The primary race is not looking good for Bernie Sanders. After Obama worked behind the scenes to coalesce the entire Democratic establishment behind former working brain owner and vice president Joe Biden for Super Tuesday, along with wildly suspicious election shenanigans, glaring discrepancies in exit polls, and months of manipulation by the billionaire media, Sanders appears to have suffered a pivotal loss in Michigan tonight.

Biden is exhibiting signs of cognitive decline on a near-daily basis now and the coronavirus pandemic adds a whole new layer of unpredictability to pretty much everything, so it’s technically possible that Obama’s appointment of his right-hand man as his successor (perfectly normal thing in a perfectly normal democracy) will fail. But things as they are don’t look good for Sanders, who has failed to come close to shoring up a dominant lead much less the huge numbers he’d need to prevent a brokered convention.

Which is not a surprise to even the most optimistic of Bernie Brothers. But it is disappointing. The despair and deflation I’m seeing online right now is similar to what we saw after Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party failed to secure a win last year following years of egregious mass media propaganda. And understandably so; pretty much everyone on the left understands that we’re coming up to a do-or-die point as a species right now, and they were hoping that they’d be able to use electoral politics to tilt us toward “do”.

But that’s just it: the electoral politics in this empire are not designed to benefit humanity, they’re designed to give us the illusion of control while the people with actual power run things. Elections are like the unplugged video game controller you hand your little brother so you don’t let him have a turn playing.

Image

The real goal here was never to “win” at electoral politics, it was to get more people to wake up to the fact that they’ve been handed an unplugged controller.

And to that end Bernie’s primary race has been very successful. The Democratic establishment was pressured so hard that it was forced to engage in a brazen coordination against the most popular candidate right before Super Tuesday, in order to install an actual, literal dementia patient whose neurological deterioration will be brought to mainstream attention in the coming months.

They’ve been forced to do this all out in the open, and it was necessary to make them do it. If there had been no anti-establishment candidate running and no forceful grassroots movement behind them, they could have slid in a nice fresh-faced empire loyalist like Elizabeth Warren or Pete Buttigieg with no difficulty instead of settling for the former veep who they themselves were all calling senile in 2019.

Now people can see them. Now #DemExit is a top trend on Twitter as progressives realize that they were sabotaged by the party’s leadership. This will only get more obvious as rank-and-file liberals realize that a clearly unqualified candidate was installed to thwart the candidate with a functioning brain, and that neither their party’s leadership nor the news media responsible for informing the populace ever told them that this was happening.

Which has only ever been the real goal of the 2020 primary for those with an ear to the ground. Not the delusion that the nice oligarchs would maybe allow the people to have a president who works against the interests of the oligarchy, but that by pushing an anti-establishment candidate so hard into the mainstream that his campaign had to be openly sabotaged they could awaken the public to the fact that they live in an oligarchy.

The problem is not that the system is rigged against the people, the problem is that the system is rigged against the people and the people do not know it. If they were aware just how badly their interests were being actively sabotaged by the loose alliance of government agency leaders and the plutocrats who own the political/media class, they would immediately use the power of their numbers to force real change. But they don’t. Because the political/media class who are paid to protect the status quo upon which their employers have built their respective kingdoms keep assuring that this is all normal and fine.

The more people wake up to the reality that everything they’ve been told about their nation and their government is a lie, the closer we get to the possibility of the people discovering the power of their numbers and shrugging off the mechanisms of control and exploitation like a heavy coat on a warm day.

Which is all the ruling class has ever been afraid of. Not the Russians. Not the Chinese. Not Donald Trump. Not even Bernie Sanders. They’ve only ever been afraid of you. They’ve been afraid of a sleeping giant waking up from its media-induced coma and knocking down their little empire with a wave of its hand.

That would have remained the goal even if Corbyn and Sanders had managed to win by some miracle, and it remains the goal now. The actual results of the fake election change nothing in the big picture, any more than it would help the little brother with the unplugged controller if he felt like he was winning at the game. If anything feeling like he’s in control keeps him from glancing down and seeing that the cord leads to nowhere.

Electoral politics is not the real fight, waking the public up to reality is. And toward that end Berners have been very successful this year. They should hold their heads up with pride. And keep fighting.

__________________________________________________

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121 responses to “Keep Up The Fight: Electoral Politics Was Never Meant To Be The Solution”

  1. Talking to a “good” Dem today:

    Me: “Biden’s demented”
    Him: “We can’t talk about that”
    Me: “Why not?”
    Him: “Because beating Trump is all that matters”
    Me: WTF makes you think a senile old man will beat Trump?”
    Him: “Oh, he will crush Trump”
    Me: “You’re in la la land it will never happen. Trump will dismember Biden, and even if Biden did win, would you really want a demented old fool in the White House?”
    Him: “We just have to trust the people around him”

    Stop the world I want to get off. Not only did the Dems not figure out what they did wrong in ’16, but they are with malice aforethought doing worse in ’20. I did not think that was possible. The only consolation is that the stock market crash is taking a bite out of the fat cat neo liberal elites of both parties.

    Remember, we can’t talk about Biden’s dementia, that will help Trump, and it’s what Putin wants us to do.

  2. THE UNTOLD STORY
    Trump received more votes in the primary on super Tuesday than all the democrats combined. This has not happened for an incumbent since Reagan. FYI

  3. Definitely looks orchestrated. A near miss this time but everyone can see that the driver is starting to panic. Elites tapping the brakes just enough to barely avoid the socialism truck from crashing into their limousine. Looks like they would rather put up with Trump than go with Bernie this time around. Things are going to get very ugly this decade (ie. Mad Max). The Elites are running out of gas…

  4. Bernie Sanders never really had it in him to beat Joe Biden and win the nomination. When given the chance to comment on Joe Biden’s personal shortcoming Sanders would always say something like “Joe is my friend” and consistently refused to criticize him in any substantial way. Repeating platitudes like “Joe and I have our political difference” was never going to cut it. In a recent townhall a young woman asked Sanders what he thought about Biden’s obvious dementia – something that’s plainly visible whenever he speaks now. Sanders refused to address the issue and just said “I’m not going to make any personal attacks against Joe Biden”. Dammit, it’s a political campaign and Joe Biden’s mental deterioration is surely a legitimate topic! Sanders refusal to go on the offensive against his political opposite is not a winning strategy. It’s indefensible. It’s a losing strategy and I believe Sanders knows it.

  5. Caitlin often states that politics is irrelevant and she hopes that the power of numbers waking up will shrug off the mechanisms of control and exploitation. NOT SO! Let me make my prediction clear: Change is not going to come from dissidents using their numbers. The reason: Firstly, the Deep State used powerful propaganda to ensure that most “numbers” continue supporting the status quo with only minor changes in the puppets on the political stage. Secondly, there is no power in numbers only. Power comes from money and dissidents are a minority who don’t have much money and those who do have money inadvertently buy into the status quo. They help pay for their own oppression. That is why only effective revolutionary action will overthrow tyranny.

    1. If dissidents can grasp what Yeshua said and meant when training His Ambassadors for revolution we will have a much better chance of ending tyranny. In ancient times, Roman officials called Yeshua’s followers “dangerous.” Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf

      1. Michel Bélisle Avatar
        Michel Bélisle

        Yes, the first Christians were putting everything in common.

        They went contrary to the individualistic societies and were considered a bad example by those who were after money, social status and power.

        “Utopia” by Sir Thomas More is a good example of a society based on each and everyone needs instead of money, profits and power.

        The Rosary is the ultimate weapon in our days which are the return of the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Jesus.

  6. Where’s the Liberal Outrage Now That Tulsi Gabbard Has Been Silenced Yet Again? by Robert Bridge This article can be read here:
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/03/11/wheres-the-liberal-outrage-now-that-tulsi-gabbard-has-been-silenced-yet-again/

  7. It’s apparently okay for a limousine liberal branding executive such as Donny Deutsch to threaten to vote for Trump over democratic socialist Bernie Sanders but it’s sacrilegious for a progressive to vote any other way than for the ‘never trumper’ Democrat Party assigned establishment candidate… well have fun moderates cause the balls in your court so do your best beating Trump on your own. While Biden’s presidential run is applauded by the woman on the View little will their uninsured single mom viewer of three have the time nor money to pay for a doctor visit copay. One need only turn on their TV set too see what killed the Sanders Campaign.

    1. Lemme guess: “Harpies for Jibbering Joe?”

      1. Joe Biden isn’t capable of winning this primary all on his own… but you knew that Realist that tough guy don’t vote for me Biden could not be so successful without the help of the big corporate media….I liked your comment Realist.

  8. Who knows if Sanders lost the vote? There is no reason to trust the official vote totals; U.S. voting machines are outrageously susceptible to hacking. It is a scandal. Voting should be done in a way which prevents tampering, i.e. paper ballots, hand counted in public, and it should be managed by neutral people, not the political parties. There is no legitimate reason why America does not have such a system.

  9. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    A recommended reading is the famous book “Utopia” by Sir Thomas More.

    In his classical book, More describes what would be the best form of government.

    He describes a society based not on the profits of some people but on the needs of everybody where people have nothing but contempt for money and gold.

    This book by Sir Thomas More is a masterpiece.

    The Roman Catholic Church considers Sir Thomas More as the patron saint of politicians. Sadly, in this 21st Century, we do not have among politicians a man of his stature.

    Not very surprising in a sense, because Sir Thomas More wrote his book 500 years ago and we have been regressing all the time since to total decadence in this 21st Century.

    1. Consider that organized religion might be the problem. A 4300 of the religions.

      1. Michel Bélisle Avatar
        Michel Bélisle

        But what about the book “Utopia”? What about the idea of a society based on the needs of each and everyone instead of being based on money and profits?

        Please, address the topic of the comment!

        Isn’t it true that there is no politician of the stature of Sir Thomas More in this 21st Century?

        Isn’t it true that we are in total decadence?

        Will you read “Utopia”?

        Days of Noah all over again. You can understand why I pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus!

        1. No thanks. I been baptized 3 times. And the tooth fairy never left me anything.

    2. Michel, congratulations for writing your first post that I know of in which, at the end, you do not mention praying the rosary.

  10. Johnathan Cook has a good article on Consortium News

  11. Thank you Caitlin Johnstone. A link to your website has been added to Motihari Brigade’s “Newspeak Decoder: Links to Alternative Media, Independent & Critical Thinkers,
    Investigative Journalists, & Russian Bots” – https://mbrigade.com/newspeak-decoder/ – with the following description: “Caitlin Johnstone. Rogue journalist, Bogan socialist. Anarcho-psychonaut. Guerrilla poet. Utopia prepper. One of the most fearlessly independent and critical thinking bloggers in the entire world, and who happens to live in Australia. An unfiltered dose of critical analysis – ready or not.” Thank you for what you do and keep up the good work. Cheers! Eric Winston, Motihari Brigade. https://mbrigade.com

  12. catherine fehrenkamp Avatar
    catherine fehrenkamp

    Thank you. I have been feeling so demoralized but, knowing that there are voices like yours out there gives me hope.The fight will go on.

  13. I think that little boy looked perfectly happy with his unplugged controller. Ignorance is bliss. Why spoil it by telling him the truth.

  14. Nurse Cratchett Avatar
    Nurse Cratchett

    COVID-19: Trump’s plan to “fix” Social Security.
    Estimates are that 20-25% of the elderly will die from COVID-19. Just what the oligarchs wanted. They’ve been complaining for years about this wave of Baby Boomers who were going to retire and think that their years of slavery had earned them peace in retirement.

    1. And Malthus said !

  15. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    With the current election process all over the west, the oligarchs will always prevail. And if there was a chance they would not, for example because the people do not want to participate to their sham election, they will organize something like 9/11 or start a war with the oligarchs of another country to send their lower socio-economic classes on the battlefield to get rid of them, so the oligarchs of both countries will remain in full control.

    And this pattern is just more pronounced in our days which are the return of the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Jesus and I pray the Rosary to hasten His Glorious return because I do have seen enough bs and I am really fed up.

    1. Nurse Cratchett Avatar
      Nurse Cratchett

      Noah was a dictator who never held an election about who would command the ark. He claimed a religious, theocratic right to determine who lived and who would die “God Told Him.”

      1. Michel Bélisle Avatar
        Michel Bélisle

        Noah and his family were the only ones to survive the flood. They survive because they were the only ones of good faith at the time, everybody else being of bad faith.

        Very similar with people being of bad faith in our days, especially among very educated academics with a lot of diplomas, pretending they have clearly seen wreckages of airplanes in the Pentagone and in a field on 9/11 where there were none at all to be seen:

        https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/03/10/peer-reviewed-journal-publishes-article-on-academic-resistance-to-9-11-truth/

        Let’s pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus.

        1. Jesus was here and He ain’t coming back. Why would He want to come back when He knows he’d only end up getting crucified again, endlessly?

        2. Well here’s one modestly hopeful item I found in a book review by the BBC, of all places. The thesis of “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict” by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University is that, historically, protest movements “engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.” Article online at https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world

          It’s also encouraging that a majority of young people get their news online, and are skeptical of MSM. And the election cycle ain’t over ’til it’s over. Reportedly, the Dem leadership is scrambling to cancel Sunday’s debate – because they know their man cannot survive an hour of one-on-one with Bernie Sanders.

  16. Good article, Ms Johnstone, but I weirdly see a victory for Mr. Sanders despite what is going on. Medicare for all was his big deal, right? The South China Post has an article about the Chinese government suggesting all federal governments be responsible for testing..so, kind of like the Korean drive thru idea…and for self-quarantine, so an ill person loses neither job nor money while off. The article further cites the Chinese as saying if self quarantine is voluntary, people who can’t afford it, won’t.Which kind of highlights what is going on in the States. Tax cuts mean nothing if a person doesn’t have money to begin with. As the virus spreads, it demonstrates the silliness of the idea of the USA being a first world nation. It is alone among first world nations not have some form of healthcare. The virus is spreading, how fast? I don’t know but thinking poor Americans will stop it when they have no healthcare, no compensation means they also have no reason to.I know the government has made the tests free, but actually going to the doctors to have them still costs. If Trump makes that free, which I anticipate just not till the situation gets worse, I think the door to Medicare for all has been opened. Bernie may have lost the battle, but I suspect he has won the war.

