It's Official, Bernie has gone to the Dark Side
Submitted by RantingRooster on Fri, 05/22/2020 - 5:04pm
It's as if Bernie has been taken over by the body snatchers. 
I just can't it take anymore. Bernie has lost his god damn mind. I swear I have no clue who this is, parading around, looking and sounding like Senator Sanders, but I tell ya, this ain't him.
Bernie is now muzzling his delegates to the Democratic Convention, in pursuit of "party unity". This is fucking outrageous! I swear to god, (even though I don't "believe") I am so glad I did not donate to his campaign this time around. I would be suing his campaign for fraud!
Kyle breaks it down, "This is gonna hurt". Damn sure does!
[video:https://youtu.be/7RkK1UsQPpg]
This isn't an election, it's fucking extortion.
End of emotional outburst, for now! 
Comments
Some of the thoughts on this is
that they must have threatened Bernie (and his family) in some way. It all seems pretty uncharacteristic of Bernie to turn tail and run like this. I mean, look what they did to Jeff Epstein...and they supposedly liked him.
But then again, one must judge people by their actions and not their words. We have history of Bernie turning tail in 2016. I for one gave him a pass because I hoped he would run again in 2020, which he did. (and turned tail again :-()
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
It's an incredibly scary thought
As always when this happens, I'm not sure which possibility is worse: That somebody's holding a gun to their heads...or not.
This has happened multiple times, too; even John Kerry started his public life as a credible hero.
If something truly nefarious is going on, there has got to be some kind of traceable trail by now. something to indicate that's happening....
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!
I keep thinking about Ross Perot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot Something went hinkey later on, that thing about Bush2 sabotaging his daughters wedding....dunno.
I can't find it
Can you point it out better, please?
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!
Sorry
Kinda 2ldr. I couldn't cut and paste what I wanted to for some reason. Down below 1/2 way Perot ceases his campaign stating that Bush2 campaign was going to release digitally altered photos to ruin his daughters wedding. Sounds weird...but he ended up throwing his support to Bush2. Why? Same with John McCain. He was moderate, for a republican in his first campaign, then the Bush2 smear machine went to work on him. He eventually came to support Bush2 also. Why? What happened that they would support Bush2? Yeah, blah blah scum republicans, but these were not insecure people to be turned so easily.
I still don't see it
Which header is it under?
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!
About 2/3 down under "1992 presidential campaign"
at citation [35]. My cut/paste thing doesn't work very well anymore.
Ah! There it is
You said "Bush2" for some reason, so naturally I didn't look in the 1992 campaign section.
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!
Because they were astroturf?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I don't think or know so......
Perot was the one that got Clinton to focus on the economy, stupid stuff. I remember his campaign was kind of progressive.
McCain was in NH all the time and I guess the press (back when that meant something) loved him. He gave them tons of access, and answered just about anything. He took his adopted daughter to a Nine Inch Nails concert, so he said that was his favorite band. He was asked if his daughter became pregnant would he consider abortion. His answer was it would be a family matter.
Then Bush2 flew into NH in a Texas Ranger helicopter, and surrounded by Texas law announced his bid and the Rove smear machine landed on McCain like a tsunami. It was ugly. He was done before the NY primary.
Confusing.
Perot ran against Bush1 (Poppy) in 1992, and accused him of trying to sabotage his daughter's wedding. He left the race* than came back in in the fall and got a respectable 19% of the vote. He was the 3d party candidate, so he wouldn't have endorsed Bush.
In 2000 he didn't run but endorsed Bush2 (Dubya).
As for McCain, what was he going to do after the dirty campaign in SC run by the Dubya team that knocked him out. He calculated it's better to hold his tongue, not burn bridges, and get the Bush endorsement for when it would be McCain's turn.
* word is that this was a story confabulated by Perot during a period when his campaign was coming under increasing scrutiny and negative attention. He wanted to find a way to dispense with the hostile coverage, and figured getting out of the race temporarily, for family reasons, would do the trick.
Yes
confusing. I just couldn't see either man supporting Bush2, like I can't see Bernie going 100% Biden. But, it happened.
My wild imagination
sees something similar to this in the 1976 movie Network. A few minor changes in dialog, and it's some Oligarch explaining how things work to Bernie.
[video:https://youtu.be/8jIw22XXSso]
I'm missing something. I can't put my finger on it, but, the cognitive dissonance between words and actions, the lack of rational explanations, of course my wild imagination, it's not far fetched that he's been either threaten or compromised in some way, or he could just be a cynical politician, lying straight thought his teeth. (Maybe He and Jane had a little to much fun in Moscow on their honey moon, and someone has the tape?
)
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Great minds think alike
I too immediately thought of that Network segment. Funny thing about that movie...when it first came out, it was billed as satire. Watching it during that time, we actually believed the premise was "broad" and exaggerated comedy, you know, like slapstick. Now when one views this movie, one realizes, it was a friggin' documentary.
