Some questions and thoughts in preparation for the Bernie town hall

So, I threw my back out and couldn’t sit for long at the computer—and on the same day, my computer started turning itself off abruptly every time it booted up! (I think there may be a fan/overheating problem). I’m now relegated to my laptop, and relatively short stints at keyboard.

So these are just some scattered thoughts I’m throwing out in preparation for Sen Sanders’ town hall tonight. Rather than speculating about what Sanders might do, this is where *I* am : my fundamental beliefs/framework of assumptions, questions I have, and a few thoughts.

Fundamental assumptions: These are my assumptions, and I’m not imposing them on others—feel free to disagree and express that disagreement. But don’t expect that I’ll spend a LOT of time engaging in argument about them, because these are ideas that I feel fairly sure about. They can be changed, but only with significant new input or a significantly different way of interpreting the data I’ve got.

Barring such a big change, these underlying assumptions will probably direct my choices.

Assumption #1: I just watched a few months of remarkably blatant election fraud. Exit poll data shows that this fraud was concentrated in the Democratic race, and overwhelmingly benefitted the Clinton campaign (though exit poll data is far from the only data we have showing it was fraud). Short version: my candidate was just cheated out of the nomination.

Assumption #2: The Clinton campaign has been a 6-mo-long episode of “Outing the Ringers”—if you don’t know what that is, take a look at this excellent video:

[Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9zkQcLi4Yo]

Outing the ringers is what happens when the status quo is confronted with a real challenge to its abusive power structures. In response to a real challenge, the “ringers” (who are nice guys embedded in the system, likable, apparently trustworthy, sometimes even with a history of heroic and moral action) suddenly spend all their political and moral capital, up to and including their personal reputations, in order to defend the status quo. This can also happen at the organizational level, with whole companies, non-profit organizations and even industries—hitherto imagined to be on the “right” side of some issue, or perhaps imagined to be neutral, fair arbiters—suddenly pouring all their resources into the defense of a rotten, corrupt status quo. Some of these ringers have been obvious for a while, some have not. I've listed a few here:

The DNC and the state Democratic parties have been outed as ringers. There are obvious ways in which the DNC was constantly putting its finger on the scales—for instance, taking unilateral control over the debates and then making sure the debates were few in number and scheduled opposite sports championships. The state parties were turned into pieces of a vast money-laundering scheme. The state parties also served secondary functions as re-allocators of already-won delegates to the “frontrunner,” and as generators of hatchet jobs on the challenger and his supporters. While there may be some local Democratic parties here and there who are not corrupt, the majority of the Democratic party has been revealed as being completely dedicated to propping up Hillary Clinton by fair means or foul, with all that implies.

All of the mainstream (Big 6) media has been outed as ringers (apologies to the Denver Post and the other few remaining holdouts who are out there trying to practice journalism). Some of the new media has been outed as well, including TPM, Democratic Underground, Blue Nation Review, and Daily Kos. I have been worried too about The Young Turks, especially since they signed a contract with Fusion, a subsidiary of Univision, a major Hillary supporter.

A lot of big NGOs have been outed as ringers. NARAL and Planned Parenthood just endorsed a candidate who supports “compromising with the Republicans as long as the life of the mother is protected,” which is basically the anti-choice position for everybody except lunatics. NRDC and the Sierra Club just endorsed a candidate who spread methane-spewing water-polluting fracking to all corners of the globe.

It’s been a fixture of this campaign to send out surrogates who have some moral or political capital impressive to liberals, and get them to spend it all on Hillary Clinton. This has happened with everyone from Paul Krugman to Dolores Huerta to John Lewis to Rachel Maddow to Keith Olbermann to Elizabeth Warren. I believe this is done, not so much in service of improving Hillary’s reputation (more on that below), as with the aim of demoralizing liberals, lefties, and other critics of the status quo.

There is also a sort of colonialism of the mind going on here, in which, by appropriating voices which have been critical of corruption in the past, the Clinton campaign becomes able to tell people that its critics are not progressives, not liberals—in fact, that there’s basically no name for what they are and no rationale for their criticisms. This puts the left (and other dissidents) into cultural exile with no language, (a longstanding tactic and objective of Those Rich Bastards in both parties).

Assumption #3: The party platform is a load of shit, and it’s plain insulting for people to offer us the chance to influence platform planks when we all know the Democratic party regularly wipes its ass with its own platform.

Assumption #4: Working down-ballot is basically useless unless we have some kind of answer for election fraud, at the very least a reasonably reliable set of countermeasures. Yes, we will be able to get a few down-ballot people through here and there, but the pattern we just saw in the last election is that we will be allowed to win elections right up to the point where we get close to having our hands on real power. The powerful don’t particularly like Kshama Sawant, but they don’t much care whether there’s a sprinkling of Kshama Sawants and Zephyr Teachouts throughout our system, as long as they don’t approach a critical mass which could yield real power to a populist base. Once that critical mass is approached, the same thing will happen to down-ballot races that just happened to Bernie Sanders’ campaign once he got close to putting real pressure on Hillary Clinton.

Assumption #5: It’s pleasant that the establishment is offering us Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s professional head on a pike, but they will obviously replace her with someone just as corrupt. And even though I can enjoy watching that rotten person suffer a setback—I’m no saint—I’m also no fool; if she doesn’t have a soft landing somewhere in the Clinton empire, or perhaps even the Bush empire, or the MSM empire, I’ll eat my hat.

Two observations:
Hillary Clinton has become a vortex down which people pour political and moral capital. When politicians and public figures use their clout on her behalf, she does not gain in favorability—they lose favorability. She’s like a political Typhoid Mary: essentially, the poster child for corruption. 56% of the electorate thinks she’s untrustworthy, and that number has been going up since May 2015. (That’s an historic unfavorability record matched only by Trump). Recently, someone made a word cloud based on Hillary Clinton, and the most oft-repeated words about her online were Fixed Election.

What’s remarkable is watching the DNC burn all its assets doubling and tripling down in support for her, when it would be simple to find a less-hated, less well-known but equally corrupt politician willing to serve as a frontman /frontwoman for Wall St. It’s even more remarkable when you consider that part of the Deep State—the military intelligence, covert operations, and “security” part of it—really hates her too. We have a candidate that manages to put CIA agents and fifth-branch covert military on the same side with me, united in intense dislike of her and extreme annoyance bordering on hatred.

Wouldn’t it just be simpler for Wall St and the Chamber to find another corrupt politician?

Mirror, mirror: two ways of looking at the situation

On the one hand, the Democratic party has ruthlessly consolidated its power and beaten back a populist challenge (Co-optation comes next! Get ready for some serious head-patting!), which means that the duopoly and the elite it serves have advanced us essentially into a post-voter era, in which voters function mainly as props for the establishment of a plausible political narrative of victory for a pre-chosen politician: the voters become props for photo-ops, essentially, and essential characters in a cover story. But you don’t need all that many voters to create a plausible illusion of victory. You can effectively create it by capturing most of one or two demographics, and letting the mainstream press go to town with the story. It doesn’t matter if Hillary wins the SC primary with 12% of the electorate, nor does it matter that SC won’t go blue in the general. What matters is fueling the narrative that can plausibly explain her “win” by saying “Bernie Sanders isn’t good with Black people; Hillary is.”