    1. Nurse Cratchett Avatar
      Nurse Cratchett

      Yep, these will be hectic and chaotic times, and anything can happen. Which is why the “Biden has already won” propaganda is being pumped out by the tanker-full right now.

  17. Love the photo of the kids playing the video game. So much to say on so many levels about it, so I will refrain. But, in case you are not listening currently, the lame stream media is now suggesting that the DNC stop the rest of the debates. I guess they are afraid of Joe being on the stage and showing any cognitive decline.

    1. Nurse Cratchett Avatar
      Nurse Cratchett

      Actually, the whole “Biden has won” thing was fake. If anyone looked closesly, Biden had a small lead of about 50 delegates out of the 4000 or so delegates at the convention. That lead has grown with the latest numbers that the computers have told us are the primary results last night. But Biden is far, far away from “locking up” a win in this campaign.
      🙁
      In times before the media became oligarch controlled propaganda, the media would have been hyping how close the race still was, as that would draw more eyeballs to their advertisements. Like sports announcers pretending the game is still a close contest when one team has a lead. But nooooooo, not anymore. Now as soon as Biden has a small bit of success, suddenly the media declares that Biden has won and that its all over and that everyone should go home now because there is nothing to see here.

  18. “Half a loaf is better than no loaf at all”.
    Pun intended.
    Biden is a flawed candidate, no doubt about that. But he is less flawed than the incumbent. It’s really that simple.
    So if you stay home and pout, you know the result of that: four more years.

    1. Flawed is a little mild. Both are prodigious liars and feckless careerist con artists. Neither is fit to be POTUS. If Biden were to take over from Trump nothing will change except that the graft and corruption would be harder to expose.

      1. False equivalency. One has set shocking records for lying. The other one not so much.
        One pulled us out of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The other one did not and would not.
        But I do agree that “flawed” is a little mild.

        1. Defiance Demon Avatar
          Defiance Demon

          So, tell us, troll— Which liar has set the shocking records for lying? Either you don’t know the mouth drooler’s extensive past history of lying, or you do know and hoping no one finds out.

          1. Check out “Lies R Us Joe”: A compendium of his whoppers–while he was still lucid!

    2. Like it really matters at all which sociopath is elected. They’re all pathological liars. Neither has any concern whatsoever for anything other than keeping themselves fat and happy. You are one of their tax slaves, and only authorize their mastery by voting. I am so concerned which sits in the White House and directs their armed thugs to control and rob the population at gunpoint. Please watch while Bernie endorses the moron.

      1. Taxation would be a thing of the past in a Marxist-Leninist society. Taxation is hardly slavery even in a bourgeois society; it’s redistributing crumbs back to the wage-slaves from whom it was stolen.

    3. In what way is a racist, sexist, child groping dementia patient, who will be looking at possibly 8 years as the puppet figurehead of a self-exposed oligarchy leading to the inevitable extinction of the human race, in any way better than re-electing Trump at this point? In no way is Biden any less “flawed” and a threat to the future of us all than is Donald Trump. The “flawed” actually seem to be people such as yourself, who think of people just trying to survive in a rigged system as “pouters”, while they themselves, in their childish acceptance of oligarchy-owned mass media tropes, assure that all of us get to enjoy a future of death, decay, and dust fading to silence on a once beautiful planet.
      Thanks for all your hard work…

      1. Nurse Cratchett Avatar
        Nurse Cratchett

        Trump mean War. A vote for Trump is a vote for MBS and Netanyahu to start a war with Iran. Trump also means a war with Venezuela, as he and Mussolini just had a meeting to coordinate that. Trump is attacking payments on Social Security to millions. Trump is on a mission from Satan to make sure that anyone who is not a millionaire can not get medical care. Trump is building and filling up Concentration camps.
        And against that, you only offer smears calling an old man a child molester. Yeah, that’s no contest. Trump must go!

        1. Trump means war, but so does Biden. That man has never met a war he didn’t support. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and Syria, to name a few. And make no mistake, the ruling bourgeois elite of both parties participate in overthrowing socialist governments, so it is likely that Venezuela would be on Biden’s short list too. Obamacare was a redistribution of wealth from the taxpayers to the private insurance companies. Biden has always been a sellout to the credit card companies, so expect no progress on the economic front as it pertains to income inequality. And Obama/Biden started the camps you’re talking about and deported more undocumented people than any administration prior.

          The only thing that will change if Biden is president is that the corruption will smell nicer and millions of “woke” liberals will go back to sleep while we speed headlong into extinction. I’ll pass. I’m a socialist, not a democrat, and I’ll never vote for anyone I don’t actively support. Because once again, bourgeois electoral politics is a shell game mixed with a hamster wheel. It’s good for reaching the working class, pointing out the contradictions inherent to bourgeois society, and very occasionally marginal first-world harm reduction.

    4. Nurse Cratchett Avatar
      Nurse Cratchett

      I will vote for Biden in the fall, if I have too. Assuming we still have stores by then, I can always go by a clothes-pin to clamp down on my nose and defeat the stench. But, Trump must go.
      We saw Trump’s reaction after the impeachment win. The way he doubleddown on all the unconstitutional things he does, and the way he retaliated against enemies. When Trump does that after an election win, that’s the formal end of ‘democracy’ in America and the official beginning of the Fourth Reich.
      Trump must go. I’ll take old Dementia Joe over Mein Fuhrer. Yes, I’ll have a clothes pin on my nose to handle the stench, but the two are not equal and the two are not the same and Trump is clearly worse than Biden.
      And yes, I know that will piss off all the pro-Trump posters.

      1. Nurse Cratchett Avatar
        Nurse Cratchett

        However, on the day after that election, the Bernie Sisters need to leave the Democratic Party and start a new party.
        Just a few months before an election is not the time to start a new party. But right after the election, with two years to start congressional campaigns to try to overturn the pro-war Biden Democrats in the midterms and to run a decent human being for President sounds just right.

        1. Pardon me but look at ” the parties “; democrat, republican, green, and libertarian. All of them have faults or are corrupt outright. Can the people of these United States ever get real serious about having a worthwhile government?

  19. M E G A
    .
    Make
    Establishment
    Great
    Again
    .
    Joe Biden for President !
    .
    https://imgur.com/gallery/bvZqzJt
    .
    Yes, that is a crooked E
    .
    (courtesy of Enron)

  20. In consideration of everything, I think Bernie should tell the DNC where to go and run as an independent, completely free to say exactly what he wants. Should take Tulsi onboard as VP too. They don’t owe anything to that bunch and in fact if they started campaigning for Biden, the hypocrisy would be just too much to bear.
    I must admit I am starting to wonder how much intelligent life there still exists in the USA…

    1. Defiance Demon Avatar
      Defiance Demon

      I *think* this quote generally is attributed to P.T. Barnum (though it also sounds like something straight from H.L. Mencken): “No one ever lost a dime underestimating the intelligence of the amerikan public.”

  21. Asking for guidance: I am a Bernie delegate for the State Convention in Maine. We had a bad election process here that deprived voters of sufficient ballots. Should we work for better election practices? Organize a third party? Or what?

