By Robert Willmann
As a coincidence theorist, when I heard yesterday that Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and Tom Steyer were dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary — all before today's big primary election — the message was brazen and open: the operators in and around the establishment Democratic Party had made their move and the primary is now a charade.
Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Steyer spent a lot of time and effort in the campaign, and then (coincidentally) dropped out before the very important Super Tuesday primary election! Normally, you would continue pushing until the end of this big day and then make an announcement, if you chose to do so.
To some extent, this is deja vu all over again from the 2008 Democratic primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. After Obama was doing well, she refused to drop out. I read that there was a meeting or conference call with Democratic Party people, and Hillary was told how the cow ate the cabbage. She pulled back some with her campaign and at the convention any delegates she had did not get in the way of Obama. A political deal was obviously involved and revealed itself when she was appointed by Obama to be Secretary of State.
The disdain the political and economic oligarchy in this country has for the people outside of it has crawled out from under a rock. In the 2016 Republican primary campaign, Donald Trump kicked over the milk bucket, and when his campaign started to make headway, the political party structure started to show its real face. Trump's loud accusation that the primary system was rigged forced the Republican party operators into the open who then admitted on television that the political parties were private organizations with their own rules. At a major Republican Party meeting it was decided that they would not change their rules or bylaws before the convention, and the decision was publicly announced. Paul Manafort, who had extensive experience with the machinations involving delegates, successfully guided Trump through that potentially treacherous process and got him the nomination. For his skill at the nominating process (but not as a brilliant computer scientist allied with Russia), Manafort became the target of retaliation by the federal government's prosecuting apparatus, through a "special counsel" appointed to give cover to the old Soviet saying, "Show me the man, and I will show you the crime".
This time around the mask has slipped off of the Democratic Party and its national committee (DNC). The debate rules were changed to allow Michael Bloomberg to participate in the "debate" of last week Tuesday (25 February) when he did not qualify to be in it. This favoritism was not given to Tulsi Gabbard or others. But at the debate Bloomberg helpfully told us what is really happening [1]–
"Bloomberg: Let's just go on the record. They talk about 40 Democrats; 21 of those were people that I spent $100 million dollars to help elect. All of the new Democrats that came in and put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave the Congress the ability to control this president…
(Cheering and Applause) Bloomberg: … I bough [clearly starting to say "bought"], I, I got them."
The CBS television network pathetically falsified their transcript of the debate by editing out the word "bought" Bloomberg tried to pull back into his mouth, writing, "Bloomberg: … I — I got them" [2].
With Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Steyer now out, and Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden still in, the field is cleared for — you guessed it — Michael Bloomberg. Quite a coincidence.
But what about Joe Biden? Leaving aside the issue and evidence of his cognitive status, Biden does what the moneyed people tell him to do. A financial man and economist, Robert Wenzel, who lives in San Francisco, said that a major Democratic donor in the San Francisco Bay area was visited yesterday by a person with Secret Service protection, probably Barack Obama [3].
In terms of being an authoritarian personality, Bloomberg is much worse than Donald Trump. He calculates ways to use the inherent coercion in a government, with its companion the taxing power, to push policies and actions that attack and reduce individual freedom, rather than enhancing it, such as overt acts using illegal force with "stop and frisk"; the control, restriction and removal of guns (except for his bodyguards); and extensive surveillance in lower Manhattan, New York City [4].
Bloomberg was mayor of New York City from 2002-2014. A mayor was limited to two terms, but Bloomberg spent an estimated $60-90 million to get the term limits changed so he could run a third time. Forbes estimated that while Bloomberg was mayor, his wealth increased from around $3 billion to $31 billion.
His financial operations and monetary value have yet to be investigated and disclosed. Both Trump and his father Fred Trump have been the subject of detailed stories about their business work. Bloomberg has business interests and activities in China, where the Communist Party still rules, including the leasing of his Bloomberg data and news computer terminals in China, and he most likely has other business there. In what other countries does he transact business and money-making? The DNC and mass media are silent, and because of Bloomberg's financial connections, they will likely remain silent.