Just like the movie The Graduate, when the guy is giving Dustin financial advice...saying "plastics".
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
I think they threatened his constituents
That seems more like how the dynamics work in Congress. One of Bernie’s problems imho has been that he is in the senate. You can only challenge power when you have not left any “hostages to fortune”.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
"When you've got nothin' you've got nothin' to lose"
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
The most dangerous people
are those with nothing left to lose and their number is growing every day.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
You can't hurt . . .
Bernie's constituents without hurting Pat Leahy's constituents. It's not happening.
What they can do is cut off Bernie's media coverage, for Bernie a fate worse than death, or losing a 100 elections.
I've believed that all along.
"Don't worry about Bernie--we've got leverage."
"Great! Where do we stick in the knife?"
Sincere thanks to Julian Assange and Wikileaks for making that conversation available for my perusal.
I want to make clear that I don't think "the knife" was an actual knife, or that they were discussing a hit. But it certainly seems, since that was the exchange between Podesta and Mook, that they were confident in their ability to control Bernie through pressuring and threatening him. With what, I have no idea.
"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
lol!
"...whose delegates staged a Rack-U-Uss rebellion..."
Jezum crow, kyle: do you even know what 'raucous' (RAWK-us) means?
well, the acid tell will come when and if he stumps for Sir Hope and Grope (h/t SnoopyDawg). and one theory has it that it was his good friend barack obomba who'd convinced Bernie to fold his tent.
And it's right at the beginning.
It's like eating peanuts and chomping down on a rancid one. Not that it matters. I was listening this morning, and I quickly said to him "It's 'raw-cuss'!", then forgot about it. For some reason, he didn't happen to hear me. Go figure. O~O
Question, if I may
You're not 'the' Wendy Davis of Texas, are you? I'd been wondering about that, off and on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Davis_(politician)
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!
At this point...
Bernard is old news.
Quite how he can live with the endorsement of Biden does strike me as odd, especially given today's 'gaffe'.
Anyway, I wish him well for a peaceful retirement.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Sounds like Bernie has
bought fully into the greatly exaggerated, likely false, "Bernie Bros" narrative that the MSM liked to peddle. I think that's a fair interpretation. And I wonder if this delegate speech suppression has any precedent.
What else has he done: At the start of his 2020 campaign, he apologized for running a 2016 campaign that was "too white and male". And tried to make up for it with some unfortunate incompetent choices so he could adequately check the "female" and "black" boxes. It cost him big time in SC, where his appointed IdPol campaign leaders showed themselves to be utterly out of their depth.
And he fully bought into the Russiagate hoax. And to double down on that, he then accepted the IC propaganda that Russia was trying to help him win this cycle.
Yes, I do think he needs to revisit this sweeping directive and make some major adjustments.
Glad I didn't send a peso to his campaign. Kinda wish, in hindsight, I had cast my vote in CA for Tulsi.
Maybe Russia will refund my money?
My wife was right when she told me, "I don't care if you want to donate your time to these politicians, but don't send them any money."
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
If Bernie's true nature were to support Joe Biden's warmongering
big bank sucking up, neolibcon, 'fuck the little guy' policies then Bernie would not have been speaking out against them for decades. Bernie received an attitude adjustment of some kind. I am through with Bernie, so I am not making excuses for him. I am just keeping it real about what happens when a somewhat average guy who doesn't have a battalion of Secret Service agents guarding his extended family 24/7 threatens to slow down a multi-trillion dollar tax payer funded gravy train.
I mean, some of the biggest losers if all of Bernie's policies were implemented are literally merchants of death. Anyone seriously think they would hesitate to threaten an old man or his family? Think the mainstream media would lift a finger to expose any would-be Bernie assailants?
The solution by this point is obvious, isn't it?
Record EVERYTHING. Prepare for the worst and head into the public spotlight with the same kind of scrupulous, meticulous, Richard-Nixon-meets-Max-Cohen-from-π-type paranoia that Russians head onto the freeway with.
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!
My significant other watches youtube car crash videos on
occasion. It appears as though a few Russians like to drive fast in small cars on icy roads. And they don't seem to put much emphasis on treating icy roads with road salt or sand.
I can't help thinking
of Bolton threatening the head of the ICC by saying " We know where your kids go to school".
Not to mention the bloody forehead Bernie sported coming out of that 2016 meeting with convention winner Clinton et.al.
I think you are right, Entrepreneur, literally trillions of dollars at stake here.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@entrepreneur
Bernie received an attitude adjustment of some kind. I am through with Bernie, so I am not making excuses for him. I am just keeping it real about what happens when a somewhat average guy who doesn't have a battalion of Secret Service agents guarding his extended family 24/7 threatens to slow down a multi-trillion dollar tax payer funded gravy train.