On the other hand, the Democratic party has played its last card, whether that card be Warren or Sanders. I DON’T mean that Sanders is an insincere party tool, but that he was basically the Democratic party’s last chance to salvage any credibility and to keep people within the two-party system. The Democratic party has almost run out of people with credibility. I can count the people I think *might* be trustworthy on the fingers of one hand. Meanwhile, if you talk to any Republicans, they appear to be in just as much despair about their party, which is also suffering a similar, though not equally bad, credibility crisis. I say it’s not equally bad, because there are actually around 25-30% of Republicans who feel represented by Donald Trump, and, despite all Trump’s other rotten qualities, exit poll data suggests that he at least didn’t baldfaced cheat his way to the Republican nomination.

So the other way of looking at this is that the duopoly has outed itself thoroughly and pretty much gone for broke. It doesn’t have anything left to spend to create credibility. In fact, it’s badly overdrawn. On the one hand, perhaps this doesn’t matter; on the other, what are political parties and elections for, if not to establish credibility, political or moral authority, some kind of mandate? If our politics can no longer create even the illusion of credibility, what good are they, to the elites or anybody else?

Questions
I. Could we do something in the future with Bernie?

Bernie can (possibly) be a movement leader as well as a presidential candidate. This is his decision, not ours, but does he have to vanish into the woodwork? And if he sticks around are we no longer interested now that he isn’t a presidential candidate? Is *all* we were interested in the Presidency? If Bernie is willing to be a movement leader, is he willing to speak honestly and openly about the electoral corruption we’ve just gone through? Or is he going to give us one more version of “Work within the party and push it left! Work on those campaigns and we’ll get there eventually!” without even acknowledging the massive election fraud that serves as a very effective Kryptonite to that strategy?

II. What can we do on our own? Do we have to have Bernie?

i. We are, fundamentally, an anti-corruption movement. We just found the corruption. Are we going to fight it, or lie to ourselves and pretend we can work within the corrupt system to stop corruption, despite all evidence to the contrary? Or are we going to give up?

ii. If we can raise 40 to 50 million dollars a month for Bernie Sanders’ campaign, why can’t we raise 10 million a month to fund a networked independent media? Even given that 40 to 50 million per month is not sustainable over the long term, one would think we could manage a quarter of that amount.

iii. If we can raise 40 to 50 million dollars a month for Bernie’s campaign, why can’t we raise 5 million a month to fund the building of persistent political infrastructure in our cities and towns? Is 15 million/month, raised by 7-10 million of us, really not doable?

iv. If we get sad at the prospect that we may have just been at our last Bernie rally, do we really have to go back to our corners and isolate ourselves, filled w/angst? Perhaps we can’t have Bernie up front giving speeches, but is that *all* that was good about being at the Bernie rally? Do we value the tribe, or not?

These are my thoughts. Thanks to all those who read through the whole thing, and I will check back later to see what you guys think. It may be tomorrow, b/c I sat at the computer longer than I should writing this, and my back is telling me about it!

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darkmatter's picture

CSTS, you are awesome. I'm so glad to be a part of the community here.

Just to take one of the many points you so effectively raised, real election reform would seem to be a fix that has to happen prior to many (or most, or all) the other political reforms that need to happen. And that fix would seem to require a monumental effort, because elections are not in any detailed way federally standardized or supervised; each state goes its own way. After the ruling in Shelby v Holder, many southern states have latitude to do all sorts of slimy things to make democracy harder. But then again, after this season, it's clear to me that we have a national problem on our hands. The exit polling anomalies are the canary in the coalmine.

We would also need to have an accurate as possible sense of the multiple vectors of election fraud/voter suppression. I was shocked to realize how much control a private entity (a political party) has over a publically run election process - if a demographic seems to be tilting against one, then just flip a bunch of registrations in that demographic or just purge them altogether. And what are they gonna do? "This is a party matter."

From the little I know, when it comes to actual voting, the best system is paper ballots, optically scanned and retained for audit. We would also need to have clarity and transparency about the primary registration process, as that seems controlled by the parties, and not by the actual state/local governments.

But we come back to your original problem. Why would the corrupt, two-party duopoly have ANY interest in really helping anyone fix the election system? It's working fine for them....

Thanks again for your comprehensive analysis. I look forward to our thinking through these difficult and dismaying questions.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

I think we really must take our electoral process away from these two parties, at least; maybe we need to take it away from parties altogether, or at least change what the laws are in regard to this--but we can't change the laws right now, b/c they're in control.

We're in some scary times, b/c if we can't affect the law, we have to withdraw our consent from it. Phew!

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"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

gulfgal98's picture

This is an incredible post that should be preserved in perpetuity. Each of us who really desires change needs to read and re-read this essay. As Bernie has said, it is not about him, it is about US.

Thank you so much CSTS for this terrific essay.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

just questions.

I'm pretty good at laying out where I think we are; the real trick would be finding a path out of it.

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"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

gulfgal98's picture

I used to have two sayings at work. (1) How can you know where you are going if you do not understand how you got to where you are now? (2) We cannot provide solutions until we adequately define the problems. I believe your essay has done just that and done it very very well.

As for your questions, I am not sure anyone can answer them right now. I have felt that since the beginning of his campaign, Bernie was trying to teach us how to take a hold of our future as a group. He was our professor and our voice, but we must now figure out how to continue the movement that he is leading. I do believe he will continue for a while, but it is really up to US to produce leaders beyond just Bernie.

Occupy had no ostensible leaders which in that case was good because they could not arrest leaders when there were none. Bernie came into that leadership void and gave us a reason to coalesce and there was nothing the establishment could do about it since he was part of the Presidential campaign. So they suppressed his campaign in other ways and still they could not stop it without committing election fraud. While that angers me to no end, it also shows just how powerful we can be when we come together. It took election fraud to stop us.

You have laid out some issues as to what we must do, but the question remains how do we do it? I see this essay as a beautiful culmination of your longtime vision for a movement a couple of years ago. Having Bernie out there ripping back the curtain on the corruption that impedes any progress for we the people is a great first step. People need to see this first hand and he exposed it for all to see. Now, we must find a way to use that momentum to keep the movement alive.

PS: I hope your back is doing better today. Take care of yourself.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Is there a way to keep these essays in a separate, accessible thread?

I missed this, and found it when it was linked from another thread.

MUCH too important to lose.

thank you

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travelerxxx's picture

Yes, this essay should indeed be "... preserved in perpetuity." In fact, due to the timing of the post, I would like to see it published again - perhaps several times - released with an eye toward maximum readership.

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stevej's picture

agree with just about all of your statements/conclusions

In answer to the question 'Do we have to have Bernie'
No (and that answer would please him no end I suspect.)