[1] https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2020/02/26/bloomberg-bought-house-seats-n2561913
[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-democratic-debate-full-transcript-text/
[3] https://www.targetliberty.com/2020/03/secret-service-spotted-outside-major.html
[4] https://wallstreetonparade.com/wall-street-firms-spy-on-protesters-in-tax-funded-center/
I can see that with Warren and Buttigieg, but I’m not sure either why Steyer was running or how they could put a horsehead in his bed.
I am ashamed to admit that this had not occurred to me. I just assumed that the Democratic Inner Party members were going to anoint Senator Dead Vegetable Walking. Of course a President Little Big-Money Man would serve the plutons and the kleptons much better and more effectively.
Maybe they will decide that nominating Bloombooger is just too brazen and raw. Maybe they will re-nominate Hillary Clinton to keep peace in the family, and let Bloombooger be her running mate.
Either way, I suspect a lot of self-propelled supporters of various people will work very hard to get their desired figures placed on ballots as no-party independents.
Bloomberg clearly is a cheerleader for the totalitarian Chinese communists. He’s got a lot of his wealth tied up in that relationship.
His billion dollar expenditure didn’t buy the nomination. He’s dropped out.
Wall St is thrilled. A Biden win in the general election means a return to the neoliberal policies of Bush/Clinton/Obama. John Brennan and James Comey were cheering last night.
for us northerners that never heard the line “how the cow ate the cabbage.
“How the cow ate the cabbage” is a folk saying of the southern US, most often heard in Texas and Arkansas, and probably dates back to at least the 1940s. It comes from the punchline to a joke that would, in that period, have been considered at least slightly “off-color.” Here goes:
A circus had arrived in a small town, and one morning one of the elephants managed to escape. The fugitive pachyderm made its way to the backyard garden of an elderly (and very near-sighted) woman, where it began hungrily uprooting her cabbages with its trunk and eating them. Alarmed by the apparition in her garden, the woman called the police, saying, “Sheriff, there’s a big cow in my garden pulling up my cabbages with its tail!” “What’s the cow doing with them?” he asked, to which the woman replied, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!”
http://www.word-detective.com/2010/01/how-the-cow-ate-the-cabbage/
For me, who experienced “geriatric” Politburo first hand, to see some 78 year old (by November) senile and corrupt idiot to be praised as a future POTUS is down right surreal. Brezhnev died at the age of 76 after experiences in his life (including severe concussion in WW II) of which Joe Biden couldn’t even conceive. Yet, he was called many things but as many testify today who knew him personally, he died being still in good mind, despite many age-related problems. Same can be stated about gravely ill but young (only 70) Andropov who died from kidneys but having sharp mind till the very end. I cannot say much about Chernenko, at his 74 when he passed away he was simply very ill, stop gap, measure. Joe Biden is a complete imbecile, pardon my French, and I am not sure he is competent to be a post-master in some backwater town, let alone be nominated as a candidate, not to speak of being POTUS. It is absolutely bizarre what is going on. Yeah, I am sure young feisty 79 y.o. boy Bernie, fresh from heart-attack, will show this damn Biden. As I say all the time, for all my disdain for GOP, Democratic Party is clear and present danger to what’s left of Republic. This is what Democratic “nomination” process looks like.
https://youtu.be/bsve9wB_sEA
different clue,
I am surprised that Bloomberg announced right away today (Wednesday, the day after the vote) that he is also suspending his campaign and not staying in the primary race, as his goal surely was to get to a brokered convention. If he thought that he was going to win the primary outright he was either getting bad advice, or he was not looking at data closely as he says he likes to do. The Democratic National Convention is four months away, and it will be interesting to see what happens with the new mix driven by the “establishment” Democratic Party.