Thank you for making the distinction between defending Bernie and thinking there might have been threats or other pressure applied. Very often, when I talk about politicians being threatened into being obedient little tools, people think I'm trying to get the politicians off the hook. Not so. Not even for Bernie.
But logic and what little evidence I have suggests that threats were applied.
"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
If Bernie had received . . .
that kind of "attitude adjustment" in 2016, do you really think he'd have run in 2020?
Yes. See below.
"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
The key word is "if"
when you say,
During both election cycles, the DP Leadership (Pelosi and Schumer) have told anyone who'd listen that they want to improve and expand the ACA. IOW, they have never supported MFA. And, IMO, likely, wouldn't.
I don't believe it'd matter, at all (to those two), if he ran around talking about it 24/7--so long as it'd attract new voters.
It's all about 'power.'
We often listen to Pelosi's Thursday so-called "Press Availabilities." I've even posted them at C99 on occasion. I've never known her to endorse any of Bernie's platform. As a matter of fact, recently, Pelosi declared that she'd like her legacy to be the part she played in enacting/implementing the ACA.
Yikes!
Bottom line, he's way too compliant for the DP Leadership to have to threaten his life. (Case in point, it was reported that Pelosi and Schumer wanted him to drop "Dem" when he railed against the Establishment--he did so, immediately. It became "the Establishment" or, "the political Establishment.")
With decades of federal Civil Service under our belts (Mr M and I), and, after having won a suit against a branch of the military, I would literally bet the family farm--if I have one
--that he was not 'physically' threatened. (never can tell, for certain, if that's the intended reference)
Not to beat a dead horse, but, as I've stated previously--anyone in a federal supervisory position has far too many tools to make a person's life miserable, or, almost destroy it--without resorting to backroom beatings with rubber hoses, etc. Or, even the threat of such.
Think Andrew McCabe--what they did was legal, regarding his firing, or the actual personnel action. (from what I've read) For that matter, I've seen the same type of personnel maneuver, in real time. So, his only recourse is filing suit, and winning--if he can prove that the firing was retribution, and totally without merit (based on performance).
Having said that, the employer almost always wins, so, that's a tall order. One has to have an absolutely airtight case, and more--to prevail. I know.
Just my two cents.
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, Comedienne
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Who knows what happened to Bernie, but his legacy
is in ruins. I have admired him for decades. No more.
The "threats" to him and/or his family just do not make sense to me.
That meme went around at the convention in the 2016 election.
Well, if he was so threatened, where did he get the will to defy the deep state and try again in 2020? Why didn't he retire, go home to one of his lovely dwellings?
To believe he was threatened to get in line 4 years ago means he was forced to make a stupid 2020 run.
How many years of threats does it take?
And does anybody truly believe deep state wanted him to run again?
That is just way too preposterous for me to believe.
I think Bernie is just a duplicitous dick, and needs to just go away.
He will not be a blip on the radar in 6 months.
He is only a flicker now.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Judas Goat theory
Makes sense to me. I don't think much of a man who let's himself be threatened to betray young people who worship him. He and I are of an age. Let me tell you, that life is less and less precious every year. Not ready to go, but if I have to, I'll die like a Man (capital intended). Sorry to go sexist on you, but if I do meet my father, grandfather and great-grandfather (the Italian rebel that I never knew), I'll not be wanting to hang my head in shame for eternity. Does Bernie never think of Masada? Or the Warsaw Ghetto?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
One wonders...
Man in this context is not sexist at all.
I think "dying like a Man" is sort of a generic way of saying dying with honor and convictions.
That would be my preferred way.
I feel the exact same way about life being less precious and less awesome year after year, when I would most love to do is a meet and greet with my Dad and 7 uncles who fought in WWII, so they could congratulate me on holding true.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Agreed 100%
The threats theory, aside from having no proof to back it, makes even less sense in 2020 than it did in 2016. I also think this theory lets Bernie off the hook for his actions and frankly, I think that’s bull.
I think there’s a much simpler, though more uncomfortable, answer and that is Bernie simply isn’t what people though he was. I know he’s always said the right things but has he ever been a real threat to the establishment Dems? Knowing how much the Dems hate third parties, why has Sanders received endorsements from Schumer and Reid and not ever faced a Democratic challenger in the Senate? Why has he received committee assignments? Why does he vote with the Dems 98% of the time?
This is not to diminish his accomplishments. But I don’t think Bernie ever was the revolutionary that people were led to believe he was. He’s always been a loyal party man, if unofficially, and that’s really what we are seeing yet again.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Yes.
