Uniting(?) Behind Perez ("Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys")

Informational post. Please feel free to treat as an unofficial open thread.

Although I have not joined Bernie's revolution, I am glad he is saying certain things to media. Whether what he says (or does) changes anything remains to be seen. IMO, the Party is trying to play the left, and perhaps Bernie and Warren, by giving Bernie and Warren recently-invented titles. Still, what Bernie says to msm gets "out there" and may eventually impact the zeitgeist.

FWIW, I could not disagree with Bernie more. Ellison was never going to get more votes than Perez, never. Much as Bernie was never going to win the primary or even get the endorsement of anyone in Congress, other than the two men who now co-chair the Progressive Caucus that Bernie founded and chaired for its first eight years, and one Senator. After all, zero endorsements from a Congress in which he had spent a quarter of a century would have have been even more of a signal that someone had issued marching orders about endorsements, so they allowed him three endorsements. Stronger Intimidated Together! http://caucus99percent.com/comment/238570#comment-238570. Can it be that Bernie is oblivious to the practice of vote rigging?

'No, He Doesn’t Have a Point': Bernie Reacts to Trump Saying DNC Chair Race Was ‘Rigged’
by Justin Baragona | 10:35 am, February 26th, 201

snip

Pointing out that Trump tweeted that the DNC election was “rigged” against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who was backed by Sanders, host Jake Tapper pressed former Democratic presidential candidate on whether or not POTUS has a point.

“No, he doesn’t have a point,” Sanders stated. “That’s what the system is.”

The independent senator went on to talk about the amount of energy within the Democratic Party right now, with rallies occurring all across the nation, before pivoting to a rundown of the Trump administration’s policies.

Later on in the interview, however, Sanders was noncommittal about offering up his extensive mailing list to the DNC, instead saying he would back individual candidates who expressed ideas and policies he agreed with.

Shortly after Perez won the election, Sanders offered his congratulation while simultaneously warning Perez not to go back to the “same-old, same-old.”

http://www.mediaite.com/online/no-he-doesnt-have-a-point-bernie-reacts-t... Video at link

Bernie Sanders Offers Perez a Warning After DNC Vote: ‘Same-Old, Same-Old Isn’t Working’
by Ken Meyer | 7:31 pm, February 25th, 2017

Sanders joined the calls for party unity, although he implored Perez to not settle for the status quo and stick to the establishment politics of the past.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/bernie-sanders-offers-perez-a-warning-aft... At the link, video and tweets from Bernie, Hillary and Bubba

Ellison calls on Dems to rally behind Perez
By Mallory Shelbourne - 02/25/17 04:00 PM ES

ep. Keith Ellison called on Democrats to rally behind the party’s newly elected chairman Tom Perez on Saturday after Perez appointed the Minnesota congressman, his top rival for the position, as his deputy.

“I am asking you to give everything you’ve got to support chairman Perez,” Ellison told supporters.

After winning the vote, Perez in his first motion as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) asked to suspend the rules and appoint Ellison as deputy chairman.

"I would like to begin by making a motion, it is a motion that I have discussed with a good friend, and his name is Keith Ellison," Perez said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/321192-ellison-calls-on-democrats-t...

Awwww!

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

RantingRooster's picture

No credibility left, at least IMO. He has picked up the "Russia did it" mantra and fallen in line with the Dems and exposed his false revolution as nothing more than sucking the energy from the room.

Fuck perez and the democrat party. We need to fight the democrats as much as republicans nowdays, largely because of Bernie's misdirection (false revolution) and unwillingness to truly take on the billionaire class. Working within the "system" isn't going to cut it, imho.

Sometimes I just want to slap the shit out of him!

#DissentDisobeyDisrupt

up
0 users have voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

@RantingRooster

any further, but it has been. Also further disillusioned and disheartened and no one needed more of those two, either. Moreover, the revolution is not only sucking energy, it is also sucking money and will.

up
0 users have voted.

They gave Keith a made up title too.

If Bernie gets pissed and allows himself to be drafted, the question becomes "Do I trust him not to quit?"

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Amanda Matthews's picture

@dkmich

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

posts here, trying to sort them out.

http://caucus99percent.com/content/my-inner-journey-sanders-date

http://caucus99percent.com/content/my-inner-journey-sanders-date-phase-2

http://caucus99percent.com/content/spoiler-candidates-and-protest-votes-...

