It's hard to say right now where we are at this moment in the grand scope of history, after the still amazingly lingering and unresolved #IACaucusDisaster. One thing for certain is that there hasn't been an electoral political movement like the one Bernie has been building for the past four years, probably ever. I suppose, either way, there's a very silver lining in it all. The mask is off and now everybody knows it, not just us anymore. They're trying to cheat Bernie - again. And if they successfully do so those who have given almost 7 million donations to Bernie this time around will be a collective hornet's nest not content to go quietly into the night.

For years we've been saying that the DNC cheated Bernie, while they were all being herded by corporate media into the RussiaGate farce concocted by $hillary sycophants to detract from how embarrassing her loss was. Yet somehow Russia was nowhere to be found in Iowa for this electoral disruption. Found there instead were our usual suspects, mostly former Hillary sycophants, again, this time behind the software app used to tally the caucus and on the board of directors of the companies.

Then in Iowa last week the DNC very plainly tried several different ways to do it again. They upset an outcome which could have given Bernie a ferocious headwind to ride through the primaries, including spiking the most anticipated Des Moines Register poll at the behest of the #PetesBillionaires campaign that had Bernie up by a lot and probably would have impacted the initial vote more in his favor (as it stands instead, the most empty suit, corporate platitude-slinging, CIA plant and careerist #MayoCheat just got a nine point bounce and had 1k people at 4 different rallies in NH, so NPR tells me. This is only because of the way the DNC and Iowa Dem Party purposely mishandled the results). And now the rest of the world has to look it straight in the eyes too that they're doing it again to Bernie. There will be a very serious reckoning of some sort in this country this year.

All of these pearl-clutching, Democracy Dies In Darkness, Faux Resistance crew who are usually hoarse about either Republicans or Russians usurping elections have now got to contend with the undeniable appearance in Iowa of Democratic Party corruption. And that means now having to face that this is a repeat of 2016, of which they had previously had refused to fully acknowledge. Electoral fraud, voter suppression and purges were all part of the landscape in 2016. It's there right from the beginning now. How much more before their indignation and contempt surfaces?

Right now it does feel like some kind of Stanley Kubrick Eyes Wide Shut sort of thing. People aren't going to be able to un-see this shit, especially if it continues tomorrow, or throughout the primaries and with the media as its accomplice.

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

Yet it may all come down to, and be resolved by, one thing: healthcare. And how increasingly clear it's become to voters that they've been browbeaten for decades with relentless propaganda to accept shittier, more restrictive and cost prohibitive access that just doesn't make sense anymore. That's because Bernie's been single-handedly hammering it home (witness the reaction at his Fox News town hall) for over four straight years now in the national spotlight. Nobody is trusted more than Bernie on most, if not all, issues, with healthcare being both the #1 issue for voters and him being the most trusted on that issue.

There isn't a more surefire winning platform than Bernie's unequivocal stance on getting rid of the insanity that is a healthcare system administered by for-profit insurance companies. Everybody, and I mean everybody, has got a health insurance nightmare story to tell, whether it's personally, of a family member, acquaintance or colleague. All attempts by insurance industry lobbyists to sow confusion and doubt about aspects of his Medicare 4 All fall flat against the righteous outrage for the current system.

In the meantime Bernie's used the naked greed of insurance industry to illustrate and then tie together a clear, unassailable argument that unregulated capitalism is the reason for all of the economic despair in the country.

Increasingly, the fact is that majorities of Americans feel we should be taxing the rich more, should have free healthcare and college, think elections have been corrupted by dark money, and don't approve of oligarchs not paying their fair share, that concentrated wealth usurps all cornerstones of society, etc.

They just don't know it yet - (shhh - don't tell 'em; nah, fuck it, tell 'em!) but they're Socialists.

Now, onto some polls and news.

44 Percent of New Hampshire Voters Say Bernie Sanders Will Be the Democratic Nominee, New Poll Shows

That's an increase of 6 percent from the day before the Iowa caucuses last Monday, and a full 28 percent more than any other candidate.

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana came in second, with just 16 percent of New Hampshire voters saying they believe he will be the party's nominee. Joe Biden, who served as vice president under former President Barack Obama, has plummeted from first place at 39 percent before the Iowa caucuses, to currently third place at just 14 percent. None of the other candidates polled in the double digits.