All these people feeling betrayed by the fantasy Bernie Sanders, the one they thought was going to support the political revolution he proposed when he was no longer a candidate. So why is it that the fantasy Bernie Sanders attracts more public interest than the real-life Samelys Lopez or the real-life Rebecca Parson or the real-life Mckayla Wilkes? Those people are actually running for office on Bernie's platform, now.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
I have been struggling with who Bernie is or was
for some time now because a lot things do not seem to add up. The Bernie of 2020 was definitely not the same Bernie of 2016 which could lead to theories that he or his family was threatened. But when you look at his standing in Congress, a different theory emerges and that is that Bernie was a company man all along. That theory would explain his actions in the 2020 campaign. That is a more cynical theory because it suggests that Bernie willingly acted as controlled opposition in order to sheepdog his followers into voting for Biden.
I had been debating writing an essay on this, but still do not know where that essay would lead, if to anything definitive, or would it even served as a lesson learned for those of us on the left? I still do not know.
I watched a video today in which Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi interviewed Jimmy Dore during their last segment. Jimmy does not spare the words when it comes to his anger towards Bernie. Go to the 51:30 point in the video for the Jimmy Dore segment which lasts nearly one hour.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgjRxD-pheI]
I also recently watched an interview of Chris Hedges by a German interviewer in which he also gives his critique of Bernie. he comes to much the same conclusion as Jimmy Dore. Bernie failed his own movement. In the end, it was about HIM, not us. This video is less than 15 minutes long so it is more easily digestible.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbnZLkvEL5Q]
So I keep coming back to another question that has been on my mind and that is WHY did Bernie run in 2020 if he never really wanted to win or to challenge the establishment? This is the question that has really been eating away at me. Tulsi Gabbard told Bernie she was going to run long before he decided to run. If Bernie was not really serious, why did he not just endorse her and be done with it? Instead, he treated her like a pariah while sucking up to the establishment. At every turn, when Bernie came under fire, Tulsi stepped up and defended him and in return, he ghosted her.
I know that none of us will ever truly know our politicians, but Bernie sure fooled a huge number of people and quite possibly extinguished a burning fire in young people to move toward fighting for a better future through politics.
In the end, Bernie destroyed his movement and trashed his own legacy. Was it worth it, Bernie?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks for the videos!
The longer, the better!
I agree 100% that Bernie's movement is dead and gone.
All the ideals, the policies, the changes the movement pushed have been muzzled by Bernie Himself.
It did take him 4 years to kill them, but he persevered, accomplished it with a flourish.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The Bernie movement is now no longer Bernie's.
It's now "Our Revolution," "DSA" and watch for future mutations as the Establishment continues to destroy or co-opt all that remains that is decent in America.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
I wish them well
and sincerely hope they do not disappoint.
Bernie and The Squad are my most recent examples of dashed hopes.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It's not just them, of course.
There are plenty of folks out there willing to join up with something they find some hope in. I've been discussing them in my diaries here.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
You're braver than I
I've thought about trying to tackle the subject of who is Bernie for a while, but really, I don't have the emotional investment I did in 2016. But, let me toss you a link that might provide some leads:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/21/bernie-out-of-the-closet-sanders...
It's from 2015 and I first saw it in the aftermath of 2016. At the time, it helped me make a bit more sense of what I was seeing, even if it didn't make it any more comfortable.
As to why Bernie ran in 2020, to me that's the more interesting question now, and I doubt we will ever know. I always had a sinking suspicion, which, for what it's worth, has been confirmed by some anonymous accounts from insiders, that Sanders ran in 2016 to push Hillary left, not to win. That was why his campaign seemed to be constantly scrambling to keep up as he gained momentum. They had no intention of being in that position and it caught them off guard. Of course, the establishment Dems were caught off guard too, hence the rather clumsy and blatant cheating, etc.
But 2020, I really don't know. Again, I don't think he was in it to win, as his unwillingness to fight back and rapid withdraw from the race shows. But it's hard for me to understand what he was trying to accomplish. Was it another attempt to push the frontrunner left? He had to have realized his supporters were going to be even less likely to accept any substitute now than they were in 2016. Was it a sheepdogging exercise? Does that explain the hostility towards Gabbard? Did he actually make a deal with the Dems to run for Senate unopposed and have committee assignments and was dropping out the payback?
I really don't know. Campaign insiders are starting to speak out and it sounds like the campaign was run by career mercenary pols who didn't have to infiltrate but were put there by Sanders himself. Jimmy Dore has had a few of these people on and even being cynical enough to believe Sanders wasn't running to win, the stories they're telling just don't make any sense. So I'd love to know what the real story is. (And I do understand how someone could assume Sanders and his family were threatened somehow. These sort of things just don't fit the story. But to me, the simplest version is that he wasn't the person people though he was, at least not in 2020, and until I hear otherwise, the evidence seems to point more in that direction.)
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Excellent article!
Best quote from it.
It also discusses the deal that Bernie made with democrats. He’d kill any 3rd party in Vermont and democrats wouldn’t run anyone against him.
More deal making.
Thanks for posting this! Worth a full read.