It is a very bad idea to elect somebody as President in a democracy who owns a significant part of the media. Bloomberg News has had a long-standing editorial policy of not investigating any of Michael Bloomberg’s business dealings, or anything else he does.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/24/bloomberg-news-will-not-investigate-mike-bloomberg-or-his-democratic-rivals-during-primary.html
“With Mike Bloomberg officially entering the 2020 Democratic presidential race, Bloomberg News will refrain from investigating him and his Democratic rivals, according to a memo sent to editorial and research staff obtained by CNBC.
‘We will continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation ) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries. We cannot treat Mike’s democratic competitors differently from him,’ Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait said in the memo, which was confirmed by a spokesperson.
Mike Bloomberg is founder and 89% shareholder in Bloomberg LP, a financial software company that owns Bloomberg News”
Bloomberg et al will rule through Biden.
I believe that what happened is the voters decided they did not want 4 more years of Trump and picked the person they thought could beat him. Buttigieg, whom I really liked, was too gay for the average American, Warren was too female, Bernie was too much of a socialist/communist. Amy, was just too Amy and Bloomberg was another New York billionaire, didn’t we already have one of those. That left Biden, who reminds us of a kinder and gentler time and that is why I voted for him.
As for the comments he is senile and an idiot, have any of you listened to Trump speak? He is unable to put together a coherent sentence.
All hail President Dead Vegetable Walking!
yeah no . . . I think Trump will win very very bigly.
My deepest hope at this point is that 50 separate bunches of Bitter Berners will get Sanders’s name on 50 separate State Ballots in time for the Election. That should allow us to see just how much the Establishment Catfood Democrats will lose from having cast Sanders into the outer darkness.
And as to the Catfood Convention itself, I hope they pick Clinton to be Candidate Dead Vegetable Walking’s running mate. She can run as being ” the brains behind the empty skull.”
A Biden-Clinton ticket would sweep New York and California. It might also narrowly win some of little bedroom-community states which are part of the Greater New York City Metropolitan Area. Trump would get most of the rest of it. Including every last one of the Brexit States.
Bloomberg bought up a lot of available tv time, driving out plenty of other candidates. The presidential primary is not the only primary happening in those states so just which races did that $400,000,000 impact?
In looking at the exit polls it is clear that older people (>60 years) and blacks voted overwhelmingly for Biden. The youth (<30 years) voted overwhelmingly for Sanders but they only represented around 13% of the votes.
This is a truism in American elections that the older folks have a disproportionate influence as they vote more reliably. As NancyK has noted above many of those who voted for Biden were reminiscing about the Obama era.
Now that Biden will be the nominee it will be interesting to see how the contest with Trump will pan out over the next several months especially in the battleground states in the mid-west and south. Which candidate will be able to get their supporters out to vote in a typical low turnout US election in those states? Trump will have a field day with Biden as far as news cycles go as Biden's senility creates many made for media opportunities.
It seems that Bernie reached his sell date as he has underperformed compared to 2016. The majority of Bernie voters are in Democrat states like California that will go to Biden. The question is what percentage of them in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina will decide to stay home in November?
While the state of the stock market & the economy in the fall will play a big role in voter perceptions, it is difficult to gauge now how the coronavirus will impact them. The other question is that how will independents perceive the situation - would they want to return to the Wall St, neocon, neoliberal Obama period or continue with the Trump Wall St, ziocon, trade-centric policy set?
The Obama era intelligence and law enforcement operatives like Brennan and Clapper were cheering Biden yesterday as they would hope that a Biden victory in November will restore their status and enable them to definitely skate. Not that the Trump administration hasn't allowed them to skate.
A modification of the thought just-above just occurred to me. In the event that the Bitter Berners were able to get the Sanders name onto all 50 State ballots . . . would any further impact be had if Gabbards’s name AS running-mate VP were to appear WITH the Sanders name on all 50 State ballots?
If Gabbard were approached by disappointed SanderBackers and told of their plans to get the Sanders name onto all 50 ballots, and if they were to ask her if she wanted to have her name on the same line on those same ballots as VP running mate, how would she respond?