He has done more than his part than anyone had a right to expect. If he does more great and if he doesn't that is good to. The foundation is now laid. (OWS, BLM , and now his campaign have given us something solid to build on.)

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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

leaders (the ones with visibility/fame) would transition the movement into being a persistent movement less focused on them. That would require building an alternative political structure, perhaps repurposing the campaign structure into something that is not Bernie-focused. That was something Howard Dean did very well, back in the day. If they just vanish, that'll make it a lot more difficult for activists on the ground to achieve the same transition.

That said, I agree with you that we don't have to have Bernie--it would just make it a lot easier in the transition from electoral campaign to persistent movement.

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"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 few minor things I think differently about are not worth the mention.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"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

gulfgal98's picture

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Great analysis, Can'tStopTheSignal. I agree with your take on Bernie's gamble of working within the confines of a corrupt system. He chose the wrong path; the corruption is too absolute and powerful to cure from within. I agree about down ballot progressives being stymied by the powers that be as well. If Bernie decides he should be released from his promise to support the Dem nominee because of all the dirty tricks, and run on the ever-willing Green ticket, it would be a happy day for the American people. I fervently hope that is the case. It just makes sense to strike while the iron is hot because the iron might short circuit soon enough.

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darkmatter's picture

What if Nader in 2000 had run for the Dem nomination (and likely getting the same treatment from the corrupt system defending itself), and then Bernie ran third party this time around?

Instead, we had a left-oriented third-party run when it may have been premature, and an intra-party challenge when maybe it is too late. Perhaps I'm overlooking something.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Is that Bernie used the Democratic party (I think) for its access to Big Media, for the visibility. I've never been sure how much Bernie really buys the "reform the Democratic party" bit, and how much he was just using the party strategically (which it richly deserves, by the way).

But you've got a good point; it might have been better to do this in reverse order.

We didn't have anywhere near this level of connectivity in 2000, when Nader ran, which makes things much more difficult for 3rd-party candidates. Social media ain't the be-all end-all of getting your message out, but it sure as hell helps to have it!

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"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

darkmatter's picture

I agree that Bernie's running as a Democrat was a strategic move, and certainly no application to be included as a functioning cog in The Machine as presently run.

And if Bernie's main goal beyond the chance of getting the nomination (which could still happen, I know...) was media visibility, it's funny how the media responded by giving him as little visibility as they possibly could. In the end, he did raise the profile of the economic left...but where to go from here is the big question.

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hester's picture

comment. Great Work!!! Stunning even!!!

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Don't believe everything you think.

Cassiodorus's picture

Does the political revolution have to take place within the confines of the Democratic Party?

Otherwise, yeah, I agree with what you've said here.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

martianexpatriate's picture

Unfortunately, if the revolution occurs outside of the confines of the Democratic party, I would expect that it will take something like three or more presidential terms at a minimum to get organized, and we really don't have the time.

Increasingly I suspect though that we may not have any other choice.

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Cassiodorus's picture

Three or more presidential terms at a minimum?

Let me put it this way. Earth below the 15th parallel North and above the 15th parallel South may lose much of its habitability in three or more presidential terms. Do you really think politics is going to be the same as it is now by then?

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

martianexpatriate's picture

Here's the problem. Occupy isn't a political party capable of holding office, and never was. Founding a movement takes a lot. Forming a political party capable of breaking through requires something else. It requires organization, and it requires time.

We don't have the time.

Politics will certainly be different, but there is no guarantee it will be any better.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

That's what I'm more worried about, because the Democratic party has basically just outed itself as irredeemable, as far as I'm concerned. Not that I'd had a high opinion of them before. The myriad levels of corruption are stunning.

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"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

mimi's picture

with that kind of fraud and electoral college system. So far nobody has shown that you can change the system via the legal political procedures allowed from within the party system. It will also not be changed non-violently from outside the system. That will will leave you with what kind of options? I guess it means, if you want to survive, that you need to shut up and wait til it's over. Be prepared to become the "Good American". The world will try to be generous and pretend to not see what's going on. They want to survive too. Basically the world is killing itself. Nobody there to rescue you and the world from preventing that suicide. I rest my case.

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martianexpatriate's picture

One of the sad facts of the matter is that well, Bernie Sanders is pretty old. I have no problem with him continuing to represent the movement, but at some point we really need some new faces.

I think one of the ways that the system maintains itself is by doing an excellent job of pulling anybody in who seems to have any degree of influence. It's only the middle class that gets left out. The media has increasingly become subverted although in (mostly) subtle ways.

Part of the reason Sanders took off the way he did, is that he was one of that incredibly tiny minority of people involved in politics who managed to stay above that even though he was around it for years. I can't name a lot of other people like that. Elizabeth Warren has done pretty well, as has Sheldon Whitehouse. There are probably a few others, but almost eveyrbody in Congress has become a part of the system. Every time we get to elections, we find they have become even more expensive then last time. You need millions just to have a shot.

I think a big problem we are going to have is that in four and eight years, there will be many more people who want to vote for a true progressive, but there may not be any progressive able to step up and make a run for it.

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a major issue in this campaign. It's so obvious to anyone that has paid any attention to this. It's not enough that we see it. It needs to be talked about and acknowledged by everyone.

How can you ignore the millions of uncounted ballots in California? Not to mention all the provisional ballots that were cast in NY, IL, and other states?
How can you ignore the fixed machines in Chicago?
How can you ignore the hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised voters in closed primary states like NY, OR, and many others that had their registrations changed without their consent?
How can you ignore what happened in PR?
How can you ignore RI and other states closing up to 66% of their polling places?
How can you ignore the numerous reports of polling places that didn't open until hours after they were supposed to and others in prime Bernie territory that consistently ran out of ballots?
How can you ignore entire sections of Brooklyn where voters were mysteriously removed from the rolls altogether?
How can you ignore massive irregularities in exit polling in state after state after state?

How can Bernie just remain silent about all of this? It's incredibly frustrating for those of us that support him, who see the hard evidence right in front of us, then get called "conspiracy theorists" by the mainstream media because Bernie himself refuses to flatly say that this primary has been rigged from day one. The Nation of all places just ran an article about this today, saying " Crying wolf about rigged elections, like some Sanders supporters have done, undermines the legitimacy of documented cases of voter suppression resulting from GOP-passed laws in states like North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin, which pose a real and urgent threat to American democracy." Well, FUCK YOU, too!

This pisses me off to no end. Bernie needs to step up, speak out, and fight back against this bullshit. If not for himself, then for us, who have given him our time, money, and support.

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snoopydawg's picture

And I think it will be very interesting to see what he does or doesn't say or do about how this election was stolen from us.
Every problem with the voting helped Hillary. That is the tell for me.
And that the exit polls didn't match up with the vote count and too many people were kicked off their party affiliation for no reason.
Who has the power to do that?
As someone once said, "if voting changed anything they would make it illegal"
I think we just saw this come true.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

if voting were inconsequential, they wouldn't spend so much time suppressing it.