The 3rd Party thing really stood out to me.
That he has served as a blocker against 3rd parties in Vermont on behalf of the Dems really takes away any meaning his independent status has. It's another of those things that makes no sense to me at all and it's hard not to feel the whole independent thing was just for show.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
From what I understand about Vermont
is they don’t have any party affiliations and that is why Bernie is an independent. Leahy is also an independent, but some times he just says that he’s a democrat. So Bernie is as much an independent as Joe Lieberman was who only became one after he lost the democratic primary. It’s all kabuki theater or in other words bullshit.,
One thing Bernie did that stood out though was he went after Obama’s trying to cut social security. Now Romney and of course Joe Manchin is going after it again and Bernie says that will not happen. I posted a link to this in the Biden thread. I think. Or maybe here?
If anyone is interested zero hedges has a few articles on how bankruptcies and eviction notices are going out. The dismantling of American businesses is starting. Meanwhile other countries will not be destroyed by its evil oligarchs because they put the welfare of their people above theirs. Other landlords can’t evict their tenants yet so instead they are cutting off people’s utilities trying to force them out.
ETA
Hertz has filed for bankruptcy after being in business for 102 years and is flooding the market with used cars. This will drive down the cost of them everywhere. The economic apocalypse is on its way.
Hertz filed for bankruptcy?
Oh man. Throw them on the pile with JC Penney and Pier One. I must confess, I will miss Pier One.
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
I think a lot of companies were loaded with debt
and were going to collapse even before COVID shut the country down, but it just moved the timeline up. The hertz article said that it was having difficulty during the last few years. It also has a link to the fire sale of their used cars. They sold a lot of corvettes way below blue book as they are other cars now. There are 57 pages of their inventory if anyone is interested buying one, but I think the prices will go down even further. But it is sad to see so many of the stores that we grew up with going away isn’t it. And many people have fond memories of pier one.
Hedge funds are the Bain of existence because they don’t care how many people they hurt.
That's been going on for decades
but people only notice when it's a big-box store in their neighborhood that goes away.
Eventually there will be only One Big Company Store, the way there was only One Big Government Store under the late unlamented Soviet Union. And everyone will say it's different because bidness.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
He ran again bc
he had done so well and come so close against the Hillary juggernaut in 2016, and this time he figured it would just be the barely-hanging on Joe Biden as his major opposition, with a ton of other candidates to further dilute the moderate vote. That would be a pretty fair calculation, along with the one which says the candidate coming in second or doing very well in the previous cycle is at an advantage in the next.
Of course, there is the countervailing factor of previous VPs (Humphrey, Mondale, Gore) getting the party nom. But this would be the clearly aging Joe Biden with a far more checkered political past than most previous VPs, so Bernie's decision to run again wasn't irrational.
A company man, yes, not a real revolutionary. But threatened with physical harm? No. I think Obama and his family might have been threatened that way early on by the FP PTB, and he was too weak a person to fight back so he went along, but no physical type threat necessary for Bernie. As we all saw, all it took was for the boys in the basement at Langley to cook up a rumor about Putin secretly supporting him, to get Bernie fully under control.
Now who's being naive,
Jimmy? Bernie was never going to go after his "good friend" Joe very hard. Just as he landed only glancing soft blows against Hillary. Not his style to play hardball on anything, esp things like the sensitive personal issue of Joe's obvious mental decline. Other factors: Bernie isn't a psychologist or cognitive decline expert, so would have needed at least a signed letter from 500 of these types to the DNC certifying that in their expert opinion Joe was clearly now in the early stages of dementia. Also bringing that up would remind people of Bernie being still older, and revive the heart problem issue.
Sometimes you have the guy running on the right set of ideas, but he doesn't quite know how to close the deal or go for the kill. Sounds like Jimmy was way too emotionally invested in Bernie's success.
Bernie wiped out his legacy big time.
.
Bernie showed that there is no political price to pay for democrats or even republican politicans
in oppossing things like MFA or student loan relief. In fact the opposite. He neutered so called progressives in the House and Senate showing there is a hellayuh price to pay in opposing corporate leadership. In Hillary's jargon, he was made to "heel."
I was reading the results of the Oregon primary to see how Bernie would do at this late
date and Biden absolutely crushed him. One Oregonian writer claimed this was a rejection of Bernie's policy agenda.
In terms of pushing for various policy outcomes, all of that is derailed and going underground. Certainly corrupt unions will not push anything as they understand their standing in the democratic party if they oppose corporate leadership. Bernie popularized these policies, and with his inept campaign and capitulation killed them off.
The model for action people say is what the Tea Party did. Nope. The model for action is movement to legalize pot which was decentralized.