    1. I think you’re in the right place for inspiration, but not necessarily for guidance.
      Narrative is a central theme in Caitlin’s thinking. What’s the story? Whose story is it? Who gets to decide what the story is? Who gets to propagate, or suppress, what story, and how do they go about it? How do we get the story out? Is calling out that the Emperor has no clothes and not getting lynched in the marketplace a thing that can be done?
      My suggestion is, think like a storyteller, then do what you can do joyously. You know what that is.

    2. Tell Bernie do not campaign for Biden. Simple.

  22. Recently, Caitlin itemized 42 ways from Sunday how Jibbering Joe Biden has exposed a major flaw: a greatly reduced capacity for lucid thinking and effective communication via articulate speech mostly probably a consequence of age-related dementia (https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/03/05/stop-calling-it-a-stutter%e2%80%8a-%e2%80%8ahere-are-dozens-of-examples-of-bidens-dementia-symptoms/). Most of the exemplars presented as clips from news conferences and political rallies were appalling and certainly disqualifying for the presidency. But it gets worse… Here’s a fellow who has collected as assortment of similar clips demonstrating the man’s innate dishonesty, going back to when he still had all his marbles. His many confabulations are truly impressive, if his main function were as a novelist or screen writer. Grok on this, people:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvOjlfRpXHQ

  23. While I certainly agree with the basic thrust of Caitlin’s article, as invariably do, I do experience this final derailing of Sanders and his erstwhile impressive “movement” a bit differently. Caitlin is essentially arguing, as have others, that it is foolish for us to be so devastated by the demise of the one oppositional candidate in the primary race because we should well have known from the git-go that “the fix was in,” that is that the immensely powerful, if decidedly reactionary, establishment forces that retain full control of the wretched Democratic party were never about to allow the Sanders insurrection to succeed and retained sufficient means and resources to prevent such a blatant attack on their entrenched status quo.

    Now there is much to be said for such “the fix was in” readings of the most recent disappointing events, the failure of Sanders to win enough primary delegate to go into the convention as a strong front-runner, if not, indeed, someone who already had enough delegates to win on the first ballot thus avoiding the brokered convention scenario which would of course be much to his detriment as the ruling cabal of the DNC would then be able to cheat him even more egregiously than it has already done, and Lord knows they have already pulled out all the stops to attempt to defeat what to them must seem an existential threat to the continuation of their malignant hold on party power. It probably was, therefore rather naive on the part of Sanders supporters to believe that they could somehow manage to pick their way though the DNC minefield laid especially for them and thus still come out victorious in the end. In that sense, the fix was indeed already in from the start.

    And yet, as truly and typically nefarious as the gangster like forces controlling the party were and still are, I find myself feeling a much deeper rage against all the dumb-fuck democrats across the country who were so thoroughly irresponsible as to allow themselves to be deluded into voting for Biden instead of Sanders. For despite all of the many malevolent machinations of the party elite, the fact is that Bernie and Co. actually came very close to pulling off what to most of the “fix is in” crowd must seem to be precisely the kind of “miracle win” which their sober view does not countenance, even if their emotions might well still have been engaged, as of course were my own. Had Bernie manged to continue his winning streak through Super Tuesday [ha!] and yesterday’s contest as well, which certainly was a real possibility, I think, everything would now be radically different now and it would be the party monopolists whose backs would be against the wall.

    Still Bernie’s fall was both swift and decisive, in a manner which must be painful for anyone even slightly progressive to witness. And while we can and should speculate upon the various causes of this colossal failure, which seemed indeed to hit like an unpredicted tornado, I will here only draw attention to just how much has been lost by this latest stupidity upon the part of the democratic electorate.

    First, and perhaps foremost, we can now kiss the urgently needed “Medicare for All” goodbye for at least another four years and probably many more than that. Instead the current thorough dysfunctional, Big Insurance controlled and owned system we currently have, the wonderful “Obama care” program that costs twice as much per capita as any other national healthcare program in the world, and which also leaves tens of millions of Americans with no health coverage at all, and thus at the ravages of early unnecessary deaths.

    The other losses for the American people are all almost equally devastating. Should Biden by some miracle or duplicity manage to oust Trump in the general election, the chances of which must indeed seem very remote, — and whose previous sting for most of us progressives no longer seems so threatening –America’s foreign policies will again be based upon the reckless assumptions of the Brzezinskian world view so dear to establishment Dems, a world view which will likely lead us to once again reengage in disastrous “regime change” wars of the type so dear to imperialists like the so-called leaders of the Dem party. [Think Madeline “it was worth it” Albright for example.]

    Every progressive change in domestic policies will also be eviscerated by a possible Biden victory, indeed even just by his blathering his demented reactionary ideas during the coming months of the campaign. I will spare the reader, and myself, any enumeration of just how much is now set to be lost in the domestic realm as well, but even a cursory glance at Biden’s record, [he is after all the father of both asset forfeiture programs, cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and the primary person who sold the disastrous Iraq War to the US Senate] should at once disabuse anyone who enters there that a Biden in power would merely continue the worst neoliberal policies, like “austerity” fiscal “restraint,’ that the left has been fighting now for at least three decades.

    But please allow me to end here by returning my primary thesis, namely that the current morass could have been prevented had it not been for the rank dumb-fuckery of the democratic electorate, something which is, admittedly, also rather difficult to explain, since it is hard to believe that, given the opportunity to vote for what amounts to a veritable separation of good from evil, so many idiots opted for the latter.

    How could the people be such ridiculous fools? What could possibly have motivated them, and especially those who “decided late” — i.e. the very dumbest of the dumb-fucks who were too civically irresponsible to find out anything about the candidates but who, in our system, retain the privilege of expressing their ignorance through the ballot — to go for the obviously cognitively impaired, and yes, indeed, clinically “demented” Biden over the candidate, Sanders, who is probably the most competent and intelligent candidate to run for office in my own 65 years of observing US politics?

    One has to wonder whether the dumb-fucks were generally motivated to vote Biden because they had been hoodwinked by DNC propaganda into accepting the preposterous thesis that “Biden, — the brain-rotted creepy milksop, — has a better chance of beating Trump than Sanders does.” The mistaken underlying assumption in that ratocination being that somehow people will be more likely to vote for a candidate who is essentially no different from the incumbent except on a few minor issue about which the vast majority of voters don’t care. Providing no real alternative to the regnant reaction is thus the way to go for these folks, and of course,as anyone who know the slightest bit about history can explain to you, this is strategy that has invariably led only to electoral defeat as voters are given no reason to vote for the oppositional candidate, indeed even just to show up at the polls at all!

    Now I suppose those who support the “fix was always in” thesis could well respond that the problem with my position is simply that it remains rather naive about the function of the electorate in such situations as the ones just passed. Just as I should have known that the Dem bandits would rig this election just as successfully as they did the one in 2016, I should also have known that the voters are naught but a flock of silly ignoramuses who can easily be led to accept, indeed even desire, the most vile of alternatives should the right propagandistic strategies but be set loose upon them. My thirty five years of teaching rhetorical, persuasion, and propaganda theories at the U. of Pittsburgh would of course hardly refute such a hard-boiled view. And yet what strikes me as most remarkable here is that so many obviously thoughtless voters did not respond to the counter-propaganda of the Sanders campaign, and this especially in Michigan,where the consequences of the very policies Biden is supporting have been especially devastating for all of social life! The Sanders folks made good arguments about why voting for more of the same would simply bring exactly that, much to the detriment of millions of lives clearly to be resubjected to the most vicious dictates of neoliberal and other counterproductive doctrines should the dementia candidate somehow get elected.

    Well, that is the gist of what I wished to say about this dismal political episode. If I am right, of course, the real problem is much deeper than what a “fix is in” reading might reveal, although Caitlin’s version of it is hardly so naive as other versions of the position, since she obviously is NOT maintaining that the corrupt and nefarious ruling regime in the Dem party is the only problem, a view which leads others to believe, and this truly is naive, that if the ruling elite can only be ousted, the party can be reclaimed and utilized by progressives to elect candidates and promote their agendas.

    When I say there is a “deeper problem” –and in fact there are no doubt MANY such deeper problems! — what I mean is that the latest fatal reversal of fortunes suggests, at least to me, that any confidence in social change which remains dependent upon the approval of the teaming masses of dumb-fucks is clearly unfounded, and that we on the left must indeed thus seek alternative means of social change to electoral politics, a point which, of course, we have all heard made many times by those among our fellow-travelers who have long since abandoned the road of electoral involvement.

    I have, of course, no sage recommendations for how we might begin to do a better job of eliminating, or at least ameliorating the pervasive dumb-fuckery all around us. Indeed, I must confess, that my first reaction to the latest defeats was much more along the lines of “we gotta get outta this place” than any ideas about how one might effectively stay and fight such a ubiquitous menace. Certainly a much wider political education than one currently gets in secondary education is a first prerequisite. And yet, without the accompanying social reforms, and the results of successful political struggles, it is hard to see how such minor changes could be sufficiently reformative. For, as the Frankfurt School theorists often said, the real problem is that “solidarity itself is sick” in American neoliberal finance-capitalist society. Obviously persons who feel next to no social solidarity for their compatriots will have a very difficult time grasping what it means to operate as a responsible citizen in a democratic polity. Indeed, at times like these, the very idea of establishing a “democracy” of any substantive type begins to reek in the nostrils, a conclusion far more pervasive on the left than one might assume since the taboo against being opposed to democracy remain strictly enforced on the left, where anyone reading a copy of Michel’s classic study of the ever increasing bureaucratization of the German Social-Democratic party, not to mention his “Iron Law of Oligarchy” is still clearly suspect, and that although the forever recurring damages of democratic theory, and a fortiori, practice, continue apace as they have for the last three hundred years, and as they were already rather devastatingly critiqued by folks like Alexis de’ Tocqueville even in largely still pre-industrial times.

    But then again, skepticism about democracy, the kind of thing that patent defeats like the current ones are bound to occasion, does not a new and better politics make. Still, it hardly seems naively overly optimistic to imagine that reflection upon the current impasse will lead some of us to less simplistic conceptualizations of the real tasks of the left in our time.

    1. Dr William,
      You are calm, not panicked yet, certainly not in despair and capitulation. Once you are sick and dying, it is different. When you have nothing, instead of the ability to buy anything, it is different. Everybody-sick-and-threatened gets public-health-funding, as everything else withers. The sudden, desperate need for social welfare supports by the threatened elites can get Bernie Sanders the nomination. FDR saved their asses.
      Despair and capitulation, coming soon to masters of the universe near you!

    2. The answer is to organize and educate the working class and bring the disenfranchised/disaffected Berniecrats into the larger socialist movement, using this recent shitshow to point out the designed limits of electoralism. We need a vanguard party, and we need to organize and educate the American proletariat to agitate, bring the contradictions even more to the surface, and prepare for what comes after these contradictions become too prohibitive for the bourgeoisie to maintain.

    3. An epitome of the dumb-fucks you eloquently speak of. It’s why he has a “show”.

      https://youtu.be/NtpKFv3eO1w

  24. Thanks for calling us back to reality Caitlin. US elections are a farce to fool the zombie public. Wake up folks, and stop voting and indulging false hopes.

  25. Society controls and commands your actions by the reins of greed and fear.
    Society honors those who follow its rules and it will punish one who disobeys its rules.
    Remember, the whole pattern of society is fabricated on greed and fear.
    Whoever tries to rise above it poses a threat to society.
    If you walk within the shadow of your community, it will applaud you.
    But if you try to be different or rise above it, it will censure you.
    We are in constant fear of the people who have given us something, for they can take back what they have given at any time.
    Besides, we always keep our eyes glued to that which we still hope to receive.
    This greed and fear are within us.
    All the relationships we establish on this basis bring sorrow and pain to us.
    There is no way of deriving happiness from them because dependence is the profoundest pain and misery.
    Expectation is the root cause of all frustration.
    If we live according to fixed rules, regulations, dependency and expectations, we will not have the freedom of consciousness to respond to situations.
    And situations are now changing so fast every day, every moment.
    That unless you are also capable of changing with the changing existence, you will never feel joy, you will never feel contented, you will never feel at ease.
    There will be always a great tension and anguish inside you.
    Don”t act out of your past, your so called knowledge, but act out of your consciousness.
    Don”t be dictated to by any blind political narratives from unconscious politicians.
    Withdraw yourself from all political propaganda and unconscious conditioning’s, to live an unconditional, spontaneous, moment-to-moment, changing, flowing and relaxed life.
    Listen to your own intelligence.
    Always go according to it, that is your guide, and nobody else has the right to interfere in your life.
    When you are happy you expand, when you are unafraid you expand.
    When you are afraid you shrink, you hide in your shell, because if you go out there may be some danger.
    You shrink in every way, in love, in relationships, in living, in every way.
    You are afraid to go out.
    You become a turtle and you shrink inside.
    Fear is nothing but a shrinking.
    Life is in contact.
    Life is in flow.
    Life is in movement.
    Keep fighting.
    To be stagnant is to commit suicide.

    1. Thanks much. Your analysis is right on.

  26. “Elections are like the unplugged video game controller…”
    Bingo! You got it. And the people arguing about candidates and party politics are wasting their time and ours. Yes, they certainly need to wake up to the fact that their controller does nothing. Their vote does nothing. Their arguments do nothing. Their participation does nothing. Of course, actually doing nothing won’t help either, so the question is what can we do that will actually accomplish something. The last suggestion that piqued my interest, which occurred earlier today, was from my 95-year old French friend who noted how the French public turned the monarchy’s trusted guillotines against them during the French Revolution. Hmm…

  27. Something very suspicious about pushing Biden. Obviously he’s too ill even to form a sentence so there’s no chance he could even be a figurehead President. They could have pushed someone fresh and charismatic (like Obama), so you have to ask – why an incompetent old man? Surely they mean to have Biden step aside so his VP becomes President. And quite a few people are suggesting that it’s Hillary’s way to get the glittering prize at last. Think about it.

    1. I keep saying that Biden was used only as a pawn to knock Bernie out of the race. His work is done. The powers working in the shadows have some mechanism planned to ditch Biden for the nominee of their choice* perhaps even before the convention.

      [*Likely either the Queen of Warmongers or Money Bags Bloomberg]

      1. I would like Queen of Warmongers. That will put ol the dots in place. And may be people will finally organize. Why u don’t us her name? In any case that the Trump then. but the following still with here:
        U.S. Has The Worst Rate Of Maternal Deaths In The Developed World May 12, 201710:28 AM ET
        Nina Martin, ProPublica Renee Montagne at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 25, 2018.
        https://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-rate-of-maternal-deaths-in-the-developed-world
        https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/27/oas-has-lot-answer-new-study-disputes-key-claim-paved-way-right-wing-coup-bolivia
        ‘The OAS Has a Lot to Answer For’: New Study Disputes Key Claim That Paved Way for Right-Wing Coup in Bolivia
        The Organization of American States “greatly misled the media and the public about what happened in Bolivia’s elections.”
        by Eoin Higgins, staff writer
        https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/27/oas-has-lot-answer-new-study-disputes-key-claim-paved-way-right-wing-coup-bolivia
        I am wondering did CJ ever mentioned this guys
        NOAM CHOMSKY, REMEMBER WE STILL HAVE HIM. AskProfWolff: Consumer-Co-ops and Unions. (5 min)
        Requiem for the American Dream Noam Chomsky YouTube 1hr
        Noam Chomsky on the Mondragon cooperatives and Workers’ Councils
        Democracy At Work – explore YT and web site
        AskProfWolff: Consumer-Co-ops and Unions. | Economic Update: When Stale Debates Distract
        Ask..: Work Relationships in Worker Co-ops | The New Deal | Values of a Democratic Workforce ==> each ask 5 minutes

  28. You are correct, Caitlin, the puppeteers occupying the DNC seat in the Unified War Party running this country realise that it will be damned difficult to play out the Biden charade all the way till the first Tuesday of November without most voters noticing that there is something not quite right with that pasty-white, pugnacious fellow always wearing a grin. So, they are already trying to effect their latest gambit to minimize his exposure to the public. Both House Whip Jim Clyburn and Loudmouth-at-large James Carville have separately called for the DNC to “wrap this puppy up” and, apparently, stop having any more primary elections while Jibbering Joe is in the lead. There will be no audience at the next debate, so no one can ask an uninvited embarrassing question out-of-the-blue as an auto-worker did yesterday (about guns & the 2nd Amendment) that blew Joe’s gasket (he cursed and exclaimed that his sonS like to hunt–I guess both the one down here and the one up in the Happy Hunting Grounds) at one of his political rallies, which was perhaps not well vetted in advance. (Well, it says something about organisational skills–or lack thereof–when it took the man three full campaigns to win his very first primary election in SC two weeks ago.) I think that little incident on the shop floor prognosticates hints of the shitshows to come whenever Joe opens his mouth around people with different opinions and a functioning brain.

    Funny how Obomber, now wearing the mantle of Fixer-in-Chief for the party, for many months absolutely refused to endorse Joe–usually accompanied by a chuckle. Now he works feverishly behind the scenes to convince the power-wielders that Jabbering Joe is the re-incarnation of Churchill when it comes to dispensing eloquent rhetoric and enlightened policy essential to save America in this time of peril. To think, he could have backed Buttplug, Pocahantas, or any of the long list of warmongers promising to be just as unreasonable against Russia as he was, but he waited for the right moment and embraced Joe who will be just as stupid as he ever was, but without the magical panache and charisma. If Joe is really gonna serve in the White House, his handlers may well have to dub in Obomber’s words every time he opens his gob before the public… you know, like they do for the yutz in that ubitquitous Liberty Biberty Insurance commercial.

  29. Laugh!…I wonder if Anyone Here has caught-on to the Fact that the so-called “Electoral Vote system” was Always a Scam…designed to support the Rich voters (/Banker; Financial/Corporate business interest and Such) Duh!!!
    Catching-On…YET???
    ALL Political People ALWAYS “Sell-Out” to those maggots that controlled , the Vatican controlled “Corporate Banker/Business System”…Understand…YET???
    Therefore,, isn’t it Obvious folks WHY the “System is Rigged” Duh???
    “Intelligent/Divine Responses accepted; Thank You.

  30. It may be true that many more people have been made aware of the ” crooked democratic party ” but I am still quite ashamed that so many United States citizens have their heads deeply embedded in the sand by still believing that this is a ” free country “. The DNC has handed Donald Trump the ” election “; it is the DNC, and the money behind them, that deserve everyone’s wrath.

  31. I love reading the comments on this blog.
    Everyone hates anyone who tries to change anything. Every politician trying to work for change is an evil sell-out who must be scorned. Anyone who votes must be hated and scorned.
    Most of these comments sound like they were written by Mike Bloomberg trying to pretend he’s alt-left.

    1. By all means, go vote. By all means, pretend that your vote matters. And what you can really do for the rest of us is to get performative about it. Hang the poster in your window, set up the sign in your garden, wear the cap and the T-shirt. Go canvassing. Do the whole thing. Most of all, take a good close look at the way the electoral process is done where you’re at and raise a stink about it if you have reason to. Get interested in the voting machines, the gerrymandering, the whole sordid affair. American politics affect the lives of billions of people who don’t get to vote because they’re not American and America is the class bully of the international community. Do it for us.
      But.
      Your vote is as essential as a steering wheel in a firetruck on a roundabout. The fix is in. Donald J Trump is the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate for 2020.
      Election days come as often as leap days. Inbetween them, you have 1460 days to do stuff that matters.

    2. ==> if we elect status quo 13m poor whites…. My reply to Roy
      Roy
      The DNC is doing everything it can to sabotage Bernie’s candidacy (deja vu). They know he won’t win against Trump because Sanders’ base is made up of mostly young “voters” (you know the ones that don’t vote — only cheer and party at rallies), and as soon as all voters hear that their taxes will increase dramatically with Sanders’ platform, it’s a turn-off. Joe Biden is the better choice for the Democrats. But his senility and bad baggage will scare voters away. The only way Trump can lose is if the economy tanks, unemployment rises, and a new charismatic Democrat becomes their candidate.
      Alex Podolsky
      (Trump vs Sanders) With Sanders it’s like in FDR time up to 1975 even better. No 1nsurance eats $1t at least. Finance even more. War stopped – huge. Free college exactly like in Germany, 10m new subsidized apts in like Vienna they have 70% ($400-700), In Europe they have everything Sanders want and if it will be implemented in US. French Yellow Wests will win fast because Macron would not have to mimic our economy for France to be competitive.
      ==> 2. Trump and Bannon are fascists (pseudo”Patriots”) that work for capitalists plus smoke and mirrors. Sanders actually works for working people for all his live, but he is not even close to Richard Wolff or Chomsky ==> Economic Update: Economic Crisis, Fascism & History – RDWolff https://www.rdwolff.com/eu_economic_crisis_fascism_history
      ==> The next economy is this AskProfWolff: Consumer-Co-ops and Unions. (workers plus consumers main stake holders corp owners-boards are just tiny minority)
      Economic Update: When Stale Debates Distract (workplace change not > or but we have to get Sanders first to keep Patriots (fascist) at bay. Yanis Varoufakis – Most Supporters of Fascism Aren’t Fascists Once Sanders will help the 13m poor whites, they will forget about pseudo-patriots. Then we will migrate to mostly co-op economy without risk of fascism where ratio $of CEO/avg-worker 8/1 not 330/1 like today, in 1960 was 30/1. Forget about amazon’s Bezos (800/1) in Mondragon coops 8/1 (to lowest paid worker not avg paid)
      ==> if we elect status quo 13m poor whites, who jugggling 2-3 jobs with no end meat in sight, may join to different white supremacy groups in ever greater numbers and produce huge blow back. So Sander is a must to help them.
      ==> Noam Chomsky on the Mondragon cooperatives and Workers’ Councils

  32. Obama was a Wall Street shill as President, and he continues in that role as ex-President. But that’s why he was allowed to win that office in the first place. No one should be surprised, but I find it sad that most African-Americans have not caught on to the scam. Biden’s racist history should have served as a red flag of warning.