I guess I still think he is better than most professional politicians. The part where I am still muddled is: Is he doing what he really thinks is best for the 99%, even if I disagree that it's best for us? Or, is he doing what is best for him, knowing it is not best for us?

I may never be able to answer those questions to my own satisfaction.

up
0 users have voted.
gendjinn's picture

@HenryAWallace and you need agitators outside that they cannot.

Took my daughter to the Oakland Museum's exhibit on the Black Panther Party and was explaining MLK & Malcolm X to her.

I'm with you on where Sanders is precisely, but I think he is smarter than me and maybe has a pragmatic approach that may succeed where my idealist rants have failed. I don't know, I wrote him off after the primary when he endorsed Clinton.

What I do know for a fact is that the underlying forces make it inevitable that a leader will arise, the people will follow and there will either be a third party sweeping to power or the revolution will cost a lot of lives. I prefer the former, I'm willing to compromise my ideals to achieve the former so I'm willing to consider Sanders in the future until someone else stands up.

There is no way the country continues on this path of increasing the poverty of the country, now 60% would be wiped out if hit with a $500 bill tomorrow. That number continues to go up until we snap.

up
0 users have voted.

@gendjinn

Why would you believe Sanders is "smart"?

We should drop the idea that these people are superior to us in any way.

They are collaborating in the destruction of the planet. That's not smart.

It's evil.

up
0 users have voted.
gendjinn's picture

@irishking Just to be starting with. Smart and Evil are different categories.

Smart and correct/incorrect are also different categories.

So now that we've established that much.

Also, read my fucking comment history before you shovel that shite at me. Jesus Christ talk about not having a fucking clue what position I hold before unloading both barrels.

It really is great that you all have woken up, it's been lonely the last 25 years pointing out what the Dems were when people exactly like you were just as snotty, snide and derisive about it. Great, you've flipped sides and are finally on the correct side, fantastic, now shove your fucking attitude at those who knew better long before you.

Good.

up
0 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@gendjinn I would not characterize them as smart.
Most of them are diseased with the Greed Virus.

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@gendjinn

So now that we've established that much..

You have established something, for sure.

Not smart. (kinda dumb)
Evil. (++ unGood)

I don't think Sanders is particularly intelligent. I have listened to him. He is not smarter than I am. I simply feel you give him much more credit than he deserves.

I think it is ++ unGood to collaborate in the destruction in the planet. I think Sanders is doing a lot of damage right now and that is unGood too.

Edit. removed some rude comments. Also J. Krishnamurti did have a bit to say on the subject. I think he would say evil does not arise from the action of intelligence. He did discuss these matters over decades.

up
0 users have voted.

@gendjinn

up
0 users have voted.

@irishking Agree about them not being superior to us. Just richer. We are under constant propaganda pressure to accept the notion that they are our "betters", like something straight out of the 19th Century. This election season has actually proved the opposite. Criminal behavior, corruption and greed, and the ARROGANCE. The mind-numbing arrogance. They robbed us, and now they want to be our "leaders".

Unfortunately, not only are they skilled in keeping us divided (because propaganda works), but they have also kept most people convinced that we actually vote anymore. Most won't even consider the possibility that computerized election fraud exists, and was widely used by both sides, sans ROOSHINS.

The problem as I see it, is that until we get a large enough mass of people to acknowledge this little fact of life, we will never, ever, EVER "vote the bastids out".

We don't actually have one person, one vote anymore. If we dumped the computerized, privatized, secret black-box vote-counting regime we have now, then we'd have a chance. Voting using computers is a pin-headed use of a technology. Like making computerized condoms. Some things work fine without computers. Our election system USED TO! Insisting that everything must be computerized is the worst kind of techno-fetishism.

Until we vote on paper, with hand counts by all concerned parties, TPTB will continue to multiply, rather than solve, our problems. The corruption will continue.

And any solutions based on "We will vote on it!" are rendered stillborn.

Quite a conundrum, yes?

up
0 users have voted.

"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@AnotherPeasant

people. All parties involved should monitor too, but professional pols apparently can be bought and/or intimidated quite easily. So, even though they are theoretically opponents, they may collude. Of course, the neutral monitors can be bought, I guess. But, at some point, we just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

up
0 users have voted.

@AnotherPeasant

... Until we vote on paper, with hand counts by all concerned parties, TPTB will continue to multiply, rather than solve, our problems. The corruption will continue. ...