Biden rolled Bernie in Oregon
only if you trust that the votes were counted fairly. Remember how far off the exit polls were from the vote count. Lee Camp either wrote about it or he did a show on it. And then there’s the Iowa debacle where Pete was declared the winner, but Bernie actually won, but we didn’t hear about it until everyone had moved on. Oh yeah and Pete and other DNC tried to rig the vote.
Besides, Joe and Jane Sixpack think Bernie is "out"
and they're not going to "waste their vote" on someone who "has quit".
Expect equally grim results from now until Bernie really does hang it up - probably before the Fake Convention.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I made it through both videos, even the long one
with Jimmy Dore and through all the unstructured introductory talk of Taibbi and Halper, as well as the interview with Chris Hedges.
Thank you for posting both. Hedges is still my most favorite political analyst and I alwayg get away from his interviews better informed with clearer understanding and more in agreemnet than I was before. He has the clearest language and structured, logical thinking based on facts of experiences he lived through personally. That makes him trustworthy.
Jimmy Dore as he says about himself is a jack-off/jerk-off- (how do you spell this darn expressiont I don't even understand in its meaning?) comedian. I like him too, he is very honest and his language as direct and in your face rude as he wants it to be. But this time I had the first time a pity with his furiousness. He seemed to be hurt and so disappointed that it made no sense to me any more.
From an outsider it looks like he and most of you analysing folks bite not only their own tails and eat each other up, but eat up your own guts as well. That's pretty hard to watch.
Please don't do that.
My hunch is that Sanders really got threatened in 2016 (from the videos I remember him), that he learned from it, didn't wnat to publicly reveal what happened, and didn't really want to run anymore in 2020 but help in creating a movement. Whatever he would have done, he would have made people feel betrayed. And I think he didn't know anymore how to avoid it.
So, I guess, over the last three years he gave up, grow old and wants to go home cuddling with his wife and that's it. It is somewhat human, not heroic and may be not that courageous. But understandable. Again, these are just my assumption, I have no proofs.
All of your rage will not change that.
Everybody fights on, the best he can and believe is morally right.
And may be you take it like Glroia Gaynor did with her feelings to ... her guy, Bernie Sanders. You too will survive without Bernie, right?.
[video:https://youtu.be/sZ-SwJjkSyw]
Go on. Get out. Come back.
So many broken hearts around here. Sigh.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Thank you for that insightful response . . .
Thank you Mimi!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I was withholding judgement about that
but given what's happened this year, I think yes, the establishment would love to have him run again as long as they were sure they had the electoral machinery well in hand. And they do.
They did panic a bit after Nevada. Something went wrong there (for them). Something went wrong in Iowa too; their app didn't work as well as it should and their political slips were showing. But they really panicked after Nevada, because Nevada has lots of people of color in it. New Hampshire didn't matter so much (a bunch of white hicks). Nevada could have spoiled their narrative for them. I still wonder how that happened. Maybe someday I'll find out.
But no worries; South Carolina, that bastion of democracy and civil rights, fixed it for them. Joe finally, after about twenty years of trying, won a state other than Delaware.
"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
NV would have been no
surprise to TPTB in the party, and had little to do with lots of POC. It was bc it was a caucus state. In 2016 Bernie, given his campaign's superior ground game, outperformed in caucus states. But this time there were fewer available. Two of the first four primary states however were caucuses, and the 2d primary was in the neighboring state of NH, so not an entirely huge surprise that by the time the caucusing was done in the fourth primary state of NV, Bernie was in the lead.
If it was all manipulated behind the scenes by the Dem powers, they most certainly would have taken a few minutes, with help from Harry Reid, to eliminate the caucus in NV and go to straight voting.
As for SC, Bernie had appointed some people to run things there who were clearly the wrong people, starting with Nina Turner. Then it got worse when NT hired someone for a key position who had neither qualifications nor any communications ability. And this latter person apparently helped cook the numbers in that state to make it appear that Bernie was doing very well. Thus the campaign was under the grossly misleading impression, until primary day, that at worst he was only behind Biden by a few pts. Turns out he would lose the state by 30 pts.
That one was on Bernie, the one responsible for putting incompetents in charge as he put identity issues as top priority in what turned out to be the most important primary state of all.
Why would they want him to run?
Maybe to make it easier for them to shut down dissent? Bring party unity?
If so, it didn't work well.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Because the first time
they lost the cultural battle (while obviously winning the political one). Their credibility was damaged. They wanted a do-over, so that they could be victorious while NOT making it obvious that they were rigging the results. And in fact, that's exactly what they did. The narrative is now not "The Dems fucked Bernie over," but "Joe Biden swept Bernie on Super Tuesday." Hence, the narrative is not "The Democratic party exists to prevent left-wing movements from succeeding," but "left-wing ideas like Bernie's are too extreme for center-right America."
Meanwhile, they throw a bone to the liberals and get them to go along with this nonsense by putting POC in prominent positions. Like Stacey Abrams.
