CommentsEASTSIDER--Talk about pushback from the Iowa caucus. My goodness, the ever so supercilious wringing of hands of the same corporate media like CNN and NBC who brought us the debacle of the Democratic debates even as they & the DNC screwed the pooch in debate format, debate questions, and insipid commentary.
Of course the Iowa Caucus was a mess; it was brought to us by the Democratic National Committee and the same corporate insiders who control everything by their access to large donors, and are absolutely terrified by a Bernie Saunders or an Elizabeth Warren.
Versus?
On the other hand, we have what used to be the Republican Party (if there’s any left), who are led by a degenerate President who makes me afraid that our children will grow up to emulate him instead of the hard working, salt of the earth honest men and women that our parents tried so hard to instill in us. From all walks of life and ethnicities.
Trump himself, of course, is famous for a secret pact with President for Life Putin of Russia. No nasty recordings or transcripts, of course, other than we know that Vladimir Putin has everything in stereo, and no doubt a bunch of interesting videos as well. Trump is praying that the Russians will double down on their interference in our elections to keep his sorry ass in office. What a mensch.
And Comrade Donald’s bestest friend ever is the evil gnome, of course none other than Mitch McConnell, god of the Senate, who countenances no pushback against Russia, earning him the moniker of Moscow Mitch (thank you, Joe Scarborough).
But I wonder if the good people of Kentucky are aware that Mitch’s folks put the fix in for a new Kentucky aluminum mill, which is, in fact controlled by a Russian Oligarch.
The other source of Mitch’s wealth was and is paid for by his wife’s immense Chinese money machine. Check out this source.
Groovy.
The Three Wise Monkeys
As Wikipedia defines it,
“The three wise monkeys are a Japanese pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".[1] The three monkeys are Mizaru, covering his eyes, who sees no evil; Kikazaru, covering his ears, who hears no evil; and Iwazaru, covering his mouth, who speaks no evil.[2]”
As the article indicates, it’s an iconic snapshot of and characterization of the Republican party in the Senate of the United States: Fifty plus men and women who are so fear driven and terrified of losing their plum jobs that they get on their knees and turn a blind eye to evil.
I honestly can’t imagine what’s so important to these people in keeping their forever jobs of privilege, wealth and influence, that they are willing to publicly sell their souls as they sell out you and I. I guess you’d have to be one, if you could stand the stench.
And Then There’s the DNC and Cable News Media
The DNC’s equally fear based attempts to control Democrats is pretty pitiful as well; a losing proposition that will only tear the Dems apart as they bow down to big donors and fix the nomination process.
Remember, they did this for Hillary because Bernie Sanders scared the hell out of them. As I wrote in an earlier article, Are Dems Going Through Another Party Takeover … Only This Time in California.
“Essentially, under the reign of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, or Payday Loans Debbie, as some of us call her, the Clinton campaign engaged in the equivalent of a hostile corporate takeover of the Democratic National Committee, and nobody but a handful of insiders even knew about it!
Cut to 2020, and it’s looking like a repeat. The opening act was the debacle they cooked up with the media in a series of vanity “debates”, with silly questions where the moderators seemed more like inquisitors, and the 60 second responses were doomed by definition. Iowa is just icing on the frozen cake.
I wrote about this back in November in a piece called Speaking of Turkeys, There Goes the Democratic Establishment, Again.
Let’s be frank. The DNC maintains power through two vehicles; they own and manipulate the party rules (like delegates and the various state elections), and amassing a war chest largely from the same big donor pool that buys both parties.
Traditional party, traditional funding sources.
“Taken together, the bulk of Democratic presidential campaigns’ campaign money comes from predominantly whiter, generally wealthier and relatively few places, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal campaign finance, U.S. Census Bureau and Social Security Administration data.”
And the DNC is still in the business of controlling the convention by stacking the deck of the National Convention Committees, just like the last time.
“If the party’s blue-collar and middle-class base—demographics whom candidates routinely address during their debate-stage polemics—are truly the engine of the Democratic machine, it’s hard to see how their interests are represented by the 70-odd delegates, who derive their own socioeconomic standing from their careers at America’s top financial firms and K Street influence shops. In a country where ordinary people are left sagging under the weight of medical debt, student loans, ramped-up housing costs, and climate change inaction, these committee selections offer little comfort. To many, it’s something of a slap in the face.”
From the beginnings of their determination to anoint Hillary Clinton to become President back in the day, the DNC has done nothing but freak out and do everything they can to search and destroy the real progressive wing of the Democratic Party; like Bernie Sanders and now Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Just to maintain centralized power. Well, DNC, hows that worked for you? Right. And it doesn’t help that Hillary Clinton’s people all ran out and got jobs on cable TV and other news media outlets after she lost the election to Donald Trump, of all people.
Now they slant the reporting of her vision of a moderate Democratic party and give subtle jabs at the Bernie/Elizabeth faction. Wonderful.
The Takeaway
Now I freely admit that my dream team is Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker. Or Bernie and Elizabeth, since they all stand for something worth fighting for. And won’t wimp out. Whereas the bulk of the party is still owned by Wall Street. As Capital & Main put it recently Do Centrist Democratic Candidates Really Want to Rein in Wall Street?
And I truly believe that this ‘wonderful economy’ is about to tank again, this time with no way the Fed can bail it out. Since they’re already subsidizing Wall Street banks and hedge funds to the tune of Trillions of dollars per week.
Check out this recent piece from Capital and Main:
The Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Baker views Biden, who, in national polls, remains his party’s frontrunner, “as sort of a guy who would be on the fence on this, but I doubt that he has any strong views like, ‘When I get there I want to rein in Wall Street.’” Nor does Baker see Buttigieg as eager to confront Wall Street, and says of Bloomberg, whose net worth is more than $60 billion, “I don’t think he’s going to have any interest in reining in Wall Street.”
If the Dems want to beat one of the most odious, slimy, lyin’ and ethically challenged Presidents in our history, they need to resolve their internal problem. Remember, between Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, we are talking about half the party, and these are the people who get folks excited and out to vote.
So if Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer don’t want to become as irrelevant as Hillary, they need to grow up, have serious meetings with the “left” of the party, and all get behind a President/Vice President team. Stop sniping and start winning.
If someone like Donald Trump can win re-election, it will be due more to the inability of the DNC to get its act together than anything to do with Donald Trump.
Just sayiin’
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
-cw
