@wendy davis

They're a private corporation and can go in a back room with cigars and nominate whom they please. Right?

I'm listening to more and more blues and jug band music as this proceeds....

allow me to add a few snippets from patrick martin's 'On eve of Iowa caucuses Corporate media and Democratic establishment target Sanders' 3 February 2020, wsws.org

'With polls showing Sanders holding a narrow lead over former Vice President Joe Biden and a half dozen other rivals in Iowa, and tied with Biden nationally, the media barrage has become, in all but name, a stop-Sanders campaign.

No less than five separate commentaries, including op-eds and articles purporting to be news reports, appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post alone over the weekend, all of them proclaiming that the nomination of a self-described “democratic socialist” would be a disaster for the Democrats and guarantee the reelection of President Donald Trump.

At the same time, defeated 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton stepped up her attack on Sanders, while other leading Democratic Party insiders joined the effort. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced Friday a rule change in determining eligibility for the debates that would open the door to billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and some DNC members were openly discussing proposed rules changes at the Democratic nominating convention to block Sanders.

The actual outcome of the Iowa caucuses remains highly uncertain, but Sanders continues to draw by far the largest crowds—more than 3,000 for a rally Saturday night in Cedar Rapids—and registers the widest support among youth and working people. One poll showed that among voters under the age of 50, Sanders led with 44 percent. Senator Elizabeth Warren followed with 10 percent, and no other candidate, including Biden, reached double digits.

Perhaps the most open display of media hostility to Sanders came in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post—owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and a frequent target of Sanders’ criticism. The front page of the newspaper carried the unsubtle headline, “Sanders and the specter of socialism” The central thrust of the article was that Trump would make mincemeat of Sanders in the general election by means of red-baiting vilification of “radical socialist Democrats.”

A lengthy commentary inside the newspaper, written by Dartmouth Professor Brendan Nyhan, bemoaned the fact that the Democratic rivals of Sanders weren’t “going negative” on him in the way that Trump inevitably would. Summing up the red-baiting that he claimed the Vermont senator deserved, Nyhan asked:

How many Americans know that Sanders is not just an avowed democratic socialist but a former supporter of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party, which wanted to abolish the federal defense budget and supported “solidarity” with revolutionary regimes like Iran’s and Cuba’s? Do people know that he spoke positively about Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution (“a very profound and very deep revolution”) and even praised the Soviet Union and criticized the United States during a honeymoon trip to the USSR?

Op-ed columnists in the New York Times were equally McCarthyite. Timothy Egan argued, under the headline “Bernie Sanders Can’t Win,” that what he called “class loathing” of the billionaires was not a viable electoral appeal. Echoing Nyhan, Egan wrote:

The next month presents the last chance for serious scrutiny of Sanders, who is leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire. After that, Republicans will rip the bark off him. When they’re done, you will not recognize the aging, mouth-frothing, business-destroying commie from Ben and Jerry’s dystopian dairy. Demagogy is what Republicans do best. And Sanders is ripe for caricature.

[Get a load of this hilarity (ya couldn't make this shit up if ya tried!!!!]

There was even a report by NBC News that former Secretary of State John Kerry, the defeated Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 against George W. Bush, was overheard Sunday on the phone at a Des Moines hotel discussing entering the presidential race himself because of “the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party—down whole.”

Kerry reportedly expressed regret that he would have to resign from the board of Bank of America and give up lucrative paid speeches, but could expect wealthy donors to provide backing because they “now have the reality of Bernie.”
..................................................
At a Sanders rally Friday night, Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan responded to Clinton’s attack by booing the mention of her name. By the next day, Tlaib had been compelled to issue a statement of regret and she was left off the speakers list at the next Sanders rally.

The candidate himself, as one report described it, “went out of his way to be deferential to his opponents,” and reiterated that he would support whoever won the Democratic nomination contest.
......................................................
There was a report in Politico that members of the DNC have begun privately discussing a change in the convention rules to allow so-called super-delegates—elected officials and members of the DNC—to vote on the first ballot of the presidential nomination. Under current rules, they have no vote on the first ballot, which is reserved to delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses, and can vote only if no candidate has an initial majority and the contest goes to a second ballot. Such a change would be transparently aimed at blocking a first-ballot win by Sanders.'

@Dr. John Carpenter
to do the polling I am comfortable calling bullshit. The excuse was that Buttigieg's name was scrolled off of the bottom of the screen in one instant and didn't get offered as a choice. Not a reason to throw out the entire poll. And it doesn't pass the smell test anyway.

The funny thing about all this is, they could be telling the truth. I find it a bit difficult to buy that a poll this important was run that sloppy, but I suppose it's possible. However, it's interesting how things like this seem to be happening more and more and it's always to the determent of the Sanders campaign. I've already seen the "you Sanders people think everything is a conspiracy theory" comments, but you know, when the evidence starts piling up, it starts to look more like a plain old conspiracy, no theory needed.

@Dr. John Carpenter

against us:

https://www.gregpalast.com/bernie-won-california-official-un-count/

https://granitegrok.com/blog/2016/11/bernie-needs-ground-pulp

The funny thing about all this is, they could be telling the truth. I find it a bit difficult to buy that a poll this important was run that sloppy, but I suppose it's possible. However, it's interesting how things like this seem to be happening more and more and it's always to the determent of the Sanders campaign. I've already seen the "you Sanders people think everything is a conspiracy theory" comments, but you know, when the evidence starts piling up, it starts to look more like a plain old conspiracy, no theory needed.

@laurel at least as far as Bloomberg goes. 10-minute video.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD5CzBPvhw4]

I hope the Sanders campaign will directly address what the opposition is doing. Just meet it head on, and get people to see it for what it is. As for Iowa, it would have to be a last ditch direct reach-out of some sort -- not panicky or obviously manipulative, just sort of "here is how they're trying to stop us."

Actually, I wish Bernie had Bloomberg's ad people, because the Bloomberg ads are pure genius. I guess you get what you pay for.

This is the crucial time. I don't think we can afford over confidence. If there's any hope for a peaceful end to corporate rule, it's down to Bernie. He must win.

@Anja Geitz

Did you see these two most recent Bernie ads below? I guess he gets lots, lots more than he pays for. . . I watched the Bloomberg Superbowl ad and concluded, "Meh, well Bloomberg might take away a couple of African American votes from Biden." I look forward to see how all the prognostications in this thread pan out come tonight.

[video:https://youtu.be/2WK7q0hS6sI]

Something big is happening across the country. We’re going to finish the political revolution we started. pic.twitter.com/cFhlN4NRTQ

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 2, 2020

I went through a barrage of feelings. Enraged one day to utter despair the next. I was done, I told myself. It was futile to keep fighting. Understandable considering that the long held hope that we could finally initiate actual change from a system where blood sucking vipers were hell bent on destroying us, was eviscerated during the convention as I watched the Queen of the vipers stand on stage in her snowflake white purity pantsuit mocking us with her existence by accepting a nomination she did not earn, deserve, or fairly win.

After almost four years since the convention and here we are again. Same vipers. Same goal. Different tactics. And I'm still mad. But I'm not done. In fact I've decided that I will not remain silent. I will not stay home during the primary. I will not check out. Instead, I will inform fellow voters what the DNC is doing, make sure they know how to vote, and encourage their participation. Whether that happens online, through canvassing, or as I go about my day, I simply refuse to make this easier for them by giving in.

So, thanks DNC for making that decision so much easier by being the colossal dicks you truly are.

@Anja Geitz for my new donations. I feel the same as you, angry and completely disgusted with the savages who own us and I will do what I can to thwart them however lame that attempt is. I am wearing my new Bernie shirts in public as well, and I always get a "like your shirt" from the young but a few older people as well. I hate that money is our litmus test for who will win but I guess at this point in time there is little actual alternative and every little bit helps.

I went through a barrage of feelings. Enraged one day to utter despair the next. I was done, I told myself. It was futile to keep fighting. Understandable considering that the long held hope that we could finally initiate actual change from a system where blood sucking vipers were hell bent on destroying us, was eviscerated during the convention as I watched the Queen of the vipers stand on stage in her snowflake white purity pantsuit mocking us with her existence by accepting a nomination she did not earn, deserve, or fairly win.

After almost four years since the convention and here we are again. Same vipers. Same goal. Different tactics. And I'm still mad. But I'm not done. In fact I've decided that I will not remain silent. I will not stay home during the primary. I will not check out. Instead, I will inform fellow voters what the DNC is doing, make sure they know how to vote, and encourage their participation. Whether that happens online, through canvassing, or as I go about my day, I simply refuse to make this easier for them by giving in.

So, thanks DNC for making that decision so much easier by being the colossal dicks you truly are.

@mimi

How can it even be possible? An old loud Jewish socialist guy from Brooklyn win in Iowa? The first and strangely pivotal state that may well determine much of what's to follow? How many sinks have been thrown at him already? Sure, there's more to come but it wasn't supposed to go this way! No waaaaay!

I think the Rising folks are way off on Biden who will come in second if only because he will be picking up most supporters on the second round from those candidates coming in short of the 15% required threshold to stay in the running.

And I will even be shocked if Biden comes in below 15% in the first round whereas it seems that polls continue to show Buttigieg and Warren toddering right below there while the other candidates won't even come close.

Yea, there will be more than a few reported miscounts and stories galore of hijinks. Politics is dirty, especially with this much on the line. When I was much younger and working for a local candidate, I was shocked by the amount of crap that was thrown about and an old timer came up to me and said, "Kid, there ain't no such thing as virgins in politics."

Krystal and Saagar predict who will win Iowa tonight.
[video:https://youtu.be/O8DiA-mjw4I]

@mimi situation, but it does keep the image of a threatening Iran alive and well and the last questions were just plain goofy (a sock?).
Other than that Bernie thankfully didn't bite on the bait of 'whatta we gonna do to Iran?'and got his message out over the idiocy and I doubt Bernie left with that 'sock'.

Patriot Act Bonus: Hasan Sits Down With Bernie Sanders | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj
[video:https://youtu.be/iaqcwyZPuKg]

Hasan recently interviewed 2020 presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders for Patriot Act's episode on aging and retirement in America. Watch as Hasan and Bernie continue their conversation to further discuss the Senator's presidential campaign, foreign policy in the Middle East, student loan forgiveness, and how he plans on working with Republicans if he becomes president.

@mimi

This might be just a matter of a stubborn caucus goer. We'll see if and how the Warren campaign is telling her supporters to realign in the second round.

I learned how to spell realign today.

to the pork plant wprkers. (older saying of teachers who wanted to praise and reward students, who did well, allowing them to move up one row of all desks in a rows)

Pork Plant Workers Turn Out for Sanders in First Caucus in Iowa

n Iowa was held at noon at a union hall in Ottumwa, about an hour and a half from Des Moines, where meatpackers and other workers unable to vote in the evening’s official caucuses were given the chance to cast ballots at a satellite caucus.

Just over a dozen workers gathered at the headquarters of the local United Food and Commercial Workers, with 14 casting their votes for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. One attendee cast their vote for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Satellite caucuses will continue to be held at union halls, senior centers, and universities throughout the afternoon, leading up to the regularly scheduled caucuses on Monday evening at 7 p.m. central time.

One done, next to go.