They had egg on their face and were losing narrative control. They needed to re-establish it. They also wanted to take the opportunity to deal another crushing blow to the left's morale--and to the American people's morale as well. "See? You'll never get what you want, or even what you need. Losers!" That was the message we were supposed to get--this time, without the establishment's slip showing.
"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
If you are correct,
then Bernie is a piece of shit who played along with this.
I just go along with my day, trying to do the best I can with what I have.
I find it difficult to understand the multiple layers of deception required to be a successful politician.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
[Edited] Totally agree with first para, CStMS, but,
have the polar opposite view of your analysis of Nevada, etc.
Hope to elaborate next week ('cause getting ready for a virtual family reunion later this pm) - but, I think he pulled out soon after Iowa and Nevada, because his campaign realized that they were successful in garnering a sizable chunk of the Latino vote. And, that was the primary mission.
IOW, he had successfully completed his project of attracting the (college) youth and Latino vote--which completed DP Demographers guidelines for achieving an "emerging Democratic majority." I'll post a link to their work, later.
Bottom line - as far back as the 90's, several DP demographers were saying that progressive centrism was the key. To accomplish this - Dems needed to garner the votes of white professionals (and their progeny, or the college youth vote), women, and, minorities.
Folks may recall that this was also the so-called "Obama Coalition."
Dems have long had the vote of women, the AA Community portion of minority vote, and, increasingly since WJC, the vote of white professionals.
The two keys groups left were the future professionals (college youth) and the other fast-growing minority group--Latinos.
Consider the blurb, below, which (indirectly) addresses this theory,
IOW, this was the last piece of achieving the John Judis "emerging Democratic majority."
Having said that, I believe that Bernie is very well-intended. Simply put, though--he appears to adhere to the ol' LOTE theory of politics. BTW, both MSDNC and CNN have reported that his run was partly based upon his strong hatred and antipathy for DT, and his desire to see him defeated.
I could be wrong, but, it wouldn't surprise me if he's able to convert a sizable portion of his Latino supporters, into 'Uncle Joe supporters.'
IOW, enough to possibly tip the vote in favor of the eventual DP Candidate.
Time will tell.
[Edited: adhere, not, adheres; corrected punctuation; deleted 'at least']
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, Comedienne
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
I still support Bernie’s policies. I just can’t support
Joe Biden and his crappy policies. I shall vote accordingly.
Right now we are given the choice of word sales with red dressing or word salad with blue cheese dressing. Bleh!
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Wher's the BEEF! :-)
And we don't need chicken or turkey. Some roast capitalist pig might be nice.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I don't want to eat mold. Especially over-aged bleu cheese.
YUCK.
I'm not crazy about Russian dressing either. Even if it is not really Russian.
This is key.
If we consent to vote for red word salad over blue word salad--or vice versa--we abandon both the principles of democracy and the principles of reason. Which is, I think, the point. They are educating Americans to be good subjects of an oligarchy.
"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
No salad bar for me! I’ll write in Bernie anyway or
vote Green. I know TPTB don’t give a rat’s ass what I think, but I want to send the message anyway. The Democrats are abusers and I’m over them.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
I've still got a theory
That Bernie's goal is to end the corruptocrat party.After Hillary stole the 2016 primary and threatened to start WW3. We should have risen up. We didn't. So he ran again and Biden stole the primaries once it was clear that Bernie was going to win again. And what did we do? Nothing. All he had left was self sacrifice - look like such a betrayer that we would give up our hero worship and admit that if there is any hope it would have to be us doing it for ourselves. That or he's just given up and honestly believes that Trump is the greater threat. Either way.
On to Biden since 1973
Bernie didn't suggest in any way that we should rise up
though--unless by "rise up" you mean something like Justice Democrats. He toured the country urging people to vote for Clinton. I see that in the context of some threat or pressure being applied to him, but when Bernie said "revolution," he never seemed to mean anything except "Vote." And honestly, his political philosophy didn't go much beyond Markos Moulitsas' "more and better Democrats."
Bernie laid a serious blow on them culturally (not politically). They are still recovering from it, which is why (I think) they wanted a do-over of the 2016 election--a do-over where they were not taken by surprise, and had things much more under control. Not sure how Nevada eluded them. There must have been disgust at what happened in '16 at much higher levels than I thought.
"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
Well they can't run a campaign --
for Joe Biden using the real Joe Biden as its basis, so the consensus strategy is that they are going to run a fantasy Joe Biden, using an elaborate facade, for President. Those of us who want to evaluate the real Joe Biden -- well, we are "hurting his chances" if we talk about him, and so that's our problem.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Fantasy is right
So I was reading TOP on a regular basis for the 2016 primaries. Hey, I thought that was a progressive site. But once Hillary won, and the a pugdy white guy was announced as her VP, the myth making machine went into proverbial overdrive. For example, Hillary was the peace candidate. I suspect the same is going on now with Biden.