But the gap in support from New Hampshire voters is narrower than their expectations about the eventual nominee. While Sanders enjoys a plurality of support – at 30 percent – Buttigieg is closer behind with 23 percent. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota comes in third with 14 percent, followed by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at 11 percent, and Biden in fifth place at 10 percent.

Every major post-Iowa survey conducted in New Hampshire has shown Sanders as the front-runner in the eastern state. Buttigieg has placed second in all of the polls, with the distance between him and Sanders ranging from as narrow as three points to as much as eight points. An aggregate of New Hampshire polls by Real Clear Politics shows Sanders with an average of 26.7 percent support, compared to Buttigieg at 20.9 percent.

Bernie Sanders’s Secret Weapon: The senator’s strength among non-Democrats could seal his victory in New Hampshire and in many other states that hold open primaries.

If Senator Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday, it’ll likely be thanks to voters who are—like him—not actually Democrats.

The Vermont senator’s lead in several public polls is bolstered by his strong support among independent, or undeclared, voters, who are welcome to participate in New Hampshire’s primary and could make up as much as 40 percent of the electorate.

Beyond New Hampshire, Sanders’s advantage among independent voters could be his secret weapon in the many large, delegate-rich states that allow them to cast ballots in the Democratic primary. Four years ago, he crushed Hillary Clinton among non-Democrats, according to exit polls; in New Hampshire, he won nearly three-quarters of them, which made up the bulk of his 20-point margin of victory.

Generally, candidates care less about who is backing them as long as they’re winning. But the source of Sanders’s strength could both help and hinder his candidacy if the primary turns into a delegate-by-delegate battle heading into the Democratic National Convention in July. The states that hold either partially or fully open primaries include some of the largest in the country—California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, and Massachusetts.

To the Sanders campaign, his support among non-Democrats is an argument in favor of his electability: Only he can excite the younger, less politically engaged cohort of people who aren’t registered with either party and might otherwise stay home or vote for a third-party contender in November. But the same dynamic could resurrect old resentments within the Democratic establishment that a candidate who for decades has refused to run on the party’s banner in Vermont is poised to capture its presidential nomination.

Surprisingly good piece from Politico: Is It Bernie’s Party Now? The ultimate outsider took over a splintered party from within. Sound familiar?

On the campaign trail, Sanders’ events often feel different from those of the other candidates. The average age is lower, the identifiable misfits and outcasts more numerous, the work boots more conspicuous—the devotion more pronounced. I’ve attended town halls, meet-and-greets, and news conferences of his that were just as workaday as those of the others. At his best events, though, there is a kind of electric charge...

But the event I found myself still thinking about, even in New Hampshire, was one I had gone to the night before Ames, in Iowa City.

Two reasons. The first?

“Lot of people,” Mark Stimson, 63, from Fairfield, told me, scanning the throng packed inside the University of Iowa’s student union. “And he’s not even here.”

Sanders was in Washington for the impeachment trial. Ocasio-Cortez was more than a surrogate. She was the headliner. “I know people who are here just to see her,” University of Iowa freshman James Gulden said. “I think that Sanders is the one politician really in America that represents the values that I hold,” said UI senior Brendan McDonough. “And I think that his association with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and the Justice Democrats is just really empowering.”

But the second reason?

Phillip Agnew.

“Just a few months ago in Queens,” said Agnew, an activist and an organizer, standing behind the lectern before Michael Moore, before AOC, “our candidate asked us to ask ourselves if we were willing to fight for somebody that we didn’t know … so today I’m going to ask you to be open to getting to know the human being to your left and your right. … The human beings who form the most powerful movement in the history of electoral politics. So, if you’ll indulge me, I want you to kindly ask your neighbors, ‘Can I hold your hand?’”

A ripple of nervous laughter.

But more than 800 people held hands.

“I want you all to close your eyes and follow my instructions,” Agnew said. It got quiet and still. I watched from the rear of the room.

“If you grew up in a happy home, please squeeze your hand. Gently,” he said. Some titters. Which stopped with the next prompt. “If you grew up in a home that wasn’t so happy,” he said, “please squeeze your hand. If you’ve ever wondered where your next meal might come from, please squeeze your hand. … If you’ve ever fallen ill and self-medicated or ignored it because the bill might hurt more than the ill, please squeeze your hand. If you’ve ever lost a job, please squeeze your hand. If you’ve ever laid awake at night …”

And standing there, watching all these people, their eyes closed, holding hands, as this sequence of questions from Agnew grew increasingly raw—“if you’ve ever been assaulted”—I found myself blinking back tears.