Unfortunately, they *have* found a way to suppress it.

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"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

ngant17's picture

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

Or Mark Twain: 'If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it."

But in 2016 we have tools that didn't exist in Mark Twain's and Emma Goldman's day. It is called (scientific) exit polling, basically random sampling of a population. In this specific concept, the population consists of all paper ballots.

The beauty is that it is cost-effective and labor-effective when we sample a relatively small subset of that data and thus have a reasonable degree of confidence, usually 95%, that the official numbers match our randomly sampled data, minus a margin of error.

This is the same as three-sigma quality control in a manufacturing process. If you ever worked in an assembly line, you know exactly what I am talking about.

We can ratchet up the maximum quality to a six-sigma process, basically that comes down to hand counting all the paper ballots like they do it in Canada and a number of other countries. So if you're serious about democracy, (which BTW the US oligarchy is NOT, for obvious reasons), you're going to be looking at paper ballots and exit polling.

It's a shame that the politicians who yell the most about promoting democracy, they are the same ones who do the most to subvert it in their own country. The hypocrisy will end one day. But it may take a 2nd civil war. Time is not on their side.

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there are only a few of their writers I read now, and I just started paying for it. With the big headline articles all spewing Shillary I don't look at it much at all anymore. Can't think of names of the few I do read.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw]

One encouraging thing: you're not the only one that sees it--like I said, a word cloud made about Hillary recently showed the words Fixed Election as the most-repeated words about her. In a recent poll, 55% of the American people feel "helpless" about the recent elections. Just anecdotally, I've talked to lots of people from lots of different ideological backgrounds and from different countries, all of whom believe that Hillary's people stole this election for her.

There's the truth of the signal, and then there's the puppet theater. The puppet theater will keep denying this until the whole system collapses. But lots of people are seeing the truth of the signal.

As far as Bernie goes: yes, it's dismaying that he won't talk about this. Like watching someone in Capone's Chicago talking carefully around something awful that's happened. If he's going to speak truth about corruption, it kind of messes up his work to not talk about the corruption that stopped his campaign. Or at least, it will mess up his work eventually. For a time, it's OK for others to be the ones to talk about it (and the establishment doesn't like how much we're talking about it, and how many people are talking about it, obviously; that's why that article exists in The Nation.) Actually, the establishment is making a very basic PR mistake with the Nation and Krugman and others complaining about allegations of election fraud. What they're doing is informing the public that there are a lot of people who think election fraud is an issue, and putting the idea of election fraud out there in connection with Hillary Clinton. It's kind of the PR equivalent of pulling a boner.

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"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

WaterLily's picture

Is strategic.

Think about it: if he'd brought it up at all during the primary, he'd be castigated and demonized and blamed for sour grapes and boo-hoo, unicorns.* If he brings it up *now,* he loses any leverage he might have at the convention. I trust him with the decisions he's made, and think -- if and when the time presents itself -- he'll bring it up. (Sadly, given everything you've so eloquently laid out above, I don't think it will matter either way. There are those of us capable of seeing, and many more who will refuse to remove their blinders).

*I was called a "Bernie Dead-Ender" by a FRIEND and HRC supporter for mentioning possible election fraud.

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travelerxxx's picture

Sen. Sanders is a cagey cat and has been in this game for a long time.

My guess it that he was one of the first - if not the first - to recognize the corruption of the Democratic primary election. Sen. Sanders is under no illusions about this election or the future. He well recognizes that his age is a factor, and has said since day one that his candidacy was not about him. Being able to defeat the DNC/Clinton corruption in this election may be something he knew was unlikely. However, he has delivered a tremendous broadside to the corruption in the Democratic party. The effectiveness of that attack, and its continuation is up to the rest of us.

Having said that, I don't think Sen. Sanders is quite through. Not by a long shot. He's been ahead of the Clinton/DNC corruption all along, but has clearly pulled punches in order to be able to shout from the mountaintop. Being defeated due to corruption is one thing; getting a huge section of the American population fired up is another.

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IowanX's picture

First of all, thank you for a marvelous and thoughtful essay. 100%!!

I want to point out that this essay was evidently written prior to Bernie's speech Thursday night. I believe Bernie really is in this thing to the end, and taking his platform--which he re-introduced Thursday, is a part of his plan. I heard some testimony today on the Party Platform hearings regarding climate change, and it was excellent. We will see the outcome of the Platform Committee's work shortly. Bernie laid down a marker--I got a (reported) 45% of the vote, more importantly, I got damn near ALL of the "under 45" vote, and we raised our own damn money. There's a platform we want, and here it is. We'll all see what the Democratic Party does. They can either put Bernie's stuff in (and then attempt to ignore it) or they can water it down, which is what I expect--and that would be the death knell for the D's.

Again, Bernie has made a marker. When the platform rolls out, we'll see the product, as will Bernie. In his speech, he didn't concede; he's still a Presidential candidate running against a woman who is being investigated by the FBI, and Guccifer II and WikiLeaks may heat up that investigation. Bernie is wise to play it through the convention (which may indeed turn into its own shit-show). He has said he won't run third party, but 6 weeks is a long time, and it's time enough to do polling, and I'm betting Bernie still has the resources to do proper polling. If the polling shows a way forward, I personally wouldn't be surprised to see Bernie join Jill Stein. I don't think the polling will show a path for a Green Party win, even with Bernie on the ticket.

Therefore, I expect Bernie to keep barnstorming--drawing larger crowds than Hillary--to keep making speeches to "defeat Trump" and continuing to say the exact same things he said on Thursday night. That's how you box Hillary Clinton into a corner. I think that's the plan to build the movement, at least through November.

As an aside, I especially liked Bernie's reference to the 50-State Strategy, which Howard Dean put in. Bernie and Howard Dean ain't exactly soul-mates, but Howard Dean was right, and Bernie knows it, and co-opted it. He's not been in Congress for nothing. The guy is, in a very humble way, the best kind of "brawler".

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orlbucfan's picture

Rec'd! Sobering thought. It took the fossilized, money grabbing mindset 45-50 years to steal our country. With climate change breathing down the world's neck, we don't have that luxury of time to clean up their corrupt mess. I am looking forward to the Bernster's national live streaming tonight just to listen to what everyone will say. And there will be plenty of us listening in!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"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

snoopydawg's picture

And I agree with you on every point you made.
The blindfold has come off and we see that the democrats are just as corrupt as the republicans. And have been since the Clintons destroyed it with the DLC. Only on social issues is there a difference between the two parties. If the democrats were who they say they are during their campaigns, then they would have backed Bernie. To me, that is the biggest tell.
The organizations that supported Hillary have also shown their true colors, especially as you wrote the Sierra club. I didn't know that they approved of fracking everywhere.
We have seen this election blatantly stolen from us in broad daylight and they don't care that we know it. The exit polls showed that and then the media decided not to do exit polls anymore? Too obvious.
The debate schedules were also a dead giveaway that they didn't want people to hear Bernie's message.
What I'm looking for from Bernie is how he is going to handle that. Will he roll over like Gore did, or will he speak out about it?
Many people think that he was sheepdogging by bringing so many people back to the Democratic Party, even Dr. West believed that at one time.
I don't know what to make of this. I saw it over on DK.

Harper Neldig at The Hill is reporting:

Bernie Sanders's campaign manager said on MSNBC Thursday night that the campaign is not actively lobbying for the support of superdelegates.

The admission may indicate that the Vermont senator intends to drop out of the Democratic race for president. The Vermont senator is slated to give a live video address to his supporters at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
Or it may indicate that Sanders has just gotten as many of those superdelegates’ votes as he thinks he can get.

I hope you feel better soon and try icing your back, then use heat tomorrow.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

The 2008 Obama and Edwards campaigns revealed a strong appetite for traditional liberal and progressive thinking, but Edwards self-destructed and Obama proved to be a used car salesman. Frustration and anger still seething after the worst of the depression boiled over in 2011 with Occupy, and the police state suppression coordinated by our "liberal" administration showed its real views toward egalitarian politics and economics. Democratic electoral catastrophes in 2010-2014 showed the bankruptcy of Clinton-Obama Democratic politics. The party closed ranks and tried to lock up the nomination for Hillary, much as they had in 2000 when she was gifted a Senate seat in NY. But it didn't work out the way they'd planned.

The scales have fallen from an awful lot of voters' eyes. The corruption of the Democratic Party is naked and obvious, even before the details of electoral fraud are widely known. The party is even more illegitimate than the 2010 and 2014 midterm catastrophes showed it to be. Republicans have to produce ever-more preposterous candidates to allow Wall Street Democrats to maintain custody of the executive branch for their employers.

A new politics is struggling to be born. Bernie Sanders has given it a strong push forward, and he may help guide it toward its next chapter, but he won't be its leader for long. The next phase may be as different as the Sanders campaign was from Occupy. Some of it will happen in the Democratic Party, but to succeed the leaders and the power base must grow outside the party, exerting external pressure on the party to change or die. I don't think anybody knows where the movement goes from here. We have to be alert, flexible, and on guard against co-opting and ratfucking.

Brilliant essay, CSTS. One of the best things I've read for a long time.

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snoopydawg's picture

Used car salesman is the correct term for Obama after his betrayal in his first term.
The fact that he left DWS in charge after the midterm elections shows that he didn't care that the democrats lost both houses because it gave him cover to pass the TPP and hide behind their obstruction so that he couldn't pass any bills that he said he wanted passed.
And after more than 6 years he comes out in support of strengthening social security? What utter bs when he had already played around with it.
And as you mentioned in another comment, the ACA is putting your patients in difficult situations when their premiums and deductibles keep rising.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

And thanks for your comment, w/which I agree.

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"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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

My read is that is the outcome/takeaway of Bernie's meetings w/Obama, Biden, and Reid (not sure why he didn't meet w/Pelosi; not sure why he *did* meet w/Biden). IMO, the party leadership told him he couldn't expect superdelegates to swing to him, and that they were going to double down on support for Hillary (ye gods and little fishes, even by corrupt DNC standards, that is insanity).

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"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

snoopydawg's picture

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

I Ask Again. Due to prior family commitments, I can't participate. I hope someone maybe can put up a running summary?

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

TrueBlueinWDC's picture

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"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking

NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc

This is EXCELLENT.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"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

I am speechless, really. You've nailed it.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

CaptainPoptart's picture

Unfortunately like most excellent political analysis it is extremely depressing. I know that I have lost all use and respect for Warren, Franken, Brown, et all. These were people I once revered and looked to as a point of hope that we might someday right the ship of state. Now the only emotion they inspire is disgust. May they all rot and may their plans, hopes, and dreams turn to dust.

Perhaps even more eye opening however is the massive voter fraud the DNC and co. has perpetrated on our candidate. Yes they stole the election. There is no doubt about that. I feel foolish because I feared that Bernie was going to be assassinated, but he was never a threat. The fix was on from the beginning and they were never going to let him win, so he was safe. At least we have that to cling to.

So what is left is anger and the desire to fight these bastards for what is left of my time on this planet. This is a promise not a threat.

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I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. - e.e.cummings

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

John Lewis? Jesse Jackson? These people were my heroes, and rightfully so!

If this is comforting at all, I think the system absolutely perceived Bernie as a threat. Their propaganda operation (also known as the MSM) responded to him exactly the way they responded to Occupy. The reason he won any states at all is because they believed, initially, that he was no threat, and that Clinton could easily dispense with him. Whoops. Don't think they expected the intensity and widespread nature of the feeling he evoked with, basically, one speech.

That's what's known as a supercharged atmosphere: all it took was Bernie giving one speech, over and over, for about ten months, mostly w/out MSM help, and he closed a 60-pt gap and won 20 contests and started a movement of millions of people. Like feeding a little bit of oxygen to smouldering embers. Whoosh!

Unfortunately, if they can use election fraud to stop him, that stops any electoral progress he can make. With a corrupt media, and even Bernie himself apparently fearful of talking about the fraud, we're in some deep doo-doo, no question.

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"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 most painfully amusing thing about their betrayals of what they are supposed to stand for was their feigned outrage at being called part of the "establishment" when they came out for Hillary. These famous, well-off, powerful leaders are trying to convince everyone that they are still the rebels, the outsiders speaking truth to power, instead of insider power-brokers speaking lies to the dispossessed. What a bitter, bitter laugh. It's right up there with Hillary Clinton, a filthy rich white woman who knows everybody who is anybody, and who has been on top of the political structure for decades, painting herself as a victim. My God, how uninformed do you have to be to take these people at face value?

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Twain Disciple

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

painting herself as the Social Justice Warrior for Those Colored People.

"See, she's running against white men! And Black people and most Brown people like her! She's the anti-racist rainbow candidate!"

"but...but she's white herself. And rich. And an insider. And she supported all those bills that hurt Black people..."

Shut up! You're racist!

Yep, Hillary sure is a Rainbow Warrior. Martin Luther King in a 1,000-dollar jumpsuit.

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"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

I made the mistake of visiting the GOS a few weeks ago and read a "diary" (allegedly) written by a Southern woman of color who confided that those who are against Hillary and Bill are against them only because H&B are "N-- lovers." Yep. "She" went there. This, it seems, is why we Bernie voters are racists. We despise H&B because they have always tried to help the colored folks. Presumably this was the whispering campaign in the South that managed to override Bernie's civil rights work. God knows nothing other than a lie as huge as this could possibly explain what happened with the black electorate. That "diary" may have been the sickest thing I have ever read.

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Twain Disciple

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

That talking point has DC consultant's corner office written all over it.

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"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

TrueBlueinWDC's picture

Let's keep the discussion going on the issues. As Bernie said, it's not all just about beating Trump.

