today in fact on a meme contrasting Drumpf acting "retarded", poking fun like a 12 year old douche bag, at a disabled journalist, with Nancy tearing up the speech with the text,"If you think this is like this... search your soul."
I did, I found Nancy's actions to be far more dangerous and scary than Drumpf's 12 year old bully shit. I tried to write a thoughtful response, but knuckled under for fear of backlash from my woke friends. Kind of embarrassing, but... So I guess I know how Bernie feels...
That's a big difference between Bernie and Drumpf and their supporters, and I think it damages the game plan and farce-race, irrevocably, that Taibbi lays out. I do hope I'm wrong, and Taibbi makes some great points, but our rhetoric, policy, and values are at odds given this reluctance to defend ourselves.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Valid critique
My problem with Taibbi's article is that it doesn't acknowledge what we learned from the Podesta files, specifically that team Clinton want Trump to be her opponent. That completely alters what we thought we saw during the GOP primary. Clinton's media friends facilitated that desire in two ways: 1) extraordinary amount of coverage for Trump and 2) any criticism played right into Trump's wheelhouse. Coverage that gave him endless opportunities to punch back with gusto and that was music to the ears of Republicans that passionately loathe any and all forms of what they perceive as liberal. The Trumpsters are noisy, ignoramus kneejerks on this point.
Unlike Trump, the media in 2016 and this election cycle has done its best to white out Sanders. Then to demonstrate that they're not really ignoring, they attack him personally, his supporters, and his broadly popular policies.
Taibbi is correct that the RNC in 2016 and DNC in 2020 didn't/don't have a viable horse in the race. However, the RNC had nothing to gain by rejecting the primary leader of the pack -- like Democrats, they too fully expected HRC to win. Current DP elites can't get beyond 2016 and the person who had the audacity to fairly defeat their anointed one. So different from their behavior in the aftermath of 2000 when they told the legitimate winner to just go away. What they can't stomach is the possibility of not just a Sanders nomination but the possibility that he could accomplish with the great neo-liberal-con Hillary couldn't. A President Sanders non-neo-liberal/con policy positions would remake the DP or return it to what it once was and what they've spent the past forty years killing off.
Don't forget, the media MADE Trump
His campaign wouldn't have gotten anywhere without their googly-eyed paparazzi obsession ("He may be bad for America, but he's great for our ratings!") - and they loved him UNTIL he made the tactical misstep of directly threatening THEM. 15 years of obvious fascism, and they only started caring when he made them start thinking about their own fleshy asses.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Yes, they did,
but their "he's good for ratings" was a cover for what they were up to; make Trump the GOP nominee. Where team Clinton and the "liberal" media erred was that then making him a loser in the general election would be very easy.
New poll out from Texas.
Bernie passes Liz and Joe, falls into 1st place!
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/14/bernie-sanders-leading-texas-ahe...
There is some analysis towards the end that has some similarities to Matt's ideas as well.
I think this was released at midnight Texas time, so 17min ago...
It looks like he's been polling second in SC for weeks...
haven't seen any new polling, but if the collapse of Joe Biden continues, Bernie could win the first four state primaries/caucuses. What will the Clintonian-centrists do if that happens?
"The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Yossarian
Unpossible
they don't do plans for unpossible. As the SC DP is so well entrenched (not that they can win more than the odd local election or two) and tight with the Obama/Clinton movers and shakers, they won't let that happen. If Biden plummets too far and fast that rigging it for him wouldn't pass the smell test, they'll fix it for Mike. If they fail, they'll go with more denial. They're well practiced at this now; HRC won in 2016, and Bernie hasn't actually won as primaries or caucuses.
Deja Vu?
Eerily similar to several Sept/Oct polls in IA and NH that had Biden and Warren in the top two spots.