But as long as Homeland Security has all election infrastructure, including voter registration, safely isolated as 'critical infrastructure', how are all concerned parties (clearly including citizens) to gain access to something labelled as involving 'national security'? Can it really be thought that Homeland Security and the State Dept will be less corrupt under Trump's Puppet-Masters That Be than under Obama's Puppet-Masters That Be?

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@gendjinn

establishment can compromise; and, if I did, I don't know that Bernie is that person.

IMO, the establishment didn't compromise with Martin or vice versa.

http://caucus99percent.com/comment/244415#comment-244415

ymmv

up
0 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@HenryAWallace
which gave him the underlying message, "You can try this my way, or you'll have to deal with HIM."

We haven't got a boogeyman.

up
0 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven

only Malcolm. Elijah Mohammed, Farrakhan and the rest of the black Muslims were more radical than MLK, Jr. So were SNCC and CORE. And they all had organizations behind them. But, what got the civil rights act and the voting rights acts done, IMO, was none of them.

What got it done was a million black and white people (or whatever the actual number was), mostly black, finding a way to get to support MLK, Jr. in Washington, D.C. and scare JFK. MLK was so charismatic that the Black Muslims volunteered as his bodyguards. JFK had recordings of Mahalia Jackson, the one female on the stage that day, ready to play. The Park Service had orders to cut off the mikes and play the recordings if any of the speeches got too rabble rousing. The idea was that the bulk of the crowd might not even realize that the mikes had been cut. But, a "rabble" of that size in spitting distance of the White House and Congress was not to be roused, no matter what.

What also got it done was the Great Migration, which, for decades, had been bringing Lincoln Republican African Americans out of the South, where they had not been allowed to vote, into northern cities, on which Democrats depended, along with "Dixie" to get elected POTUS. There, they had been voting and diluting the Democratic vote.

Senator JFK was told he needed their votes in his run for POTUS. That was why he reached out to Coretta King when MLK, Jr. was arrested and asked her if he could do anything to help. http://www.nbcnews.com/video/the-grio/53459132#53459132 She sweetly told him that he, being a US Senator, would know better than she did what he could do. MLK, Sr. promised to deliver black votes if JFK helped.

JFK integrated interstate commerce, broadly defined, using just his Executive power. RFK, his AG, was more fierce on civil rights, maybe more than all his predecessors combined. The sentiment in the aftermath of JFK's assassination ("It's what he would have wanted"), plus LBJ's own formidable knowledge and skills, got the legislation passed.

up
0 users have voted.

@dkmich

to be drafted. He is very happy where he is, I think. And if he were to be drafted, he will not have the following he did last time. He is too smart not to know that.

up
0 users have voted.
gendjinn's picture

@HenryAWallace He had an opportunity to shut the door, he left it open, explicitly. MSNBC were so frightened they had their chyron lie about it for the next day or so. Stating he'd rejected it utterly. The DraftBernie guy on the Humanist Report covered it well and the MTP interview is up on youtube to see for yourself.

I ain't defending or advocating for Sanders, just for what I think will happen. Personally I want someone better on foreign affairs, the MIIC, and knows what needs to be done to topple the deep state. If it ain't Sanders, it WILL be someone else.

up
0 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@gendjinn that Hillary is gearing up for another run.
I can see it in her face.

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1

I guess she figures if Sanders could do okay at the polls at 74 and Trump could get elected at 70, nothing should stop her from running again.

She's going for Adlai Stevenson's record.

Ready for Undead Hillary, the zombie candidate!

up
0 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@gendjinn They don't want his supporters to start looking elsewhere. And before you know it, 2020 is here and another run by Her Heinous and another sellout by Bernie.
Worked the first time. Clearly will work again.

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@gendjinn

Also, Sander did not decline to rule out a draft. He just did not take the opportunity to rule it out. He equivocated with "'Right now," I am focused on working within the Democratic Party," or words to that effect.

Why should Sanders rule anything out just because Todd asked a question to put him on the spot, so he (Todd) can run the tape and play gotcha if Sanders ever changes his mind? Why foreclose any option at all for that reason, no matter how remote the possibility? Sanders doesn't owe Todd a thing. But, why would Bernie go indie now, when he decided against that route in 2015 and he'd draw fewer supporters this time than he did in 2015-16? And why would he tear up the only ace he holds against Democrats in return from nothing from Chuck Todd?