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"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking

NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc

Krugman was one of many disappointments -- although its worth recalling that he was willing to traffic in "Obama is a cult leader" and his supporters are mindless Obamabot Clinton talking points in 2008. He's just taken his role to an even lower level this cycle.

Another personal revelation, is the utter waste of giving even small donations to party committees. On economic issues, it is clear who sets the agenda, and small donors aren't organized enough or rich to win the bidding war at the party committee level.

One point of disagreement -- power of downballot challenges. Look at the insurgency inside the GOP -- Eric Cantor and many others knocked out in primaries. John Boehner -- a Speaker of the House -- pushed into early retirement. A complete outsider in Donald Trump hijacking the GOP nomination process. Many of these challenges also happened in states controlled by the GOP establishment. So I think it is possible. There may also be opportunities to push the GOP left as well in states where it is dominant.

I think that the Dem leadership is going to do everything possible to head off and try to neutralize the "Tea Party of the Left", but I think there will be opportunities to catch the party leadership snoozing. There are also great opportunities to reform the party in states that the party leadership has largely abandoned and/or overlooked. I also don't think the economic conditions that have energized the Sanders campaign are going to be lessened. Demographics are also on the side of Sanders platform. Clinton might wage a literal war to change the subject, and some of the energy will dissipate after this cycle, but what are the alternatives? People just have to keep pressing on.

Sanders candidacy has succeeded beyond anyone's expectations as a "consciousness raising exercise". The revelations don't provide much short-term comfort, but they have exposed the truth in a way that makes more fundamental change possible -- it is much clearer than before where people stand and what it is that they actually value.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

if election fraud is running the show.

Please explain.

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"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

Grijalva defected to Hillary today. He was the first superdel to support Bernie. Which brings me to this point: if you don't have a campaign, you've lost not only momentum but power. Bernie's campaign is over, only he didn't tell us that tonight. But it is, all you holdouts and believers on this site. If it was still alive, Bern would have already joined Jill Stein and the Greens and gone third party, keeping his momentum going. The general is only five months away! He didn't tell us this tonight, but his plan is to change the Dems, their platform, and their pay-to-play ethic for "we the people". But, How? Don't know because he only had power and the Dem's attention when he was winning votes and a threat. Without voters, or a campaign, he's got nothing. Even the media has left the building concerning Bernie.

What was it all for then? I thought he was in it to go all the way, if not as the Dem nominee, then as an indie. So, he stopped just short of starting a viable third party to challenge the Dems, and that is a tragedy. It's up to us, he says. But what does that mean and how will we do it if Bernie couldn't or wouldn't?

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Pluto's Republic's picture

…for self-government yet. There seems to be a need to elect a Daddy President who will take them by the hand and tell them where to go and what to do. It wasn't always that way. The American people got lost mid-century, it seems to me, about the time of Vietnam. The people clearly surrendered their sovereignty and went to sleep. Their vision of themselves in the world, since, is best summed up as = "My daddy can kick your daddy's ass."

Lao Tzu correctly pointed out some 2,500 years ago that the very best leaders are those that are invisible. That is the magic that empowers the people. When the people accomplish a goal, they say, "We did it ourselves!" At that point, they can take over.

The American people did something astonishing that I still cannot believe. They funded a reality-speaker and launched him from ten percent to a few percentage points shy of a win. That's just crazy. It should have not been possible. So much of it happened spontaneously, from someplace deep in the collective soul that no one was aware of.

Of course it was a "show vote," but it was also a megaphone and a mind virus. This is a relay race. The baton was handed off to the people. They are the second stage rocket that will lift us into orbit.

The American people have an extraordinary opportunity to unite and sabotage the 2016 elections and change the game entirely. Another "show vote" to demonstrate they have "No Confidence" in the current US Corporate Government. The world must be encouraged to pull away from the US government, just as the American people have done. The US government would be discredited, globally. It must step down, until the People elect a new government.

The nation would be fine until then. The People would get busy doing what they claim they want to do: Create a representational government and make certain this grotesque corporate coup can never happen again by updating their hopelessly out-of-date slave-owners constitution.

This change cannot be done without the help of the rest of the world. This system cannot be changed from the inside, as I have repeatedly pointed out. Big change in the US has always been accomplished with material support from the outside world. It will not happen without that.

Yes, the populists, the people, vastly outnumber the sycophants. That gives them all the leverage they need. If the world believed the American people wanted to reclaim their government, they would assist us. If the current government does not step down, the nations of the world must immediately stop using the US Dollar for international trade. They must stop all discussions of all future agreements with the US, because the American people will not honor them. That includes the TTIP and the TPP.

Occupy and similar international organizations, along with the UN, must help the American people enter into a show of solidarity with the all people of the world. The world is sick unto death of the US Chaos and Terrorism machine. This will have great meaning for them. At the very least, the UN should assist with a nationwide referendum vote on the current government. The UN must oversee every aspect of the tally and make certain that not one US citizen is barred from voting, including prisoners and felons.

Keep thinking bigger than the Neocon think tanks do — and all their nightmares will come true.

If this cannot be done now, wise Americans will put all their resources into emigrating to a decent nation. You may never get another chance. Oh, US Empire will definitely fail, but you don't want to be here when it does.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

In a few days, when my back is better.

In the meantime, thank you for an excellent comment.

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"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

for the majority of 2015.

Yet a lot was going on beneath the surface that you would never have known about if you just watched cable news or the evening news.

The presidential campaign may be winding up, but the bigger challenge is just beginning. Several thousand people are meeting in Chicago right now to plan steps forward independent of Sanders himself. There will be more discussions over the next several week and months. Several Sanders staffers are already working on downballot campaigns as well this election cycle.

How do you change the equation? Through a lot of hard work, as he said by winning local elections and starting to build things from the ground up. If he's really committed to the task he could spend the next several years facilitating efforts. This election cycle he can have an impact by focusing on supporting allies downballot as well.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

I've seen this before. I've even *done* this before.

Kerry did it with his Keeping America's Promise PAC. Howard Dean did it with DFA. And here we are. The Democratic party establishment thwarted and twisted both those men's efforts. Now they're pulling out all the stops and engaging in blatant election fraud, which apparently is going to be allowed to stand, a la George W Bush.

The Tea Party succeeded, to the extent it did, because it had billionaires backing it. We don't have billionaires backing us. W/out them, we don't have the Golden Ticket to let us into the Chocolate Factory of actually being allowed to have our votes counted. Tea Party votes get counted, mainly because it's fine with the establishment if right-wing, racist populists get a voice, as long as they don't get too uppity about the 4th amendment.

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"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

Because we have our own money.

No one thought Bernie could raise the money he did and it has threatened the hell out of the party, just like the billionaires funding the TP did to the GOP. Of course, by the time Bernie came along, Dems had learned (from the right) they have to do whatever it takes to nip that independence in the bud. Hence all the nasty comments about Bernie supposedly ripping us off.

Ironically, the answer is campaign finance reform, something that the Dems now find reprehensible. How could they not have become corrupted by and addicted to the huge inflows of cash we've been seeing?