Bernie signed a pact with the devil when he started
Why do you think that the Democrat party tolerated him? The deal was that he could say all of those Socialist things, but he must defer to and support the mainstream Dem party. he decided that it was worth it to enjoy the political status of first congressman and then senator. They have told him in no uncertain terms that he must deliver his constituents if he intends to play the role of senator. So the deal is good for the Dem party, he motivates his constituents to work for him, give money and then delivers this highly motivated group and email list to Nancy Pelosi and Chucky. There is no other way for them to get motivated followers like this. And Bernie gets to play senator. And the oligarchs get the government that they paid for. Ouch, that was a painful screwjob!
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Too bad he had already told us that he couldn’t
tell us what to do back in 2016. Not that I needed his permission.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
I am still a Bernie lover, but I never worshipped him . . .
I've said this before in comments (forgive the religious analogy), but Bernie was never the "Jesus," he was always the "John the Baptist." The one who got things ready for the "Jesus" - which is us. He was a hell of a "John the Baptist."
So if you are smearing Bernie, it is because you saw him as the Jesus. You expected him to be something he was never meant to be.
Jordan Chariton's team spoke with a bunch of Bernie staffers. They say he is burned out and that the whole coronavirus thing really hit him hard. That's what ended his campaign. After the super Tuesday stuff, the campaign still intended to hit the remaining states hard. But no rallies, no canvassing, no group phone banking . . . it was over.
[video:https://youtu.be/6GyFFJ7MmB8]
I am sure there were threats. I don't know about bodily harm threats. But yes, threats.
I feel sorry for Bernie right now. Of course, he knows that folks are talking smack about him.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Sorry but calling BS
I am calling bullshit on this statement.
You are trying to paint over and apologize for Bernie's actions by basically charaterizing anybody who went with the political movement as unthinking cultists--a corporate democrat talking point BTW. Calling Bernie out is proof that people did NOT see him as some divine savior. Cult members who found their Jesus do not abandon the cult.
People asking for intergerity out of politicans are not people making a Jesus figure out of them.
I think I called it when I said he was a Moses figure
Moses could lead his people out of Egypt - but getting them all the way to the Promised Land required a new and different leader.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Yes . . . . a new and different leader(s)
Many need to pick up the mantle . . .
Bernie is done. And he is frickin old. It is up to us and we should quit bitching about him. It is up to us!!
We are losers if we just bitch about him and don't do anything ourselves. He played his role. He did his job. It is over.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I do think it is important . . .
to call him out.
And I am going to blast Joe on every media I can.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
It's not important but ...
I wanted to share an anecdote, in itself quite minor. But I am reading through all the soul-searching here, and I have been doing plenty of that myself.
The incident occurred around 2012. I was visiting DC with my grandchildren. We had dinner at a very run-of-the-mill American restaurant in walking distance of the Capitol. After being seated I realized we were sitting just across from Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders. This was not an expense account meal. They were just hanging out together. Their attitude was one of casual comfort, of a longstanding relationship -- not so much friendship -- but well-worn familiarity.
I asked my grandchildren if they'd like to say hello to two Senators, but my grandson (age 8) said, "What's a Senator?" In answering that question I realized it was hard to explain why these two were hanging out together. I told the kids that Bernie Sanders was a really special person and one of my culture heroes and did not conceal my disgust for Chuck Schumer. Of course, as children do, they wanted the situation to make more sense than that. "Then why are they hanging out together?," they asked. "And what do they actually do?"
As I've tried to make sense of the ending of both of Bernie's campaigns, both of which I worked in, my questions and befuddlement -- along with many of those on this board -- remind me of the confusion my grandchildren expressed as they were trying to understand not only what a Senator was, but who these two particular senators were.
In the end, we left without saying hello. The senators had begun a more intense discussion, clearly some tactical issue regarding legislation or a policy position. They were collaborating not arguing. It seemed I had missed the moment to introduce the children to someone in the Capitol that they might remember.
In fact, neither of them does remember that episode. But my granddaughter, now a graduating senior, asks the same puzzled questions of me about how it is that Bernie Sanders could support Joe Biden.
I had told her from the outset that the Dems would never let Bernie be nominated, yet I felt it was important to work on his campaign anyway. The moment that Bernie came out after Super Tuesday and said, "This is a campaign of ideas," the writing was already on the wall. We weren't to expect that he'd actually fight to win -- just to 'spread good ideas among the young and hopeful.'
The kids want the world to make sense. In fact, we all do. And the only sense to be drawn from this debacle is cynicism, sadness and betrayal. Tough to take in a year when the virus has robbed us all of simple pleasures, including high school graduation ceremonies. But then if the politicians had acted earlier, maybe 30,000 to 50,000 lives would have been saved.
Thank you!
For sharing this story.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo