...and a similar headline--regarding today's Times article--over at CommonDreams.org, on Tuesday: "As Sanders 2020 Campaign Gains Steam, Corporate Democrats Reportedly 'Growing Increasingly Nervous'," are basically telegraphing to the public that the writing's on the wall, as far as the Democratic Party's status quo's 2020 Presidential Primary campaign strategy is concerned. And, regrettably, it looks eerily similar to the "F*ck Bernie" effort the Party shoved down voters' throats in 2016.

First Common Dreams...
(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.)

As Sanders 2020 Campaign Gains Steam, Corporate Democrats Reportedly 'Growing Increasingly Nervous'

By Jake Johnson, staff writer
By Common Dreams
Tuesday, April 16, 2019

"Being loathed and feared by the rich is a big reason why Bernie is so appealing, and Democrats who don't understand this by now will never get it."

Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign is rapidly gaining momentum early in the primary fight, and corporate Democrats are reportedly starting to get nervous.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that political operative David Brock has discussed launching "an anti-Sanders campaign" with other Democratic strategists and "believes it should commence 'sooner rather than later.'"

"[T]he Bernie question comes up in every fundraising meeting I do," Brock said.

In a fundraising letter sent shortly after the Times article was published, Sanders' campaign manager Faiz Shakir said the corporate forces working to stop the Vermont senator from becoming the Democratic nominee "don't just hate Bernie Sanders."

"They hate everything our political revolution embodies," wrote Shakir. "They hate Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, breaking up big banks, free public college for all."

Brock, a former Republican "media hitman," is just one of many prominent Democratic operatives and deep-pocketed donors who are "agonizing" over the possibility of the Vermont senator becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, according to the Times.

Steven Rattner, a Wall Street financer who served as head of Obama's Auto Task Force, told the Times that Sanders is discussed "endlessly" among his circle of wealthy Democratic benefactors.

"From canapé-filled fundraisers on the coasts to the cloakrooms of Washington, mainstream Democrats are increasingly worried that their effort to defeat President Trump in 2020 could be complicated by Mr. Sanders," the Times reported.

NEW: Establishment Dems are growing increasingly nervous about the
BERNIE threat - and a messy convention

Why?

-His bottomless online $
-Massive field
-A mere 15% threshold for delegates
-Early Super Tues

And what or sticks are there for him?https://t.co/yGH0fouIFY

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 16, 2019

The Times added:

The matter of What To Do About Bernie and the larger imperative of party unity has, for example, hovered over a series of previously undisclosed Democratic dinners in New York and Washington organized by the longtime party financier Bernard Schwartz. The gatherings have included scores from the moderate or center-left wing of the party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader; former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., himself a presidential candidate; and the president of the Center for American Progress (CAP), Neera Tanden.

The Times' reporting comes just days after Sanders sent a scathing letter (pdf) to CAP denouncing the organization for playing a "destructive role" in the effort to defeat Trump in 2020.

"Center for American Progress leader Neera Tanden repeatedly calls for unity while simultaneously maligning my staff and supporters and belittling progressive ideas," Sanders wrote. "I worry that the corporate money CAP is receiving is inordinately and inappropriately influencing the role it is playing in the progressive movement."

Sanders' letter was prompted by a widely decried video published by ThinkProgress, CAP's purportedly "independent" news outlet. The video accused Sanders of shifting his rhetoric on income inequality after becoming a millionaire on the back of his book sales.

In a statement Monday, Tanden said the video was "overly harsh."

In response to the Times' reporting on Tuesday, Splinter's Libby Watson pointed out that a significant component of Sanders' popularity among progressives lies in the fact that he is despised by the corporate donor class and the Democratic establishment.

"Being loathed and feared by the rich is a big reason why Bernie is so appealing, and Democrats who don't understand this by now will never get it," Watson tweeted.

Below are the first few 'graphs of today's NYT article (do yourself a favor and read the entire piece...essentially, it's 2016, all over again; but this time, the Democratic Party status quo--emboldened by recent court decisions that, basically, allow them to do whatever they want--are just being a bit more "transparent" about their skullduggery)...

'Stop Sanders’ Democrats Are Agonizing Over His Momentum

By Jonathan Martin
New York Times
April 16, 2019

WASHINGTON — When Leah Daughtry, a former Democratic Party official, addressed a closed-door gathering of about 100 wealthy liberal donors in San Francisco last month, all it took was a review of the 2020 primary rules to throw a scare in them.

Democrats are likely to go into their convention next summer without having settled on a presidential nominee, said Ms. Daughtry, who ran her party’s conventions in 2008 and 2016, the last two times the nomination was contested. And Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is well positioned to be one of the last candidates standing, she noted.

“I think I freaked them out,” Ms. Daughtry recalled with a chuckle, an assessment that was confirmed by three other attendees. They are hardly alone.

From canapé-filled fund-raisers on the coasts to the cloakrooms of Washington, mainstream Democrats are increasingly worried that their effort to defeat President Trump in 2020 could be complicated by Mr. Sanders, in a political scenario all too reminiscent of how Mr. Trump himself seized the Republican nomination in 2016.

How, some Democrats are beginning to ask, do they thwart a 70-something candidate from outside the party structure who is immune to intimidation or incentive and wields support from an unwavering base, without simply reinforcing his “the establishment is out to get me”’ message — the same grievance Mr. Trump used to great effect?

But stopping Mr. Sanders, or at least preventing a contentious convention, could prove difficult for Democrats.

He has enormous financial advantages — already substantially outraising his Democratic rivals — that can sustain a major campaign through the primaries. And he is well positioned to benefit from a historically large field of candidates that would splinter the vote: If he wins a substantial number of primaries and caucuses and comes in second in others, thanks to his deeply loyal base of voters across many states, he would pick up formidable numbers of delegates.

To a not-insignificant number of Democrats, of course, Mr. Sanders’s populist agenda is exactly what the country needs. And he has proved his mettle, having emerged from the margins to mount a surprisingly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton, earning 13 million votes and capturing 23 primaries or caucuses.

His strength on the left gives him a real prospect of winning the Democratic nomination...

Welcome to the REAL 2020 Democratic Primary...

Everyone knows that Joe Biden's about to announce: "Biden to campaign as extension of Obama's political movement."

BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) — Joe Biden is finalizing the framework for a White House campaign that would cast him as an extension of Barack Obama’s presidency and political movement. He’s betting that the majority of Democratic voters are eager to return to the style and substance of that era and that they’ll view him as the best option to lead the way back.

The former vice president has begun testing the approach as he nears an expected campaign launch later this month. After remarks at a recent labor union event, Biden said he was proud to be an “Obama-Biden Democrat,” coining a term that his advisers define as pragmatic and progressive, and a bridge between the working-class white voters who have long had an affinity for Biden and the younger, more diverse voters who backed Obama in historic numbers...

So, what is different in the 2020 primary race, as opposed to the 2016 fiasco? Long story short: The Democratic Party status quo are freaking out in public, from the get-go.

In fact, I'd say the Party's leadership might want to consider budgeting for at least a year's supply of Depends® for their key staffers...maybe even customize 'em with a Democratic Donkey silkscreen imprint on the derriere!

I'm making another donation to the Sanders Campaign this week.