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mimi's picture

the elected officials are having a job to do NOW and they don't. We are not supposed to do their job, it's them who are supposed to do what we want and do the work for us. So far they don't, their actions do not reflect the people's will. That's obvious. Bernie needs to make a decision at least for himself. It would be nice to know what that decision would be. He lets us hang til the convention. I wonder if by then most people have given up to fight in a movement without leadership.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

though I want him to--Grijalva could not follow him there. You know that, right?
Nobody in the Democratic party can follow him if he does that. Unless they want to sacrifice their career for him.

That said, Grijalva just fell off my list of five people in the Democratic party who might be trustworthy. He didn't have to switch.

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"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

... could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Now it's down to the fingers of one finger. I still trust Bernie, although my eyes are open to the compromises and kabuki games he'll have to play since he decided to run for president as a Democrat. So far he seems to be threading the needle pretty well, but I can't imagine the pressure he's under from the Clintonites. I'd say he's earned some benefit of the doubt, though, and I'll view his actions in the light of his career so far.

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mimi's picture

the doubt, but it makes me so angry that a man like him can get cut his head off like the democratic establishment is engaged in.

I am just too angry about that.

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One of the advantages of Bernie running as a Democrat was always going to be that he would unmask them as the corrupt manipulators they are. He certainly did that, and in doing so he may have performed his greatest service to the new political movement. We can't pretend the Democrats are our friends anymore.

Thanks, Bernie.

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mimi's picture

...sure you ask the little people in the world to make the sacrifices these representatives are not willing to make. Nice fellows, aren't they? Decent people resign. Step down. Decent systems have something like a confidence vote. Very few politicians have ever stepped down or resigned from their positions for having a moral and political conscience in the US, it seems.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"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

mimi's picture

and now I just try to make up for it in saying that I read everything you say with great interest and it helps me a lot to overcome my own confusions. You always bring clarity into the discussions.

Thank you much, it really is an exellent essay.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Your comments not among them.

Smile

Best,
CSTS

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"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

Can't imagine what horrible things Raul is gonna have to sign on to, just to be let back into the room, and the DNC will continue to hold him up from now till forever. Absolutely can't be worth it, as they will throw a wrench in anything good he proposes from now on. So why the hell stay in the party?

Is Tulsi Gabbard still with Bernie? Keith Ellison? I wish some of these folks would stand up straight, square their shoulders, and declare themselves free of the Dem party. And their quitting statements should clearly state that due to complaints from constituents and overwhelming evidence in exit polling data, it is obvious the Dem Party stole the elections in so many states, it is not to be trusted. I think Bernie has to go to the convention as a Dem, but I'm hoping he is working behind the scenes to help the election fraud lawsuits move quickly. Probably wishful thinking on my part, but if some of the big ones would be decided in favor of the voters, I think he could in good conscience dump the Dems and run as an Indy. From the convention podium. On national teevee. And walk out with all his supporters. The US media might quickly try to block those images, but the international press would not.

I wonder if any of these few Bernie congressional supporters are in meetings with the Brand New Congress folks? Swamped with farm work right now and have not had time to keep current on them. Must agree that unless the election fraud is resolved before November, I hold little hope that down ballot efforts will win. I'm not sure that they are a waste of time, however, if they get more formerly low-information folks aware, on a very local and personal level, of the corruption.

Your essay is the best synopsis of where we are and what we might do going forward, really the best political writing I've ever read, anywhere. And I was "clean for Gene" back in 1968, so I've had a chance to do a lot of reading since then.

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Shaylors Provence

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

And btw, I don't know if this sounds weird, but I'm glad to have at least one farmer posting on here. You belong to an important group of people that are severely underrepresented.

Farming takes up so much time, people often have time for little else, even coming online. Glad you're here.

And I like your idea about the election lawsuits.

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"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

Yeah, thanks for recognizing the crazy 15 hour days that don't leave much luxury time for online participation. Sadly, we know there are lots of lower-income workers in cities who are juggling multiple part-time jobs so their time online is just as limited. Makes me doubly appreciate a well-written essay that obviously had so much time and thought put into it.

That said, this is a post-and-run while I came into the house for a quick lunch. Hope you find this video clip of Wisconsin Farmers' Union Tony Schultz appropriate to this thread. If not, please just delete (hey, you're admin, I think you can do that?) as I won't be back to take it down if necessary till late tonight. The occasion was the Farmers' Day at the 2010 Wisconsin uprising against Scott Walker, and Schultz nailed it in his speech about the historic alliance that farm and labor used to have.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOvqXoWB7s

I will save for another thread my seething rant against the Dem Party of Wisconsin, and how it undermined this popular uprising, once it became evident that people really were taking it to the streets. DWS and Obama have starring roles in screwing WI., in my view.

So a more cheerful way to close this comment is with another short video, showing the tractors parading around the capitol. I believe it was 20 below zero that day, and about 200,000 people were at the capitol square protesting. The Madison Firefighters came daily to march in the US flag and parade through the capitol and down State St., and the City of Madison police (as opposed to Walker's palace guard, the Capitol Police) came with sleeping bags to stay overnight with the protesters in the rotunda...This video has a very sincere though cringe-worthy music track, but great footage of the crowd and the tractors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-TwJmNfZ_w

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Shaylors Provence

Mark from Queens's picture

Shaylors Provence. I saw those videos when they happened, and gave me goosebumps.

That was a pivotal moment in helping America get back on track to honoring its roots in populist grassroots movements taking to the streets to demand justice. We have a long, noble tradition of such things in this country, tough few in the mainstream know of it because of the corporatized education system that suppresses such stories. The Farmers Alliance of the 1930's, the Socialists and the Workers Unions all had plentiful numbers and engaged in many strikes, direct action and even shouldered guns against a police force and judicial system under control of the oligarchs, banks and industry titans.

2011 was one of the most exciting, uplifting years in world history in decades. From Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian vendor setting himself on fire in Dec 2010, to the uprising of Tahrir Sq leading to the Arab Spring, to the your noble revolt in Wisconsin at the Statehouse of corrupt Koch-puppet Scott Walker's regime, to the global solidarity movement inspired by Occupy Wall St here in NYC, those actions still live in the hearts of the many millions and millions who were touched, awakened and inspired by all of these courageous, defiant and righteous movements. That energy is still there, and waiting to conflagrate again.

Btw, I think flowerfarmer is here and may also be a farmer.

Count me also as a huge admirer of your noblest of professions. Without farmers we're done. You folks deserve salaries better than everyone on Wall St. Solidarity!

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"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

Will try to write something about the Wis Uprising but won't have time till late fall...as you can see, I'm a day late in even replying to your nice remarks.

I should point out that like any group, farmers include a percentage of assholes--in my area, they are called "corn cowboys" who have the biggest, latest equipment (tractors and machinery) and plow fence row-to-fence row, meaning they do not observe any of the time-consuming but essential contour cultivation which follows the lay of the land and prevents erosion. But in general, most of the farmers I know are straightforward people and a heck of a lot of them are for Bernie.