Elizabeth Warren parsed her words about running for POTUS in 2016 for about a year, knowing suckas who supported her for POTUS were donating millions of their dollars to draft Warren organizations. She let them be fleeced rather than say yes or no definitively.

When Bernie announced, he said that he had been waiting for her to say something definitive before he announced his desire to run. I have to believe that they talked and she knew that, too. Short hair don't care. NOne of those people will ever see another dime from me and I will never lift another finger for them. I said the same thing in 2010 and then stupidly fell for it again.

up
0 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@HenryAWallace I'm saying it will be an exact rerun of 2016. Her and Bernie face off in another primary. Primary gets rigged. Pisses everyone off. Another wackjob Republican gets elected.
Sigh

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@HenryAWallace .

This was my reply to your comment. http://caucus99percent.com/comment/245338#comment-245338

Her might run again, but I don't think Bernie will. As to both of them, we'll see in a couple of years.

up
0 users have voted.

@dkmich -At this point, no, I don't. He has been part of Washington for too long, and playing with the Democrats for most of that time. He has become a defacto part of that power structure. His idea of "change" may be a little too Obama-esque. His idea of "Revolution" may fall way short of what is actually needed to save this country. When I think back to how alive and all-in I felt towards his campaign, at first, it makes me sad now. I defended him probably longer than I should have, and now I have a definite question in my mind that will probably never be fully answered: "Was Bernie in fact a sheep-dog of the Left?" Six months ago I would have said "HELL, NO!" But with every accommodation to the DNC Brahmins that he makes, my doubt about him rises. Most days now, I agree with the Sane Progressive, that Bernie has become a danger to the Movement.

I still think he means well, but being all-in on the fake intel-report blaming the Rooshins for everything, that is in fact dangerous. And sad. Bernie is helping spread bullshit that could well end us all in either nuclear fire, or nuclear winter. And he is doing it to help the people that defrauded him of the nomination. The Dems are trying to distract us all from their criminal behavior, by shaking Vlad Putin in our faces, as though he might be some voodoo fetish doll, the Deep State's Satan of the Hour. I'm not buying it, but I meet WAY too many people that ARE.

We need real change. We need a new party. We need a real Leftist to lead it. -Or at least a real populist. We need to start looking for them (and not just in Washington!), and see if we couldn't draft them. And I wish I knew where to start looking.

up
0 users have voted.

"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@AnotherPeasant

about Bernie. However,as a general matter, I think there is something between sheep dog and hero. As to Bernie, it could be that, as a NYT story said, he ran primarily to get his message out. Regardless of whatever I may conclude as to Bernie and his motives, I think getting his message out was a good thing. And he told Chuck Todd that he (Sanders) ran as a Democrat because, otherwise, the media would not have given him air time. However, without planning it, Sanders' run had the consequence, unintended by him, of Isheepdogging us--but only during the primary. I am not saying that is what happened. I am saying it is possible.

Bernie's so-called revolution, however, is much harder to rationalize--and that picked up from the convention through Election Day and continues. I have an even harder time sorting that out than I did his run. A Revolution to back Jean Shaheen?

up
0 users have voted.

@dkmich

It might be a made up title, but they have plans to "use" him.

New DNC chairman Perez wants to make Ellison 'the face of the Democratic Party'

Ellison fell short of the votes needed to run the Democratic National Committee in a contest here Saturday. The job went to former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who immediately appointed Ellison as his deputy.

In an interview Sunday, Perez said he had big plans for Ellison as his deputy, including letting him run point on the party's grass-roots organizing efforts.

Perez also noted he wanted to make Ellison the "face of the Democratic Party."

Tom Perez is too butt-ugly to even be seen on television.

He reminds me of a used-car salesman.

And let's face it - what he's trying to sell is a real clunker that wouldn't even pass inspection.

He's definitely not an inspirational speaker, and he doesn't really know how to answer questions. If the question is too tough, he'll even run away.

Keith is a lot better at all that. I think the Democratic Party is going to use Keith as the spokesman for the DNC in an attempt to make the party look more appealing.

Meanwhile, Perez will be behind the scenes making sure all those big consulting firms continue to suck up most of the money raised to be used in the national campaigns and little of it will go to the state campaigns. Just like it is now.

All they want to do is use Keith just like the party uses Bernie.