He raised his hands. He asked everybody else to do the same.

“Repeat after me,” Agnew said. “With these hands, we will rebuild our communities.”

They did.

RW sinister genuis propagandamaster Luntz concludes:

.@BernieSanders is crushing it because he’s given Democrats something to vote for, not just someone to vote against. #DemDebate

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) February 8, 2020

Meanwhile it's just fucking staggering that Iowa still remains unfinished.

Buttigieg got 2 days of media coverage saying he won Iowa, leading to a significant boost in NH.

And now it turns out Bernie will win.

This is ACTUAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE, by the Dem party, 10,000x more impactful than stupid Russian faceboook memes ppl lost their minds over. https://t.co/N4AbK4KsFQ

— Boston College is anti-LGBTQ+ (@Jamie_Maz) February 6, 2020

It’s pretty amazing that the Pete Buttigieg campaign was able to stop an Iowa poll from being released because of 1 unproven error, yet the actual Iowa results are littered with proven errors and somehow that’s just fine. #GarbageDemocracy

— David Doel (@daviddoel) February 10, 2020

I don't have the capacity today to get deep into how this could be a pivotal moment we look back upon as either, the beginning of the end of the Democratic Party, or the beginning of the unmasking for good of the Banana Republic of America, or the nascent formation of a Democratic Socialist Union of America. But here's a few good pieces digging into the Iowa Disaster and its culprits:

Matt Taibbi "Yesterday’s Gone: Iowa Was Waterloo for Democrats (In a fiasco for the ages, the blue party face-plants in Iowa)"

Paul Street in Counterpunch "The Game Is Rigged"

Lee Camp "The Fix Is In: Proof of Manufactured Chaos"

Aaron Mate & max Blumenthal of the Grayzone "Iowa debacle fueled by anti-Bernie billionaires, Russiagate hucksters, failed DNC elites"

Krystal Ball: Pete's fake victory erases working class voters and also (Krystal Ball: Iowa was rigged, here's the proof)

Looks like #MayoCheat just can't get out of the way of his fascist and racist inclinations:

At Chapo on Redit: "So far today, Pete has called dark money “black money”, his staffers ripped off the press credentials of a black cameraman after following him around a convention, and his campaign tried to arrest someone for handing out Medicare for all fliers."

Last night's Golden Globe award winner for the film "Parasite":

And, as if you couldn't love this guy any more than you already do here's Mayor Sanders in 1988 interviewing local punks at the mall in Burlington.

Phil Donahue: Are you a capitalist?

Bernie Sanders: 'No I am not a capitalist...do I believe that the profit motive is fundamental to human nature? The answer is no. I (believe in) the spirit of cooperation, that you & I can work together...rather than destroy eachother'

1981. pic.twitter.com/ANesbyz2OM

— Aisha Ahmad (@aishaismad) January 30, 2020

“I think being on this planet, one of the first things people would say if we were all dumped down here is - let us say there were only ten of us and we were dropped into this planet already formed - one of the first things we would say after a moment or two will be, ‘is everybody okay?’ let's get something to eat.’

And that should be the first thing any society says, ‘Is everybody? Ok, let's get something to eat. And we don't, because we have this ‘private property’ thing. Property rights over people's rights.

And I just think that competition got the upper hand over cooperation. This species was successful. The verge of failure that we’re on is because two wonderful qualities that made us a successful species, cooperation and competition, are way out of balance now. Competition is everything.

Cooperation happens after a flood; happens for a few days and then everybody goes back to where they were before.

We need to get that balance back. If we can get that balance back, there’s hope.”

George Carlin, 1992

And a giant Fuck You to Chris Matthews, James Carville and the entire Neoliberal red-baiting MSNBC guard of the fascist Democratic Party.

This fight couldn't get any more biblical. It's Bernie's David vs. the Goliath of the Republican/Democratic Party Duopoly, the corporate MSM, the Economic Terrorists of Wall St and Big Business.

#CapitalismKills
#SocialismSaves