    1. No surprise here. It’s the huge anti-Semitism of black churches organisers and indifference of black elite to poor blacks and the rest of working people

      1. And the opportunistic religious association of socialism with atheism…inevitably pushed by black Sunday Preachers, so that the flock tows the line.

      2. I wouldn’t brand Black people as anti-Semite, simply because in TRUTH All the Earliest Civilized Black race people ARE the “Original” so -called Jews during those times “Some” people like to refer as “God’s Chosen People”…NOT the “Impostors”(Kharzarians) now occupying Israel.
        Most people today, Including some Blacks…Have been taught a FALSE Version of what is now called HIS-Story that got started by the Ancient Greeks & Romans way back in Ancient Egypt.
        They helped set up the Vatican (Catholic religion & Mother of All Corporations)
        So Called Black Anti-Semitist is a Contradiction of the term!
        The Ancient Kemet/Egyptian civilizations were NOT Religious people, but “Spiritual” people…Who’s WAYS of living was Stolen from Them and modify-de by the Greeks & Romans into what it is today…Almost all over the planet.
        The Most Ancient peoples “Seeded” on this planet have NEVER been “Absent” from it and are AWAKENING to Who They Are…Understand the difference???
        WE don’t really Have to Care about Fake elections, because WE already KNOW the Future of ALL “Humanity” and WHO will Reclaim this planet from the “Avatar’s who have Stolen IT.
        This FACT renders “Voting” as redundant or irrelevant for US.

    2. Peter in Seattle Avatar
      Peter in Seattle

      How African-Americans could support someone who presided — er, vice-presided — over a a 70% drop in African-American household net worth in the aftermath of the financial crisis, by bailing out banks instead of homeowners, is beyond me. Or who help write a crime bill that put one in three young African-American males under criminal-justice supervision and stripped one in nine African-American men of their right to vote. But then again, maybe I just didn’t eat enough lead-paint chips when I was a kid to “get it.”

  33. Competing in elections is always a first step towards creating change. Whether or not its the last step depends on whether the system is one that allows the people to make choices and to have a voice. But, even in a system that does not allow the people to have a voice, competing in elections is important. This is when other people are listening. The media is talking about elections, so its a good time to talk to people. Surf that wave of fake-news that pretends that when a corrupt state holds an election that automatically makes it a democracy. Surf that wave, and use its existence and the fact that other people are thus thinking about where their country should go to talk to them.
    Or, lets put it another way. Its gonna take a whole lot of people to overturn a world system of rule of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs, and for the oligarchs. Elections are a good time to meet those people and talk to them.
    And remember, its gonna take a whole lot of people, not some narrow little group. So, talk to lots of people. Talk to people whom you may not think are on your side, and ask them about their problems. Point out how many of those problems point back to oligarchs, even if the other person mistakenly calls them “liberals” or some other name planted in their minds by their favorite flavors of propaganda. Get real with them, with what their problems are in the world, about how they have to care for their mom because she’s ill and can’t afford for-profit health care, and that they have to do this while working two jobs and pick up some sewing and cleaning work on the side just to get by. Talk to them about their problems, and odds are that somewhere behind those problems there stands an oligarch… and then make a connection. But remember the power of listening and that preaching just invites defenses from many people.
    🙂 🙂 🙂
    Don’t Get Mad.
    Organize!!!!!!
    🙂 🙂 🙂
    PS ….. And convince people to turn off the corporate media. Every time someone clicks the OFF switch, that’s one less person who can be manipulated by them.
    PPS …. and remember to have fun! Don’t have boring political meetings, but have fun discussions. Have a potluck in the park or whatever floats your boat…. but make it fun for everyone, including yourself.

    1. Thanks a lot Sally. Have fun. Your answer is way better then “to be or not to be” question. NYC 🙂

  34. Easiest prediction ever- a few weeks from now Bernie will sell out his supporters and endorse the chosen one just like in 2016.

    1. I think I’d be willing to take your money over that one.
      ——–
      Last time, Bernie was thinking ahead to future battles. I know, sigh, the main thing that always gets Bernie or Corbyn attacked on the internet is trying to be an effective politician. Isn’t that interesting? No lefty is allowed to do anything that speaks of planning or god-forbid, compromise to build a coalition. That’s always guaranteed to get them attacked on the internet. Last time Bernie was thinking ahead to this run, but maybe not this time. But hey, what am I doing arguing with a Bernie-hater.

      1. You are right Grace. I too think it will be different this time.
        Bernie is not going to run again. He may well help us form the Socialist 3rd Party we need.
        Or actual Revolution.
        “When in the course of human events, it becomes NECESSARY….”
        Thomas Jefferson

      2. But rich don’t want to pay. They would rather switch to fascism, Bannon etc. “8. Fascism is a capitalist response to socialism” (Richard D Wolff – google, YT from 10 things to know about socialism). He is the real socialist economist.
        PS Still Sally’s answer is the best here. Fight and Have fun. Cheers!.

      3. You’re projecting. I voted for him, and it wasn’t because I’m a Bernie-hater.

    2. You are probably right, but do not lose sight of the fact that many of Bernie’s supporters want to be rid of Trump above all else.

    3. “Sell out” “Chosen”
      What are you trying to really say. Speakup.
      Or are you just allowing insight into your persona?

      1. I’m trying to say, that his supporters, myself included, didn’t vote for him because they wanted Biden to win; but he’ll endorse Biden anyway despite the will of the people who made him a viable candidate in the first place. Comprende?

        1. Gringo, That’s a sell out? I really like Bernie. But compromise is not sell out.
          Yo comprehende muchas cosas a ochenta anos.

          1. Entiendo mucho tambien. Cuando un hombre hace otro que dice, puedo decir “sellout”. Sus palabras son suyos, pero aqui mentirosos son llamados “sellouts” con frequencia. ?Me entendiste?

            1. Mucho bien.
              “Keep Scribbling “

          2. John KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn Knox Avatar
            John KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn Knox

            El caduco me llamado gringo, pero el loco no entiende espanol. !Que sorpresa!

            1. I am a old gringo for Bernie

              1. This must be what debating Joe Biden is like!

                1. John, you win. Your my write in candidate
                  Obviously your one smart person. Likely an IQ of at least 170. So rather than bother with an octogenarian dumbass you probably have more fun going a few rounds with Steven Bonnell.
                  My bad trying to post on a site where you have to have a certain amount of IQ points that i never achieved. So I’ll sign out and go to shuffleboard classes right after coffee at Walmart

                  1. Watsa matter, couldn’t find your spanish book?

                    1. No spanish books here. Just some stuff left from my days in the lettuce fields in 54. I do know how to use an online translator but that would be cheating.Keep scribbling John.
                      Adios.