Different Clue,
I don’t understand the voters’ response to Gabbard. In NH she was actively campaigning since last August and she barely made a dent. Her face was on billboards all over the state. Her policies mirrored Sanders’ and she’s a young, vigorous, articulate veteran. Progressives should be flocking to her. I think she ended up with just one delegate in American Samoa. I have no idea what the future holds for her.
And, guess who Biden has on his foreign policy team? Samantha Power, Susan Rice as well as James Comey and John Brennan!
This description of Power by Professor Patrick Porter is spot on:
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/february-2020/speaking-truth-to-power/
I like Tusi Gabbard also, thinks she makes a lot of sense, however I voted for Biden as voting for Gabbard would be in a sense voting for Sanders, as she could not win. She definitely has a future in politics, I see a new party in the future.
TTG,
Most voters don’t vote their conscience but instead play the horse race.
While I’m a registered non-partisan, I did request a cross-over ballot to vote for Tulsi. Many of my friends and family were wondering why, when in their perception she wasn’t going to “win”. I believe it has to do with making your vote “count”, which leads to voting for the “lesser evil”. This why it is so difficult for an independent to gain any traction.
Since IMO both parties are just different faces of the same coin and I don’t have much alignment with their similar policy prescriptions I typically never vote for the duopoly for President.
The Twisted Genius,
I have read that most average-citizen voters don’t pay attention to anything political or news-ful whatsoever until the last possible moment before an election. We who read and study blogs are a very unrepresentative group of extreme over-readers.
So if it is true that most average citizen-voters are not paying attention or even aware till the last feasible moment, is it also true that it takes a lot of repetition and multiple ads on multiple platforms to punch through the background noise and the general worn-out tiredness in which many people walk around?
The MSM and the Democratic Party worked very hard to deny Gabbard every possible bit of exposure. They dropped the acoustic mufflecone of silence over her very early and they made sure the soundproof seal stayed soundproof. So many of the voters never even knew who she was and so could hardly come to a judgement about her knowledge and agenda. How many of the passing drivers even registered in their own minds the fact that they were seeing her image on a billboard?
And even many of the earlier-engaging heavier-media-consumers were judging the candidates in a Keynsian-beauty-contest way. They were trying to outguess whom they thought that everyone else would think was a “winner” that they could invest their vote in.
Jack just a little bit above references the “Keynsian beauty pageant” nature of many choice-makers’ choices about whom to vote for in a primary.
The Twisted Genius,
I just found some writing about how Gabbard has been muffle-gagged and pre-erased from public exposure to begin with, which would explain why millions never supported her because those millions never heard her to begin with. I hope I may be forgiven for taking the unusual step of copy-pasting some written material.
“Gabbard (D)(1): “Does the DNC Have It out for 2020 Candidate Tulsi Gabbard?” [The National Interest (RH)]. “One of the new rules the DNC added in February was that a candidate with even a single convention delegate would qualify for the debate stage, no other perquisites required…. Tulsi Gabbard supporters were ebullient yesterday evening when, in the caucus in American Samoa, Gabbard qualified for either one or two DNC delegates. She came in second place, which equaled only 103 votes in the tiny territory. Gabbard was born in American Samoa and is partially descended from Pacific Islanders. But it did not take long for the DNC to starve the fire among her supporters. “We have two more debates—of course the threshold will go up,” tweeted Xochitl Hinojosa, Communications Director for the DNC in the minutes after the announcement of Gabbard’s delegates.” • Throwing a flag on the Betteridge’s Law violation; ever-shifting election rules emitted by opaque processes are a hallmark of Third World regimes.”
It occurs to me that if there is not an actual law legally forbidding the Bitter Berners from putting Sanders’s name on all 50 state ballots for ( no-party-name-mentioned) President, that there is also no actual law legally forbidding the Tenacious Tulsers from putting Gabbards’s name on all 50 state ballots for (no-party-name-attached) President.
So perhaps the Gabbard supporters could work on becoming coherent enough of a movement to where they could put Gabbard’s name on all 50 state ballots for President . . . with or without her permission.