As soon as Joe and Liz drop out, the DP talking point to all good news for Sanders and bad news for them will be "Mike will fix it." (That phrase creeps me out because of Jim'll Fix It
Makes perfect sense
One of the things that pisses me off most about Trump is that he said and did a lot of things (albeit in his own FUBAR way) that liberals SHOULD have been saying and doing years ago: Calling out establishment bullshit, machete-ing his way past illusions, and saying what others just barely dare to think. That should've been OUR SIDE. WE are supposed to be Team Chaos. We used to understand that, too, and bear it proudly - but note how "Chaos" was suddenly declared Public Enemy No. 1 about 4-6 years ago (apparently by people whose grasp of metaphysics goes no deeper than watching My Little Pony or something), and it kept getting associated with Trump despite him repeatedly bellowing "LAW AND ORDER" in his speeches, and at the same time that social currents that had been liberating and mind-expanding suddenly 180'd into the most oppressively conformist shit I've seen since post-9/11 jingoism.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Trump was just winging it;
throwing out anything and everything that he'd heard and repeating whatever got him applause. His anti-establishment (DC and media) schtick was formed during his first run for POTUS (borrowed from Perot) and WWE wrestling (popular entertainment for those that like to see people getting bashed). Marketing not a public policy agenda. His stock answer to a public policy question posed by a supporter was "we're going to look into that."
Exactly why college-trained woke-ism turns me off & bums me out.
Yesterday, people here were trying to commemorate those who died in the firebombing of Dresden 75 years ago, and an array of “progressives” had nothing better to do than try to disturb and disrupt the dignity of the proceedings with chants, drummers, mockery, etc.
G_d hates Krauts. Antifa is the new Westboro Leftist Church.
Geez, I thought I liked Antifa
My criticism of them was always just that they were going after the wrong people (if their creed is "we go where they go", why aren't they punching out corporate boardrooms?).
I can hardly believe this shit; WHERE. IS. IT. COMING. FROM - and why did I never, EVER see this before 5 years ago (give or take)?!? It's as if Rush Limbaugh's opium-dreams have magically come to life.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Well said -
If one looks hard, precursors to all this could be found, but there's still something different about the current version and it's unsettling to me.
That's what they'll try to do,
but at this point, they're operating in public and they can't get away with as much as they could two, four, or six years ago.
If Bernie wins in Nevada and/or South Carolina they can't credibly pretend that it didn't happen.
That shit will be on national television.
"The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Yossarian
And hopefully every Bernie supporter will have their camera
phones recording every scam.
Happy Valentine's Day
Unless this turns out
to be for Mike another version of Trump in 2016 where Ds suck it up and agree to put aside all of Mike's racist and sexist misconduct and prior Republicanism b/c he is the one who can beat Trump and that is Priority #1.
It's already happening with ill-advised, poorly-counseled AA voters in SC as they move from the formerly most electable Biden to the current most electable Mike.
I wouldn't recommend it, and it might just be the latest ephemeral trend in the primary process. One can hope.
But no doubt that this primary season for Ds is turning out to be almost as weird as Rs had in 2016, and therefore weirdness like Mike getting the nom is not entirely out of the question.
They'll wear gloves
A key difference between Sanders 2020 race and the gop 2016 one is that the gop uses winner-take-all primaries. Thus being a plurality popular vote winner translated into an overwhelming delegate majority. Sanders, and we, won't be that lucky. This poses a dilemma for the Dem establishment since the blowback from openly dumping a plurality winner would be ferocious. Expect them to go all-in to stop Sanders as long as they can maintain a thin veneer of deniability; courageous they're not.
Short of something dire
like another health scare, or a revelation that he met secretly with Pol Pot in the 70s, the DP wouldn't dare deny him the nomination if he comes in to the convention with a solid plurality lead. There would be no fig leaf possible to put on that obvious nomination theft. But he would need a solid lead -- 150 delegate lead or less is vulnerable and could plausibly be overcome by the anti-Sanders SDs and others.
Meanwhile, I found this recent piece which I did not write but which almost precisely expresses my views of this primary process, the various candidates, and the Bernie or Bust attitude.