Will try to write some impressions of the Wisconsin Uprising when my workload eases up a bit in November. Hope this tides you over till then:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG9I-oA_Er0]

Thanks again for your kind words.

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Shaylors Provence

TrueBlueinWDC's picture

From The Hill today: Sanders surrogate Tulsi Gabbard: 'I’m not prepared’ to back Clinton http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/283990-sanders-su...

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"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking

NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc

Hope Ellison feels this way, too.

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Shaylors Provence

Grijalva defected to Hillary today. He was the first superdel to support Bernie. Which brings me to this point: if you don't have a campaign, you've lost not only momentum but power. Bernie's campaign is over, only he didn't tell us that tonight. But it is, all you holdouts and believers on this site. If it was still alive, Bern would have already joined Jill Stein and the Greens and gone third party, keeping his momentum going. The general is only five months away! He didn't tell us this tonight, but his plan is to change the Dems, their platform, and their pay-to-play ethic for "we the people". But, How? Don't know because he only had power and the Dem's attention when he was winning votes and a threat. Without voters, or a campaign, he's got nothing. Even the media has left the building concerning Bernie.

What was it all for then? I thought he was in it to go all the way, if not as the Dem nominee, then as an indie. So, he stopped just short of starting a viable third party to challenge the Dems, and that is a tragedy. It's up to us, he says. But what does that mean and how will we do it if Bernie couldn't or wouldn't?

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CaptainPoptart's picture

But I think your expectations were not reasonable and misstate Bernie's positions as well as his power base. While I would personally love to see him run as an Indy or even a Green, it is a fact that he has repeatedly promised he would not do so.

As his integrity is one of his strongest points, he has much to lose from following a course that would damage it. This is especially true since the best result he could probably obtain would be to throw the election into the House of Representatives, and god knows who we would get from a Republican Congress.

As to his power base, that is us. And we're not ready to quit. Not by a long shot.

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I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. - e.e.cummings

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

There needs to be a bigger, deeper discussion of what constitutes integrity, what constitutes corruption, what constitutes selling out, and how we are going to react to any of those possibilities and what actions we are going to take. A bigger, deeper discussion than we can have in a couple comments.

So the next essay's your fault, LOL

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"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

CaptainPoptart's picture

I'll gladly take the blame for "making" you do it Wink

Seriously, one of the best I've read in a long while.

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I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. - e.e.cummings

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"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

Your point about the amazing ability of all of us to fund our candidate is spot on. If we can do that, then, we can fund other things, our own media, lawsuits pertaining to election fraud, artists, musicians, writers, etc. who can disseminate the message that Bernie so skillfully presented. As you point out, there are many things we can fund. The tribe should not disband. Collectively we are a force. We have proven that.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

I'd hoped that was what the "People's Summit" was going to talk about, but I'm starting to feel a bit dispirited about it. I need to look into it more, though.

When I found out that people were going to be talking about the transaction tax at the People's Summit, my heart just sank. Policy ideas? We're going to sit around and talk about what constitutes good policy? Again?

Isn't it obvious by now that we don't have a policy problem? Or, well, we do, but kind of like the person with a septic wound has a high fever. Treating the fever w/out treating the wound unlikely to save the patient.

"Well, I'm going to bundle him up in blankets, and put cooling cloths on his head, and force liquids, because it would be really good if his temperature came down."

"But what about that oozing wound in his gut?"

"We don't talk about that."

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"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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

The bit that, IMO, we need to move forward with.

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"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

shaharazade's picture

about this revealing farce of a Dem. primary. I never quite lost my skepticism about Bernie as the leader of a Democratic political revolution. I made that mistake with Obama. Part of my mind kept saying is he going to sheep dog the left back into the fold? Bernie did not betray the movement he gave them a voice that was heard by millions.

One of the reasons I had this skepticism was because he did caucus with the corrupt Dem. party. I know that's irrational and it's how DC politics work but all the so called 'progressives' up and down ticket who the run in the Democratic party fold like cheap tent's when push comes to shove. They are the symbolic democratic wing and once elected have no power. Bernie gave voice to the democratic movement that is building globally.

Us not them and enough is enough are more important then Bernie Saunders the pol. I also realize that if he hadn't run as a Democrat his message and the extraordinary movement he engendered would not have had a way to effectively challenge the corrupt Democratic machine. I think that this is the beginning of a time in US political history when people have had enough.

Even though Obama was a ringer ordinary people overwhelmingly voted for his pocket full of hope. They wanted to stop this shit after the Bush regime. This primary has made it quite clear that working via the Democratic party to get democratic representation is a dead end. I support Bernie's candidacy and am grateful he empowered a huge swath of people to organize and take on the Dem. machine.

In order to have a real political revolution people cannot depend on Bernie or any other leader who comes from and runs under the corrupt 2 party complicit duopoly. Bernie has showed people that they can if organized take on the established anti-democratic order. I have no idea where to go from here but I have faith in the human capacity to rein in these fuckers. So it is up to us.

I also agree with Pluto up thread that this 99% movement needs to be global. Thank you Can't Stop The Signal as I was really depressed about Bernie's concession speech? last night. Parts of it moved me to tears and part's made me mad. I was an active member in my county's Dem. party and worked down ticket for fresh young progressive faces. They were elected and all turned out to be ringers in progressive clothing. Now even on a city level people are trying to figure out how to get them out of office. It's a loop a catch22 you can't get elected dogcatcher if the Democratic machine is not behind you and if your for real a non ringer, they are going to work to take you out of the running. The fix is in on every level.

"I'm taking back my country and the vehicle I'm using is the Democratic party' Howard Dean circa 2004?

Dean too was a ringer. Look at him now. The Democratic Party is not a vehicle for anything other then keeping the power right where it is.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Thank you, CSTS, for writing this; all the commentators for your good comments; and especially those of you who are just reading and thinking.

The time is now. This is our chance. It's likely our last chance.

If not now, when?
If not us, then whom?

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

for 24 hours so that *everyone* has a chance to read it, think about it, and comment as they wish.

I'd like to suggest, CSTS and JtC, that, if this essay is pinned, the title of it be changed to better reflect its content.

Thanks again, CSTS, very, very much for a most excellent and timely essay.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

OMG! Victory is just five months away yet Bernie and followers are content to call this shutting down at the precipice of victory a win. Hill would call us fools. If a movement stops "moving" it's no longer a movement; it's a failure. Bern has enough money to run indie, which he should do because ... voter theft and fraud. Bern has Name Recognition (something Nader never had) because ... debates, huge rallies, and charisma. Bern has (had) momentum (winning 45% of primaries, coulda been more sans fraud). Bern will Never get another chance to become prez or start a (growing) indie party that SUCCEEDS. Hate to see all the work and accomplishments be subsumed back into corrupt Dem party if Bern fades back into woodwork like Occupy did. Does anybody on this site know how to contact Bern directly with THIS message?

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