                    2. I was a fruit picker too. It didn’t give me the right to mouth off to strangers.

          3. John KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn Knox Avatar
            John KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn KnoxJohn Knox

            Parece que no comprende nada.

    4. Janice Nicholls Avatar
      Janice Nicholls

      I really hope not.

  35. In a way, this is a positive development. Having Bernie in the race just perpetuated the myth that we live in a democracy. Hopefully, the Bernie Bros will now face the harsh reality that we don’t.

    1. We do all over the world.
      But rich don’t want to pay. They would rather switch to fascism, Bannon etc. “8. Fascism is a capitalist response to socialism” (Richard D Wolff – google, YT from 10 things to know about socialism).
      PS Still Sally’s answer is the best here. Fight and Have fun. Cheers!

  36. Defiance Demon Avatar
    Defiance Demon

    I will be writing in for Tulsi Gabbard in November. And now that the inevitable appears to be in place, I’m just glad the new baseball season is about to crank up as a welcome diversion to this depressing political insanity.

    1. The Oligarchs are glad to know that they don’t have to worry about your vote, since you’ve already pledged to waste it.
      Did you know that if Tulsi doesn’t at least file with the states for write-in status, that the states won’t even count your vote. They don’t count the votes for non-candidate write-ins. Doesn’t matter if you write in Tulsi, Snoop-Dog, or Donald Duck, your vote just goes into the waste bin.
      ————-
      Most likely there will be both Green and Libertarian candidates on the ballot where you live. Volunteers with both parties will be working hard to provide an alternative. You might want to cast a vote that is at least counted.

      1. Defiance Demon Avatar
        Defiance Demon

        STFU

        I KNOW it won’t “count”, asshole! I refuse to play the game as it’s set up. Save your preaching for the Sunday morning mouth breathers.

        1. Take is easy.
          PS Still Sally’s answer is the best here. Fight and Have fun.

        2. Here’s the point: I voted for Jill Stein in 2016 as she was actually on the ballot here in N.C. But it didn’t matter if my vote for Stein didn’t officially count because she was who I genuinely wanted to win. It wasn’t a protest vote against Colonel Cheeto. Regardless which of the “official” party turds won, my conscience was clear. It still is. And when I write in Tulsi’s name in November, my conscience will be clear. It’s called “personal integrity”, dontchaknow?

          1. I dont think there is a “wasted vote”
            Just vote as long as we can.
            Folks that tell you you wasted your vote i find to be “controlling” individuals.

    2. The new baseball season will be a relief to the Pastors of Muppets, too. They had that figured out in the Roman Empire already. Panem et circenses.

      1. Baseball may be one of the many facets of modern amerika’s bread and circuses, but it’s a lot more personally gratifying (and immensely less frustrating) than the OTHER facet of amerikan bread and circuses known as politics.

    3. If you are the activist type, you could organise demonstrations against the hijacking of the nomination by the DNC at all Biden rallies. Just peacefully march with your signs along the periphery of the crowds, and maybe the police won’t beat, pepper spray and arrest you. If you have enough money to actually buy “free speech” you could take out political advertisements on TV or the internet. You wouldn’t get beaten up but merely called a Russian bot.

  37. True, yes ‘waking the public up to reality’ Will Bernie Sanders do it?.

    If BS wins the Convention, it will be a miracle X1; if BS could win the election it would be a miracleX2, a X3 miracle, if BS survived a year ‘in office’.

    We know that!
    BS knows that! So what will he do?
    Nothing! He will play’the game’.
    My guess is another capitulation, surrender, sell out!
    BS should quit now, if he is real, expose the fraud, form a mass membership 3rd Party with Tulsi Gabbard. Start the debate, organise, organise, organise.
    But that would be miracle X4.

    1. I agree,David…that way we would see how many of us there really are, and it’s a lot!

    2. Time for Bernie to drop out and instruct his delegates to vote for Tulsi Gabbard. “Electoral politics is not the real fight, waking the public up to reality is.” Thank you, Caitlin – that’s what Tulsi is all about. Can that be said of any other candidate? Truth be told (but never in the mainstream media), she would stand a far better chance of beating Trump mano a mano in November than Biden or Sanders. Her campaign focuses on the same issue that Trump campaigned on 2016 but sold out after he was elected. She’s a fighter, and would slay him, flay him on the debate stage. Ah, well – there I go again.

      1. tulsi, the only antiwar voice, would have no chance of beating trump. she has been relentlessly marginalized by the dnc, but that antiwar point of view is still too unpopular among the long propagandized public to get much traction presently.
        there are still some wild cards in this election, starting with corona virus and its effects (including the economy), and the small problem of biden’s dementia. the dnc is quite happy to lose to trump as long as sanders doesn’t get the nomination, but whatever crapshow they have planned (installing clinton?) is going to further expose them.

      2. I don’t think Bernie should drop out, he should stay to the end like the Queen of Warmongers did against Obama in 2008, hoping for the long-shot that the guy would self-destruct somehow. I would have voted for Bernie (in Florida) if he had remained competitive in order to extricate the aristocracy that owns the Democratic Party. But Biden, with the help of the Democratic lemming base, has surged to the mid-60%’s in the polls, so there’s no stopping him on this hill. Now Biden is a thoroughly corrupt, lying, warmongering, pugnacious demented old cogger whom I could never support, even against Trump, so I cast my vote for Tulsi Gabbard based upon what should be everyone’s most important principle: the desire to live in a peaceful world not being attacked or occupied by the American military machine. My vote will not accrue her any power in this election but it may encourage her to stay in politics and run again for the leadership of this country in a future election. She will be leaving the Congress. What she does next should interest those who don’t want to perish in World War III.

      3. Pap-A-Lap, I support Tulsi Gabbard, and Tulsi Gabbard supports human beings peacefully co-existing, and she knows exactly why she supports that. Pic of myself and Tulsi Monday before Super Tuesday, talking about coronavirus: http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/03/six-billion-doses.html
        This epidemic in America won’t peak until May, I think, and it will change everything we assume.
        I think we may see capitulation of the 1%. Maybe I’m wrong, but even most 1-percenters don’t grok the exponential function of epidemic impact upon their power and financial structures. WHACK!
        Capitulation is the depths of despair. It comes after panic. Panic comes in April, though it could come sooner in California. New York City lock-down will cause despair, and it won’t end soon. Streets may be ugly. Emergency personnel will be home with their families.
        Tulsi and Bernie are stronger with Bernie as candidate and Tulsi as running mate. She’s his insurance policy.

  38. So clarifying. I love your work, Caitlin. There is so much fear, confusion, and grievance swirling around right now that it’s all too easy to lose the plot.

    1. Yes, Caitlin and Umair Haque are just brilliant when it comes to cutting through the fog of battle and pointing out what’s really going on.

  39. Thank you Caitlin. It was really kind of you to write this. Even though I feel a bit melancholy tonight, I still feel hopeful because we are all, every single one of us, still able to reach out and open our fellow human beings’ minds. May clarity and compassion reign. Grab your popcorn. Corn Pop’s buddy is about to get scary real…
    Cheers, M

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