And after all that, Perez had the gall to say according to the New York Post

“You know, our unity as a party is our greatest strength,” Perez told CNN. “And it’s his worst nightmare. And, frankly, what we need to be looking at is whether this election was rigged by Donald Trump and his buddy Vladimir Putin.”

Russia, Russia, Russia!

And as far as his statement on unity being our their party's greatest strengh. LOL!

up
0 users have voted.

@LoneStarMike

The Democratic Party's "unity" was very evident in the primary. Of a couple of hundreds or so Democratic members of the House, a token two endorsed Bernieboth co-chairs of the Caucus he founded and chaired for its first eight years and one token Senator, from a very liberal state that doesn't have as many delegates as, say, California. IMO, none of that was real, not the endorsements and not the ones that refused to endorse him.

Then again, one person's unity is another's corruption.

up
0 users have voted.

@LoneStarMike

... He reminds me of a used-car salesman. ...

He kinda reminds me of a sketch? painting? labelled as being of Mephistopheles I can only vaguely remember, but the eyes make me think of a scene I briefly saw of something a roommate was watching when I came down to talk to her about something involving perhaps, I thought, a crazed doctor who turned out of be torturing somebody. Luckily, I was walking out of the room to go back upstairs at the time, as I can't stand things like that.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

jobu's picture

Meet Your New and Improved (DNC) Washington Generals

up
0 users have voted.

@jobu

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPA7nJscUpI width:350 height:350]

up
0 users have voted.
sojourns's picture

The DNC, determined to remain comfortably seated, did precisely to Ellison what they did to Sanders sans rigging primaries. It will be interesting to watch how things unfold. Once again, they have further alienated the true left but they never needed our votes anyway. I'm sure the DNC qualifies for a funded study in political entropy.

up
0 users have voted.

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

gendjinn's picture

@sojourns That is why Obama, Biden and the White House went out and head hunted someone to run against Ellison. That is where Perez came from. His whole objective was to stop Ellison.

Ellison being elected, co-opted and compromised was the worst outcome for progs, the blue dogs being so terrified that they act so clearly is the best help we can get to drive remaining progs out of the party into a new peoples party.

up
0 users have voted.
sojourns's picture

@gendjinn --He was perceived as a threat from day one.

up
0 users have voted.

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

@sojourns

up
0 users have voted.
sojourns's picture

@HenryAWallace @HenryAWallace --then I don't see it. I've never bought into that theory. It doesn't fit. The shock experienced by the DNC when Sanders was filling football stadiums while Clinton was barely able to fill a gymnasium was not feigned.

The sheep dog thing is promoted by those that are unduly angry at Sanders. Not that I'm particularly happy with what he's doing these days. Does he have something against the Green Party? That's where he should be.

up
0 users have voted.

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

@sojourns

himself. I mean that Hillary was going to win that primary, one way or another. That is the fix that was in.

As for Sanders, other posts of mine on this thread state where I currently am with him.

up
0 users have voted.

@sojourns

Theoretically, any Democrat who wants a Democratic President should be pooping bricks right now as millions leave the party and more and more states that went blue in 2008 went purple or red in 2012 and 2016. They should be bending over backwards to compromise and Ellison (though I personally did not think he was the best candidate) would have been a relatively easy compromise. But, nooooo. Hell, they barely budged on DNC corruption! Hillary did what she could to save DWS's face by giving her a job that could be announced when her resignation was announced and they made the equally corrupt Brazile acting head. How big a slap in the face to Bernie and his supporters was that?

So riddle me why they haven't budged, except on a nonbinding platform--and even then Bernie's delegates had to fight tooth and nail and still didn't get all they/he wanted?

up
0 users have voted.
sojourns's picture

@HenryAWallace ---for some people, money is like cocaine and it appears that the upper echelon of the DNC are hopelessly addicted. They will say anything, do anything, steal anything, screw anyone over to get it with zero regard as to the consequences. They should all go and live in the woods for a couple months. That's my best answer.

up
0 users have voted.

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

@sojourns

up
0 users have voted.
orlbucfan's picture

Between reading that Bernie Is a
*fraud,
*sellout (big one),
*fake Librul,
*sheepdog,
*Turd Way plant (for real),
*etc.,
I wonder where that places old Futurists like me? Man, is that rant getting old!! Rec'd!!

up
0 users have voted.

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

@orlbucfan

upon what some people say about one politician. Your thinking is so much bigger.

up
0 users have voted.